This article describes a process for customizing instruction for students with profound multiple disabilities that has been used to design instructional programs and maximize attainment of functional outcomes. The process focuses on collaborative teamwork and problem solving to design and implement instructional programs and includes five major…

Describes an informal study that was conducted to determine if students who were taught critical thinking skills improved their course grades. Finds that the experimental group, who were taught critical thinking skills in an introductory psychology course, did significantly better than the control group, who took a humanities course that stressed…

Discusses the importance of modeling, hints, and other information contexts for providing a link to establishing new problem-solving strategies for toddlers and older children. Discusses the use of the microgenetic approach for yielding valuable information about strategic development despite the lack of availability of verbal reports. Suggests…

Examined relations between social-cognitive skills, aggression, and social competence using teacher questionnaire and tabletop tasks with preschool and kindergarten children. Found that generation of forceful solutions in a traditional social-problem solving task and performance on the false belief tasks were significantly related to social…

Suggests ways directors can create a climate to reduce and resolve conflict, including assessing the work environment, improving communication, understanding different personalities involved, and understanding the negotiation process. Applies the process to particular scenarios of early childhood staff conflict. Asserts that how directors deal…

Introduces the computer software program Learning and Understanding through Computer-based Interactive Discovery (LUCID) which is designed to increase student engagement in the learning process. Evaluates the effectiveness of LUCID on student attitudes and grades. (YDS)

Draws on six instances in which students were engaged in improvisational musical composition with peers and/or a teacher in music classroom settings. Offers an analysis of the creative process and product. Discusses the findings and the role of shared understanding in empowering independent musical thinking. (CMK)

Student teachers (n=40) worked in pairs on a structural design problem-solving activity. Their preconceptions about such concepts as strength and force were challenged and reconstructed in the process. Stronger links between scientific thinking and teacher knowledge were urged. (Contains 45 references.) (SK)

This article summarizes the important ideas and research findings of DISCOVER, an on-going program of research and development concerning the problem solving abilities of children and youth. It identifies five problem types and reviews the DISCOVER assessment model, including research on its reliability and validity and the DISCOVER curriculum…

Looks at a cross-curriculum innovation in which students engage in reading, writing, problem solving, interaction with simulations and databases, and performing various hands-on activities. Describes a project that provides students with the opportunity to participate in many of the new literacies while teachers learn new skills using these same…

This paper describes how eighth-grade students in a remedial math class were able to match the problem solving performance of comparison students in a pre-algebra class. It discusses the use of video-based anchored instruction linked to applied problems to develop students' understanding and skills. (Contains references.) (DB)

The NIMH Healthy Living Project (HLP), a randomized behavioral intervention trial for people living with HIV, enrolled 943 individuals, including women, heterosexual men, injection drug users, and men who have sex with men from Los Angeles, Milwaukee, New York, and San Francisco. The intervention, which is based on qualitative formative research…

Background: Research on the relationship between cognitive skills and mathematical problem solving is usually conducted on adults or on participants with acquired deficits associated with brain injury (e.g. Cipolotti, 1995; Cohen, Dehaene, & Verstichel, 1994; McCloskey, 1992). Aims: In these studies we wanted to make a contribution to the…

An observational study was conducted to examine teachers' emotional socialization strategies in three child care centers. Qualitative analysis of the data suggests that teachers in child care centers respond to children's emotional expressions with various strategies. Teachers clearly expressed a preference for positive emotion through verbal…

The use of professional software is an integral part of a student's education in the mining engineering curriculum at The Pennsylvania State University. Even though mining engineering represents a limited market across U.S. educational institutions, the goal still exists for using this type of software to enrich the learning environment with…