DEVELOPING PROBLEM SOLVING SKILLS

Some complex societal problems such as sudden changes in Eastern Europe or the problem of AIDS are very hard to handle. Even defining the problem is difficult. Managers and experts often lack the knowledge and training to handle these kinds of problem, although the problems require intensive effort. Education typically offers few opportunities for learning how to handle them. Research on Artificial Intelligence mostly focuses on problems in stable situations which have already been solved, and ignores as yet unsolved problems in rapidly changing situations. Before a problem can be solved, it has to be defined: System dynamic modelling can be a powerful tool for doing this. Defining the kind of problem discussed here also requires teamwork: Managers and experts can learn to define a complex problem in a special learning environment involving cases embedded in free form games.     

THE POWER OF PERFORMANCE IN DEVELOPING PROBLEM SOLVING AND SELF ASSESSMENT ABILITIES

Students of Alverno College develop problem solving as one of eight abilities they are required to demonstrate in order to graduate. They must also demonstrate self assessment ability as an important part and over‐riding outcome of their educational process.

In ongoing studies, the research staff of the college found that students show increasing sophistication in their performance of these abilities and identify them as significant aspects of their education. Faculty contribute to their own developing educational theory and practice by analysing student performance and judging it by criteria they have articulated to describe expert performance. In requiring students to integrate self assessment into their problem solving process, faculty have found that students show increasing understanding of inter‐relationships of ability, content, and context. Students take responsibility for their learning as a dynamic, continuing process. They gradually internalise their practice of both problem solving and self assessment ability.     

AN EXPERIENTIALLY‐BASED TRAINING PROGRAMME IN CIVIL ENGINEERING

An innovative training programme providing second year students with a real taste of civil engineering practice through the construction of full‐size structures was introduced at the Nanyang Technological Institute, Singapore. Students are divided into companies, each responsible for executing the construction project for a profit, and in accordance with contract requirements in the forms of specifications and design drawings. Each company is sub‐divided into management, office and field groups. Thus the students, through a mandatory rotation of the role play, gain valuable experience in the field, office and management functions through personal involvement in such a real‐life project. To reflect the objectives of the programme, a system of assessment was developed based on the student performance at the team, group and individual levels. Due to the short history of the programme and since a true test of the effectiveness of this type of training is through the performance of the graduates, a summative evaluation is difficult to make at the present time. However, some interim feedback from the students, staff members and industrialists on students’ performance subsequent to their second year course work suggest that the programme has served well in achieving its intended objectives.     

创新教育中大学生智力培养的理论前提与措施

智力是当今社会成为人们十分关注的概念，因此，研讨智力具有重要的现实意义，特别是创新教育中的意义非常明显。笔者立足于更深层次的分析，从智力的内涵、智力结构理论、智力发展的特点以及大学生智力的开发与培养等方面加以探讨。     

工程图学教学培养创新意识及实践能力的探讨

本文就如何在工程图学课程中培养学生的创新意识及实践能力，从确立教学思想、改革教学内容、教学方法、教学手段以及加强实践环节等方面进行了探讨。     

SELF ASSESSMENT IN THE CONTEXT OF THE McMASTER PROBLEM SOLVING PROGRAMME

Self assessment is applied to develop students' confidence in their problem solving ability in the context of a four‐course sequence in Chemical Engineering, called the McMaster Problem Solving (MPS) programme. The issues in using self assessment are explored and then illustrated in the context of the MPS programme. The criteria for assessment are public, explicit and related to the learning objectives for each of 35 separate skills, topics or Units that comprise the programme. The criteria are primarily generated by faculty, but the students can generate their own to obtain higher levels of accomplishment. Students use journal writing as the main method of providing evidence, satisfying the criteria and demonstrating achievement. The students rationalise their self assessment in an interview with the instructor. The self assessment counts for between 10 and 27% of their grade. The students receive 6 hours of training on self assessment early in the course. Self assessment is applied to all of the subsequent activities in the MPS programme.

Comparisons are given between students' summative assessments and their performance on a written final examination and their overall mark in the course. The average deviation is usually less than 10%.

The approaches taken in this MPS programme are compared with those of others. Suggestions for development and improvement are noted.     

THE PERSONALITY PROFILES OF CIVIL ENGINEERING STUDENTS

The importance of determining the personality profile of the civil engineering profession is stressed. Personality profiles for civil engineering students have been determined and compared with those of other subject areas. The personality factors were also compared with the examination performance in order to determine the extent to which penonality factors are significant in the civil engineering degree course. It was not possible to separate the top students from the bottom students in the examination on the basis of personality; a similar set of personality factors were important for both groups.     

