A Quantitative-qualitative Analysis of Selected Social Science Generalizations in Social Studies Textbooks in the Intermediate Grades

Abstract

A 4 × 4 Latin Square design with trend analysis was utilized to determine if practice in problem solving, accompanied by questions directed toward developing types of behavior characteristic of successful problem solvers could be a method of improving selected problem-solving skills. Results were that Ss’, ability to extract information from the statement of a problem and combine operations in order to arrive at solutions did improve significantly while ability to retrieve information and offer correct overt responses did not improve significantly. Indications are that, although certain problem-solving skills may lend themselves to immediate improvement, improvement in the product or final solution to problems may come after a prolonged period of practice in using improved problem-solving skills.     

THE EFFECTS OF TEACHING PROBLEM SOLVING ON ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE AND RETENTION

A study of the effects of explicitly teaching a problem‐solving strategy on problem‐solving ability, course average, course success, and student retention is reported. Two classes of microeconomics principles were involved in a quasi‐experiment. The experimental class was explicitly taught the problem‐solving strategy and this strategy was then used to solve microeconomic problems in class. The control class was assigned, solved, and discussed the same problems without being taught the problem‐solving strategy. Multiple regression and analysis of variance show that while teaching problem solving did not significantly affect course average, student success in passing the course or problem solving ability, it did result in significantly higher student retention. Results indicate that teaching problem solving only affects those students with low problem solving abilities who would have dropped out of class, and that teaching this strategy helps them remain in the class and succeed.     

Patterns of Verbal Mediation During Problem Solving: A Sequential Analysis of Self-Explanation

The explanations that participants give themselves (self-explanations) while learning or solving problems have been shown to be positively associated with various performance measures. The major aim of this study was to identify patterns of self-explanation that distinguish between good and poor problem solvers. Thirty-two Grade 9 students were asked to solve 3 mixture problems—1 warm-up problem and 2 test problems—while thinking aloud. The problem-solving process was videotaped, protocols were transcribed, and 5 content categories were identified. Through a sequential analysis, patterns of self-explanation that differentiate between good and poor problem solvers were identified.     

Factors influencing Filipino children’s solutions to addition and subtraction word problems

Young Filipino children are expected to solve mathematical word problems in English, which is not their mother tongue. Because of this, it is often assumed that Filipino children have difficulties in solving problems because they cannot read or comprehend what they have read. This study tested this assumption by determining whether presenting word problems in Filipino or reading them aloud to children in either language facilitated solution accuracy. Contrary to the initial hypothesis, reading word problems aloud did not seem to improve student performance (p > 0.10). In contrast, presenting word problems in Filipino significantly improved solution accuracy (p < 0.0001) and led to differences in error patterns – children were less likely to use an inappropriate arithmetic operation when problems were presented in Filipino. However, the language of the problem had minimal effects on the more difficult Compare problem type. Finally, the benefits of using Filipino were more pronounced for low‐achieving students who may have lower proficiency in English than their high‐achieving peers (p < 0.01).     

The Educational Significance of Mental Tests

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of a training program in creative thinking and problem solving on children from varying racial backgrounds and social-class levels. The Ss were 218 fifth and sixth grade students. All Ss were administered the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking, Form A. The experimental Ss participated in the eight-week Productive Thinking Program and the control Ss in the Gates-Peardon Reading Exercises. At the completion of the Program, all Ss were administered the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking, Form B. The results indicate that participation in the Productive Thinking Program enabled the students to improve their creative thinking and problem-solving abilities. Neither race nor social-class level affected the child's ability to increase these skills.     

Children's and adults' knowledge and models of reasoning about the ozone layer and its depletion

A model giving the main domains of ‘process knowledge’ in solving problems in physics is proposed. In the framework of this model the strategies and results of using thinking‐aloud experiments to obtain the elements of ‘process knowledge’ in the problem‐solving activity in physics are discussed.

