Spider World is an interactive program designed to help individuals with no previous computer experience to learn the fundamentals of programming. The program emphasizes cognitive tasks which are central to programming and provides significant problem-solving opportunities. In Spider World, the user commands a hypothetical robot (called the…

Attempts to train learning strategies have not produced marked or lasting increases in academic IQ, probably because current training models fail to recognize the evolutionary nature of strategies acquisition. Empirical and theoretical evidence supports an incidental learning model, which engineers the instructional environment following study…

Early adolescence is a time when students require adult assistance to become accurate and effective decision makers and problem solvers. Because of the fragmented nature of society, the family structure, and the schooling process, schools need to establish a nonthreatening environment in which students can discuss the issues related to growing up.…

The first of three parts of a computer awareness program for grades K-9, this guide includes objectives, implementation suggestions, and varied student activity worksheets for a five-unit, primary computer literacy program. A program overview includes the program rationale, goals, description and development, time allotment, and objectives for K-3…

Futures research involves speculation about alternative developments based upon existing data and potential choices. Effective futures research requires creativity in scientific practice rather than an overemphasis on reason. In discussing the important role of intuition in futures research, characteristics of creative scientists are reviewed and…

Quality circles may be regarded as a form of organizational intervention strategy to enhance productivity and product quality through employee participation. Operationally, small groups of individual employees voluntarily meet regularly to (1) identify problems relating to productivity and product quality, (2) discuss them, (3) identify and…

There is little doubt that intervention research based on metacognitive principles has been remarkably successful in improving children's performance on a range of academic tasks. However, to build on this success, at least three modifications need to be made in the way metacognition is usually thought about. First, more attention needs to be…

Designed to help teachers find an effective approach in teaching expository writing, this guide divides expository writing into five main types: definition/classification, comparison/contrast, thesis/proof, problem/solution, and inference (drawing conclusions). Five different starter techniques are presented with each of the five main types of…

The study was designed to investigate: (1) the relative effectiveness of three techniques for teaching verbal problem solving to general education mathematics students in a junior college; and (2) the relationships between various student variables and problem-solving ability after treatment. Three classes (N=72) at Florida College were randomly…

From a search of (mostly French) literature, a hypothesis was formulated that students with both academic training and work experience would solve a practical learning problem more easily than students with academic learning only. A study was conducted at the Conservatoire National des Arts et Metiers in Paris to test this hypothesis. Two groups,…

Bibliotherapy has been used by the helping professions as a treatment technique for many years, and several studies suggest that it can be an effective treatment tool. In helping children who are experiencing difficulties, bibliotherapy treatment involves the child reading about others who have solved similar problems. An increasing number of…

Facilitating consensual labor-management decision making may require interventions during, after, and before meetings. These interventions--including persuasion and mediation--may affect both the internal and the external processes of decision making. Communicative actions may help both the internal and the external decision making processes of a…

This paper reports on a study involving the development and application of an instrument to identify and measure ill-structured problem formulation and resolution (PFR) in online asynchronous discussions (OADs). The instrument was developed by first determining PFR processes relevant to ill-structured problems in professional practice. The…

This paper provides an illustrative example of an approach to creating and reporting individual profiles of engagement in particular behaviours in an online asynchronous discussion (OAD). Individual results of analysis of transcripts of an OAD can provide insights different from those gained by focusing on aggregate measures of group behaviours.…

This paper discusses the basic concepts of reflection and its related concepts in optics. It aims at providing examples on how to apply the principle of reflection in geometry. Explorations of the concepts involved via dynamic geometry software are also included.