Over 50 phases and sub-steps common to decision-making processes are discussed in an effort to create a clearer view of individual, group, social, and political decision making. The discussion is intended to encourage social studies teachers to use an action-oriented approach to teaching decision-making skills. (Author/RM)

Describes a separate engineering administrative unit established to meet the needs of lower-division students. Need for the unit, courses that make up the basic program of instruction, advising, academic assistance, and advantages and disadvantages to the engineering college are discussed along with concerns and problems that have arisen. (BC)

Reports research supporting the hypothesis that concrete-operational college students playing the game Master Mind with an observer where there is verbal interaction designed to stimulate thinking about the problem-solving situation will show greater cognitive growth than subjects not playing the game. Implications for science instruction are…

Archimedes' shoemaker's knife problem is interesting in its own right and also allows the demonstration of heuristic teaching ideas and a different method of doing a routine construction. The focus in the article is on the thought processes involved and questions asked when attempting proofs with the problem. (MNS)

Outlines various misconceptions about problem-solving (PS) and several strategies to improve intellectual skills and strategies. Also describes the Covington Productive Thinking Program (designed to help develop PS skills) and several lesson problem sets from this series of 15 books. (JN)

Plotting a polynomial over the range of real numbers when its derivative contains complex roots is discussed. The polynomials are graphed by calculating the minimums, maximums, and zeros of the function. (MNS)

How fiction is used in a college-level political science seminar to teach about democratic decision making and U.S. politics is described. The fiction used is clustered around the following topics: community-level decisions, limits to consensus, group values and politics, acquiring elected offices and trying to keep them, and public bureaucracies.…

The effects of text-provided aids on readers' understanding of scientific passages are discussed. Two techniques are pretraining on definitions and signaling. In the experiments, subjects read a scientific passage with either definitions pretraining, signaling, both, or neither. Results indicated these techniques helped readers build mental models…

Nine experiments were performed to verify and extend studies on sex differences in problem solving conducted in the 1950s by Sweeney, Carey, Milton, Nakamura, and Berry. A 20-item problem set was administered to over 1,000 college students. Results indicated a male advantage, averaging 35 percent, virtually identical with 1950s results. (Author/BS)

Argues that critical thinking and problem-solving skills are best taught (and learned) as part of the instruction in the regular content areas. It is suggested that teachers should be more explicit when using specific thinking skills and point out when students are engaged in using those skills. (MBR)

A program for a number of guessing logic games, written in APPLESOFT, is first given. Then four computer-related terms are defined. (MNS)

Reports findings of a study demonstrating that language experience techniques can help students comprehend math story problems and successfully apply the mathematical concepts necessary for their solution. (FL)

Describes the construction of a knowledge representation from the identification of the problem (nephrotic syndrome) to a running computer simulation of causal reasoning to provide a vertical slice of the construction of a cognitive model. Interactions between textbook knowledge, observations of human experts, and computational requirements are…

A program called OM (originally titled Olympics of the Mind), aimed at encouraging creativity in gifted and talented students via the industrial arts curriculum, is examined. Creative problem solving is discussed and examples of problems and format are included. Program effectiveness and public relations are described in detail. (CT)

This second part of a two-part article highlights some mathematics involved in the study of meteorology. Examples are given of the application of mathematics to the study of the atmosphere, with three problems discussed. (MNS)