     

A further study of productive failure in mathematical problem solving: unpacking the design components

This paper replicates and extends my earlier work on productive failure in mathematical problem solving (Kapur, doi:, 2009). One hundred and nine, seventh-grade mathematics students taught by the same teacher from a Singapore school experienced one of three learning designs: (a) traditional lecture and practice (LP), (b) productive failure (PF), where they solved complex problems in small groups without any instructional facilitation up until a teacher-led consolidation, or (c) facilitated complex problem solving (FCPS), which was the same as the PF condition except that students received instructional facilitation throughout their lessons. Despite seemingly failing in their collective and individual problem-solving efforts, PF students significantly outperformed their counterparts in the other two conditions on both the well-structured and higher-order application problems on the post-test, and demonstrated greater representation flexibility in working with graphical representations. The differences between the FCPS and LP conditions did not reach significance. Findings and implications of productive failure for theory, design of learning, and future research are discussed.     

Training proportionality through peer interaction

The study aimed at determining the effects of training based on peer interaction over practical problems of proportion with normal subjects aged from 8 to 12 years. Two experimental groups were assigned to two treatment conditions: (a) training in solving problems of proportionality with social interaction (T1), and (b) training in solving the same problems without social interaction (T2).Training groups included either 5 or 10 subjects who were heterogeneous with regard to their initial level of mastery of the concept of proportion. The results indicated that in group T1 the scores on proportionality improved significantly while group T2 and a control group did not. Thus, practice alone produced no change. The improvement on proportionality in T1 proved durable over a period of two months and generalized to a structurally related concept (probability). The variation in group size did not affect the extent of improvement. The number and duration of interactions within the group discussion over problems were not directly related to the amount of improvement. A detailed analysis of the pre- and post-test difference revealed that only 50% of the Ss in T1 improved substantially, and, in line with the Genevan view, improvement from training was found to follow the same sequence as normal development.     

An Experimental Evaluation of the Stylistic Approach in Teaching Written Composition in the Junior High School

The hypothesis that children who repeat sentences aloud will acquire greater facility in forming similar sentences on their own than those who only listen to the spoken sentences was tested with forty disadvantaged Negro children, 43 to 55 months old. Identical sequences of 5 to 15-minute daily lessons plus 2 days of testing were presented under two treatment conditions, speaking and not-speaking.

By analysis of covariance a significant difference was found (. 01 level) favoring the speaking group. This difference was attributable to scores on the verbalization subtest, as both groups demonstrated equal facility in identification. A transfer task with verbalization to entirely different pictures produced similar significant treatment effects (p <. 01).     

Role of Ability and Extroversion in Concept Attainment of Individuals Trained in Heterogeneous or Homogeneous Personality Groups

Abstract

Subjects stratified by ability and extroversion initially attained concepts in homogeneous (all introverts or all extroverts) or heterogeneous (one-half members extroverts) personality groups. Concepts were attained individually in a subsequent transfer stage. Training in heterogeneous groups resulted in better transfer performance than did training in homogeneous groups only for low-ability Ss. A satisfactory account included assumptions that a low-ability S is not likely to develop a solution strategy on his own and that presence of an extrovert in a training group increases verbalization of strategies some of which are solution-relevant in the transfer stage.     

Can Good Concept Mappers be Good Problem Solvers in Science?

Problem solving is an enduring issue in science education, ostensibly because science itself is basically concerned with problem solving—exploring the universe and seeking answers to intriguing phenomena in nature. Remarkable strides have been made in psychology about recording the minutiae of problem solving as a cognitive process. Concept mapping, a metalearning tool, is appearing on the scene as a potential pathway for promoting the acquisition of problem‐solving skills. Drawing 40 subjects from a pool of students who experienced cooperative and individualistic concept‐mapping experiences for six months and adjudged to be good concept mappers, this study found the concept‐, mapping group to be significantly more successful in solving three biological problems than 20 subjects who served as control. Written and think‐aloud procedures and interviews were conducted as part of the administration of the Biology Problem Solving Test. No statistically significant difference was found between students who mapped concepts cooperatively and those who mapped individually. There were mixed results for gender. The implications of the findings for further research and for improving problem‐solving abilities of students are drawn.     

