Teaching problem solving: Don't forget the problem solver(s)

The importance of intrapersonal and interpersonal intelligences has long been known but educators have debated whether to and how to incorporate those topics in an already crowded engineering curriculum. In 2010, the authors used the classroom as a laboratory to observe the usefulness of including selected case studies and exercises from the fields of neurology, artificial intelligence, cognitive sciences and social psychology in a new problem-solving course. To further validate their initial findings, in 2012, the authors conducted an online survey of engineering students and engineers. The main conclusion is that engineering students will benefit from learning more about the impact of emotions, culture, diversity and cognitive biases when solving problems. Specifically, the work shows that an augmented problem-solving curriculum needs to include lessons on labelling emotions and cognitive biases, ‘evidence-based’ data on the importance of culture and diversity and additional practice on estimating conditional probability.     

Data-driven problem based learning: enhancing problem based learning with learning analytics

Educational technology research and development - Problem based learning (PBL) supports the development of transversal skills and could underpin the training of a workforce competent to withstand...     

Teacher Education: the image problem

The quality of teacher education programs and teacher educators has frequently been questioned in the research literature, government reports and general media releases. As a consequence, the image of teacher education is not as positive as it should be in both tertiary institutions and the wider community. The current paper focuses on the perceptions held by a sample of 47 teachers. Some of the reported perceptions are quite negative and it is important that teacher educators and teacher education associations endeavour to address the problem as to how a more positive image of teacher education can be projected.     

Computer Club for Girls: The problem with seeing girls as the problem

This paper presents findings from an evaluation of the Computer Clubs for Girls, an initiative originally delivered in the South East of England, designed to encourage more girls to take up information technology (IT) courses and careers. By targeting girls aged 10–14, the club aimed to provide members with a ‘gender relevant’ experience of IT, tackling issues of access, confidence and negative attitudes about IT. The evaluation, conducted over four years, included the collection of quantitative and qualitative data from members and non-members of the clubs. It included a longitudinal component in order to assess the longer-term impacts of the club. The findings support the critical view that initiatives based on assumptions about the relationship between girls and IT misinterpret ‘the problem’ about female under-representation in IT, and are unlikely to have a significant or sustained impact on what remains an occupational and subject area divided by gender typing. The paper argues for an approach which challenges the social and cultural discourses that maintain this gender divide.     

Teachers' approaches towards word problem solving: Elaborating or restricting the problem context

This contribution reports about a seven-month long video-based study in two regular Flemish sixth-grade mathematics classrooms. The focus is on teachers' approaches towards problem solving. In our analysis we distinguished between a paradigmatic-oriented (focus on the mathematical structure) and a narrative-oriented (focus on the contextual aspects of a problem) perspective on the problem-solving process. The findings have highlighted that the word problem-solving lessons were more dominated by a paradigmatic than a narrative approach and that interventions in which the relation between the mathematics structure and the realistic constraints of the problem context is addressed, were rare.     

External science courses: the practicals problem

Three methods are described for offering the practical work for external science courses: on‐campus residential school sessions, the use of centres by groups of students in a neighbourhood and the use of kits for individual study in the home. The advantages and disadvantages of each method are discussed and examples are given of each method in operation.     

新课程推进:问题与对策

新课程改革在推进过程中存在“加速度”、“大一统”和“边缘化”等问题,解决这些问题的关键是实施区域推进策略。具体来说,就是要实现三个“突破”：东部应整体推进,实现“面”的突破;中部应积极跟进,实现“片”的突破;西部应扬长避短,实现“点”的突破。     

方法：课程改革中一个基础性问题

课程改革是一项与整个社会相联系的复杂的系统工程。它需要从一开始就确立完整的、严谨的、逑产求是的系统方法论，需要以此来统整课程体系的制定、实施和评估，需要以此来统整制约课程演进的社会发展、学科发展、人的发展、课程与教学传统。它需要始终冯联系的、动态发展的观点面对一系列冲突与和谐的改革问题：共同改革与不同地区发展的层级性问题、借鉴吸收与适合国情及化传统的问题、前瞻性与现实性问题。课程改革只能是个漫长的艰苦的过程，“这里的乐观主义就是现实主义”^[1]。