To give an overview of the National Institute of Education's Research and Development Utilization (RDU) program, this report summarizes the program's goals, structure, and evaluation study and discusses the educational policy issues the program seeks to answer. Designed to enhance local school improvement efforts in the areas of basic skills and…

This booklet describes implementation processes that are most likely to bring project success. The experiences of the Rural Education Program in the field, together with the findings of the implementation research, lead the author to believe that a successful implementation process is one that utilizes mutual adaptation. This process promotes…

This booklet is for people who want to improve the effectiveness of groups: group leaders, facilitators, and group members. Some of the basic factors that influence how effectively a group works together are briefly described. Factors that affect group effectiveness fall into two categories: those that affect the way group members accomplish…

Eleven students out of 94 selected a hexagonal container as larger than a triangular container having the same surface area, although the capacity of the former was 50% greater than the latter. When presented with hexagons and triangles of the same perimeter but different areas, 40 students selected the hexagon as the larger area. When the…

This guide is organized around six concepts: sets, numbers and numeration; operations, their properties and number theory; relations and functions; geometry; measurement; and probability and statistics. Objectives and sample activities are presented for each concept. Separate sections deal with the processes of problem solving and computation. A…

Described in this paper is a project utilizing the linkage concept in the implementation of a diffused team planning process in six elementary schools undergoing desegregation. Strategies employed in designing the project are reviewed. These reviews include a retrospective analysis of the first two years of the project, a review of the minutes of…

This study explores the potential effectiveness of a new procedure for identifying and studying certain of the cognitive processes used during problem solving. The procedure is used in an attempt to categorize the types of conceptual thinking problem solvers employ, to study trial-and-error behavior, and to investigate problem solvers' abilities…

This program adapts the Think Aloud method, originally designed to assist young aggressive boys in achieving greater self-control, to improve problem-solving skills among first and second graders. Modeling of self-instructional verbalizations is used to teach children a systematic approach to analyzing a problem, planning an attack and evaluating…

A program for prospective elementary and secondary teachers emphasizing inquiry and problem solving techniques for use in the classroom is described. In the conceptual framework of this program, a situation is defined as a set of circumstances that teachers commonly encounter, and an issue is a theoretical, ethical, or methodological question. A…

The inservice learning module described here focuses on solving problems of classroom management, parent teacher relations, curriculum, and methodology. Topics covered in this program include evaluation of teaching and learning, grouping for instruction, controlling student behavior, relating to parents, motivating students, unit teaching, coping…

Presented are four interpretive reports and a list of current publications of the Mathematics Work Group at the Wisconsin R&D Center. The first interpretive report gives a brief overview of their work. Reports two through four are concerned with individual interviews, carried out during a longitudinal study, in which primary children are asked to…

The function and history of the School Development Seminar (SDS) are described in this bulletin. The SDS was composed of school faculty and administrators, instructors from a local college, school district administrators, and parents. The participants used the SDS to share information and opinions on a variety of issues including inservice…

Simulation--a teaching strategy which enables students to vicariously test both their powers of observation and decision making abilities--is suggested as a device to prepare students for the rapid changes they are likely to encounter as adults. Guidelines are offered for developing classroom simulations in this paper. Social and cultural topics…

This paper briefly reports on a series of studies that explore the relationship between symbolic or pretend modes of reasoning and cognitive processes which underlie conservation of quantity. It is hypothesized that the mental transformations which the child makes while playing a game of make-believe, namely, the transformation from his original…

This study attempted to gather empirical evidence to guide educators in their teaching of linear measurement to primary school children. It attempted to answer the question "What modes of instruction are most effective for teaching linear measurement concepts to conservers and nonconservers of length?" (as defined by Jean Piaget), using a…