Effects of different cue types on the accuracy of primary school teachers' judgments of students' mathematical understanding

To gain insight into how teachers' judgment accuracy can be improved, we investigated effects of cue-type availability. While thinking aloud, 21 teachers judged their fourth grade students' (n = 176) decimal magnitude understanding. Sensitivity (correctly judging what students did understand) did not improve from availability of both answer cues (students' answers to prior practice problems) and student cues (knowledge of students triggered by knowing their names), and was lower when only answer cues were available, compared to only student cues. Specificity (correctly judging what students did not understand) was higher when only answer cues were available, compared to only student cues or both student and answer cues.     

Voices in Education: What Other Countries and Disciplines Have to Offer

Abstract

Emphasizing critical thinking in teacher education could potentially increase society's effectiveness in addressing national and international problems. This linkage between teacher education and societal problem solving is predicated on three major possibilities: (a) Increased emphasis on critical thinking in teacher education will increase the emphasis on critical thinking in K‐12 education, (b) increased emphasis on critical thinking in K‐12 will lead to increased use of critical thinking within society, and (c) increased use of critical thinking among society's leaders and citizens will produce better problem solving at a societal level. The proposed linkage between teacher education and societal problem solving is anchored in three aspects of critical thinking: disposition toward critical thinking, cognitive skill in critical thinking, and information bases for critical thinking.     

Metacognitive strategy use of eighth-grade students with and without learning disabilities during mathematical problem solving: a think-aloud analysis

The purpose of the study was to investigate the metacognitive abilities of students with LD as they engage in math problem solving and to determine processing differences between these students and their low- and average-achieving peers (n = 73). Students thought out loud as they solved three math problems of increasing difficulty. Protocols were coded and analyzed to determine frequency of cognitive verbalizations and productive and nonproductive metacognitive verbalizations. Results indicated different patterns of metacognitive activity for ability groups when type of metacognitive verbalization and problem difficulty were considered. Implications for instruction are discussed.     

The Improvement of Thinking Skills in Young Children using Computer Activities: a replication and extension

Summary In a replication and extension of a study by Riding & Powell (1985), 60 four‐year‐old nursery class children were given the Raven's Coloured Progressive Matrices and were then randomly divided within sexes into two groups. A treatment group worked through 16 computer presented problem solving activities and where necessary received coaching. A control group did not do the problems, but spent the time on their normal nursery class activities. All the children were then re‐tested on Raven's Matrices. The results showed a significantly greater improvement between the pre‐ and post‐test scores for the treatment group than for the control group: The results were similar to those obtained in the previous study and suggest that a worthwhile improvement in thinking performance in young children can be obtained.     

Some factors in problem solving: The name of the concept,specific instructions,and the ability to verbalize

Three extrinsic factors were manipulated in a problem-solving task performed by 80 10-year-old children of IQ 90–110. The factors were: The presence or absence of the name of the concept given in feedback, specific instructions, and whether the child was allowed to verbalize. The task was a modification of Vygotsky's experiment on concept formation using concrete material. The performance criteria were: time taken to solution, number of moves, and amount of verbalization. The presence of the name of the concept given in feedback speeded the time to solution and reduced the number of moves required. Specific instruction speeded the solution but did not reduce the number of moves; whereas verbalization reduced the number of moves but increased the time of solution.     

Teaching learning disabled adolescents to think critically using a problem‐solving schema

Abstract

In this study we describe and examine the effectiveness of an instructional program designed to teach learning disabled adolescents to make better personal decisions. We presented problems in short narratives based on the types of problems these students must solve in their own lives. The program, conducted as part of the students' regular resource room curriculum, incorporated schema‐general questions for problem solving coupled with practice in generating problem‐specific questions to reach an appropriate decision. Participants were 70 resource room students in two large, urban high schools. We employed a pretest‐posttest comparison group design. On the posttest, instructed students performed significantly better on (1) identifying a general schema for making a personal decision and (2) applying the schema to reach appropriate decisions concerning novel problem narratives. The results support the view that application of a general schema to specific problems can be an effective instructional method to improve critical thinking and decision making.