Identified five subgroups among 199 female and 133 male college students based on their decision-making styles, career decision-making self-efficacy, and career development task accomplishment. Results provide support for the positive relationship between a systematic (rather than spontaneous) decision style and adaptive vocational behavior.…

Discussion of constructivist learning environments focuses on the concept of grounded design, a process that involves linking the practices of learning systems design with related theory and research. Topics include directed versus situated learning environments, situated cognition and anchored instruction, social constructivism and problem…

Demonstrates how teachers can move their students from the novice into the expert range of problem-solving strategies. Utilizes a problem-solving model that follows how such skills develop. (DDR)

Explains why free-choice time, also called child-initiated time, is an essential daily part of all Head Start programs. Children have the freedom to initiate their own activities among the learning centers in the classroom, allowing them to develop their intellectual abilities, find solutions to problems, explore, inquire, and become adept at…

Investigated the relationship between adolescent decision-making and their sense of control over the future. Ninety-eight students (11-14 years old) participated in a program emphasizing responsibility, plans, choices, and alternatives. Results indicate that increased knowledge of decision-making raises pupils' sense of control over their…

Investigated the relationship between the mastery of maladaptive interpersonal patterns (assessed from narratives told during psychotherapy) and outcome of psychotherapy. Transcripts from the psychodynamic psychotherapy of 41 patients were scored using a content analysis mastery scale. Changes in mastery level over the course of therapy were…

Proposes using a developmentally appropriate practice framework to determine if a sexual abuse prevention program takes into consideration the unique learning abilities of preschool children. Reviews definition of and statistics related to sexual abuse. Compares appropriate and inappropriate teaching practices in child sexual abuse prevention…

This article compares research findings on heightened cognitive flexibility in academically gifted children and similar flexibility in social intelligence. It proposes that social-cognitive flexibility (the ability to adapt prior social knowledge to formulate solutions to new interpersonal situations) is an important component of social…

Comparison of the effects of pretest anxiety on the social and nonsocial problem solving of 45 boys (ages 9 to 11) with learning disabilities (LD) and 45 nondisabled boys found the LD group reported significantly higher pretest anxiety which escalated over the course of the problem-solving session. However, boys with or without LD were equally…

Two studies were conducted, one using 80 university students and the other 140 fifth through seventh graders, to examine the relationship between problem-solving strategies (leaping and flexibility) and measures of insight and scholastic aptitude. Relationships among insight, leaping, and quantitative scholastic aptitude were found. A…

Social information processing skills of 13 children (ages 5-12 years) with mild mental retardation (MR), 13 chronological age-matched children, and 13 mental age-matched children were studied. The MR group was less accurate in interpretation of accidental cues and more hostile in their responses to ambiguous cues, even after partialing out…

Presents a conceptual framework for analyzing students' mathematical understanding, reasoning, problem solving, and communication. Analyses of student responses indicated that the tasks appear to measure the complex thinking and reasoning processes that they were designed to assess. Concludes that the QUASAR assessment tasks can capture changes in…

Middle school teachers (n=53) and prospective secondary teachers (n=28) posed problems related to billiards before and after solving a sample problem. Found systematic problem generation and more problems posed before solving a sample problem. Posed problems were not always solvable. (MTE)

Presents an activity from the track and field unit of the Science of Sporting Events program in which teachers and students experiment with four broad jump techniques in order to determine which method will allow them to jump the farthest. Enables students to use a variety of math and science skills including observing, predicting, measuring, and…

The principal of a grade 3-5 intermediate school explains how he gained teacher acceptance of a new mathematics curriculum and instructional methods meeting National Council of Teachers of Mathematics standards. To raise students' mastery scores, the principal worked with teachers from each grade to reexamine present practices, develop and test…