This exploratory study examined how middle-level students preferred to work on science and science-related problems. Assessing students' instructional preferences may be as important as determining their abilities before decisions about optimal forms of education can be made. Students' preferences may indicate the types of instruction most likely…

A study investigated the known phenomenon of "intermediate effect" in which medical students with an intermediate amount of knowledge and experience demonstrate higher amounts of recall of the text of a medical case than either experienced clinicians or novices. In this study the amount of activation of prior knowledge was controlled by…

The high percentage of high school pre-algebra students having difficulty learning the abstract concept of graphing ordered pairs on the Cartesian rectangular coordinate system was addressed by the creation and implementation of a computer-managed instructional program. Modules consisted of a pretest, instruction, two practice sessions, and a…

In the 1960s suicide was the fifth leading cause of death among adolescents. In the 1980s suicide is second only to accidents as a cause of adolescent death. In their 1966 study of 50 adolescents who had attempted suicide, Teicher and Jacobs conceptualized suicide as the end product of progressive isolation from meaningful relationships. From…

Following an 11-month period of study, planning, and pilot testing, a project was undertaken at Central Piedmont Community College (CPCC) to implement quality circles, i.e., small groups of employees doing similar work who voluntarily meet on a regular basis to set goals, identify and analyze problems, find solutions, and cooperate with management…

Teachers of vocational agriculture students should focus on developing problem-solving and decision-making capacities, rather than on rote learning. Such preparation would include instruction in transferring lessons learned to today's and tomorrow's problems. Several factors are involved in facilitating transfer: experiential learning, adequacy of…

A total of 55 children attending 15 day care centers and nursery schools participated in an investigation of the relationship of day care quality to 4-year-old children's activities during free play and to their knowledge of social problem solving. The study also considered the extent to which social class mediated relationships between variables.…

Open-ended individually administered questions can ascertain whether students can reason about arithmetic problems. Free response test items are useful in assessing students' thought processes as they solve mathematics story problems. Since story problems do not state explicitly which arithmetic operations are required for solution, students must…

The industrial age is giving way to a new society, an information age first seen in the economic sector and now transforming U.S. social, political, organizational, and personal lives. Educational institutions must reorganize to meet the changing conditions of this new society. To help schools with strategic planning efforts, the three chapters of…

This paper focuses specifically on the reasoning skill called proportional reasoning. Areas addressed include: (1) a definition (providing examples of direct and indirect proportional reasoning); (2) the development of proportional reasoning (discussing survey results of students logical reasoning abilities); (3) planning for the future (proposing…

Order Analysis is a multidimensional scaling (MDS) technique for determining order among items. This paper reviews articles by different authors describing various components of ordering theory. A common nomenclature is constructed to link together the various ideas and is applied to a fairly simple set of data. Topics discussed include a more…

A study of the effects of the Instrumental Enrichment cognitive intervention program with 41 severely hearing impaired secondary school students was conducted. Experimental and control groups were compared in regard to general cognitive functioning, problem-solving strategies, reading comprehension, and mathematics. Experimental subjects were…

Papers presented at this conference focus primarily on the development of critical thinking and problem solving skills. Topics related to critical thinking include metacognition, curriculum development, and teaching strategies in foreign languages; teaching critical reading of literature to develop critical thinking skills; use of guided design in…

This workbook was designed as an easy-to-read, slower-paced text for students who have learning, reading, and language problems. As one of five workbooks to aid low achievers in problem solving, it focuses on strategies for solving one step and multistep word problems in mathematics. Students use skills learned in the four previous workbooks in…

Workshops that help students develop leadership are offered twice a year by the Office of Student Activities at the University of Pittsburgh. Soon after the 12 programming committee chairs and the student coordinator are selected in December, they meet with advisory staff in a local hotel for a training workshop, the first session of the…