应用题相似性和图式归纳对解题迁移的影响

研究采用问题解决作业单和认知作业分析法考察了71名高中生解决学科问题时的图式归纳和迁移情况。结果表明：（1）在问题结构相同的情况下，增加问题表面相似性能促进问题解决迁移；（2）近类比条件有助于同一学科领域问题的迁移，而远类比条件可能更有助于跨学科领域问题的迁移；（3）近类比条件下，图式归纳水平对学科问题迁移的影响不大，远类比条件下，较高的图式归纳水平有助于学科问题解决的迁移。     

THEORETICAL AND PHILOSOPHICAL PERSPECTIVES TO PROBLEM SOLVING

No abstract available for this article.     

PERFORMANCE IN MATHEMATICAL PROBLEM SOLVING AS A FUNCTION OF COMPREHENSION AND ARITHMETIC SKILLS

Many factors influence a student’s performance in word (or textbook) problem solving in class. Among them is the comprehension process the pupils construct during their attempt to solve the problem. The comprehension process may include some less formal representations, based on pupils’ real-world knowledge, which support the construction of a ‘situation model’. In this study, we examine some factors related to the pupil or to the word problem itself, which may influence the comprehension process, and we assess the effects of the situation model on pupils’ problem solving performance. The sample is composed of 750 pupils of grade 6 elementary school. They were selected from 35 classes in 17 Francophone schools located in the province of Quebec, Canada. For this study, 3 arithmetic problems were developed. Each problem was written in 4 different versions, to allow the manipulation of the type of information included in the problem statement. Each pupil was asked to solve 3 problems of the same version and to complete a task that allowed us to evaluate the construction of a situation model. Our results show that pupils with weaker arithmetic skills construct different representations, based on the information presented in the problem. Also, pupils who give greater importance to situational information in a problem have greater success in solving the problem. The situation model influences pupils’ problem solving performance, but this influence depends on the type of information included in the problem statement, as well as on the arithmetic skills of each individual pupil.     

DEVELOPING CREATIVE PRODUCTIVITY IN THE “STREETWISE” DISADVANTAGED GIFTED CHILD: THE THIRD WORLD CHALLENGE

This paper presents an insight into the productive abilities of the disadvantaged gifted child that forms the foundation for a transition curriculum. A model for maximizing the inner and outer world of the child is presented, integrated into this transition from “streetwise” abilities which are contextually relevant. Despite political turmoil, the Third World challenge is to provide a curriculum to develop both a positive self and a constructive view of the future. Programmes in action for disadvantaged children in South Africa are reviewed.     

电学方法对扩散问题求解的启示

本文介绍了电磁学中常见的镜像法在扩散问题中的应用,说明可以借助于电学模拟方法,并进行电量的测量,为相类似的扩散问题寻得解答。     

SPECIFIC COGNITIVE PREDICTORS OF EARLY MATH PROBLEM SOLVING

Development of early math skill depends on a prerequisite level of cognitive development. Identification of specific cognitive skills that are important for math development may not only inform instructional approaches but also inform assessment approaches to identifying children with specific learning problems in math. This study investigated the specific cognitive correlates of math problem solving across early grade levels (1–4) while controlling for basic calculation skills. As expected, basic calculation skill was a significant predictor of math problem solving across the entire sample. However, the addition of cognitive measures almost doubled the variance explained (R² = .61). Additionally, only select cognitive variables contributed to the prediction of math problem solving, and these variables change in importance as children develop higher‐level math skills. Results are discussed within a developmental model, which emphasizes the increasing importance of abstract code representations required in higher levels of math performance.     

COGNITIVE LOAD FOR CONFIGURATION COMPREHENSION IN COMPUTER-SUPPORTED GEOMETRY PROBLEM SOLVING: AN EYE MOVEMENT PERSPECTIVE

The present study investigated (a) whether the perceived cognitive load was different when geometry problems with various levels of configuration comprehension were solved and (b) whether eye movements in comprehending geometry problems showed sources of cognitive loads. In the first investigation, three characteristics of geometry configurations involving the number of informational elements, the number of element interactivities and the level of mental operations were assumed to account for the increasing difficulty. A sample of 311 9th grade students solved five geometry problems that required knowledge of similar triangles in a computer-supported environment. In the second experiment, 63 participants solved the same problems and eye movements were recorded. The results indicated that (1) the five problems differed in pass rate and in self-reported cognitive load; (2) because the successful solvers were very swift in pattern recognition and visual integration, their fixation did not clearly show valuable information; (3) more attention and more time (shown by the heat maps, dwell time and fixation counts) were given to read the more difficult configurations than to the intermediate or easier configurations; and (4) in addition to number of elements and element interactivities, the level of mental operations accounts for the major cognitive load sources of configuration comprehension. The results derived some implications for design principles of geometry diagrams in secondary school mathematics textbooks.