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.     

Transformative Experience: An Integrative Construct in the Spirit of Deweyan Pragmatism

A sentiment held by Dewey and shared by other educators is that learning should enrich and expand everyday experience. However, this goal has not been a focus of research. In this article, I propose transformative experience as a construct capable of reflecting this goal and functioning as an empirical research construct. I discuss the theoretical grounding for this construct in the work of Dewey and define it in terms of three characteristics: (a) motivated use, (b) expansion of perception, and (c) experiential value. In doing so, I describe how transformative experience integrates current research constructs such as transfer, conceptual change, and task value in a holistic way. I then provide illustrations of transformative experiences and review the existing research.     

Cognitive behaviour therapy in schools: the role of educational psychology in the dissemination of empirically supported interventions

Educational psychology has recently experienced something of a revival in the provision of psychological therapy. This revival has aligned with general developments in evidence‐based psychology. A product of this has been more frequent delivery of empirically supported therapies in practice settings, for example, anxiety reduction programmes in school classes. This has enriched educational psychology practice and increased its opportunity to participate in therapy services through engagement with multi‐professional teams, coordination of training providers, training of trainers or indeed direct delivery. However, there are concerns that over‐commitment to simple intervention protocols has undermined educational psychologists’ wider role as highly skilled therapist/generalists. This article summarises the terms of debate in which empirically supported research practices have developed. Following an overview of the most common therapies, a series of questions challenging current research practices are posed. This paper finally reconsiders the impact that patterns of research and provision have had on educational psychology in practice.     

Supporting Deep Engagement: The Teaching for Transformative Experiences in Science (TTES) Model

The Teaching for Transformative Experiences in Science (TTES) model was designed to facilitate the application of academic learning in students' everyday experiences. In the current study, we describe a 2-year design-based intervention that aimed to further develop and evaluate the TTES model. In the first year, a teacher implemented the TTES model in two of his four classes. The findings indicated enhanced engagement and learning, but primarily among students with higher prior engagement and learning. Insights led to revision of the TTES model. In the second year, the revised TTES model was implemented in all the teacher's classes, with another teacher's classes used for comparison. Intervention students demonstrated significantly greater learning and reported significantly higher levels of transformative experience than the comparison students.     

Computers

COMPUTER FUNDAMENTALS FOR AN INFORMATION AGE, by Gary Shelly and Thomas J. Cashman (Brea., Calif.: Anaheim Publishing, 1984—price not given, paper)

COMPUTERS: THE NON-TECHNOLOGICAL (HUMAN) FACTORS–A RECOMMENDED READING LIST ON COMPUTER ERGONOMICS & USER FRIENDLY DESIGN, edited by John L. Burch (The Report Store, 910 Massachusetts Avenue, Suite 503, Lawrence, KS 66044–$34.95, paper)

HOW TO PREVENT COMPUTER CRIME: A GUIDE FOR MANAGERS, by August Bequai (New York: John Wiley, 1983–$27.95)

VIDEO DISPLAYS, WORK, AND VISION, by the National Research Council (Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press, 1983—price not given, paper)

MEMORIES THAT SHAPED AN INDUSTRY: DECISIONS LEADING TO ISM SYSTEM/360, by Emerson W. Pugh (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1984—price not given)

HIGH-SPEED COMPUTING DEVICES, by Engineering Research Associates, Inc. (Los Angeles: Tomash Publishers–distribution by MIT Press, Cambridge, Mass.—price not given)

THE COMPUTER COMES OF AGE: THE PEOPLE, THE HARDWARE, AND THE SOFTWARE, by Rene Monceau (Cambridge: - MIT Press, 1984—price not given)

FIRE IN THE VALLEY: THE MAKING OF THE PERSONAL COMPUTER, by Paul Freiberger and Michael Swaine (Osborne/McGraw-Hill, 2600 Tenth Street, Berkeley, Calif. 94710–$9.95, paper)

EXECUCOMP: MAXIMUM MANAGEMENT WITH THE NEW COMPUTERS, by F. Warren Benton (New York: John Wiley, 1983–$19.95)

ONLINE COMMUNITIES: A CASE STUDY OF THE OFFICE OF THE FUTURE, by Starr Roxanne Hiltz (Norwood, N.J.: Ablex, 1984—price not given)

INTRODUCTION TO LOCAL AREA COMPUTER NETWORKS, by K.C.E. Gee (New York: Wiley/Interscience, 1983–$16.95, paper)

LOCAL AREA NETWORKS: ISSUES, PRODUCTS, AND DEVELOPMENTS, by V.E. Cheong and R.A. Hirschheim (New York: Wiley/Interscience, 1983–$29.95)

BUSINESS DATA COMMUNICATIONS: BASIC CONCEPTS, SECURITY, AND DESIGN, by Jerry Fitzgerald (New York: John Wiley, 1984–$30.95)

INFORMATION MANAGEMENT IN PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION, edited by Forest W. Horton and Donald A. Marchand (Information Resources Press, 1700 N. Moore St., Arlington, VA 22209–$48.80 including postage)

ELECTRONIC ILLUSIONS: A SKEPTIC'S VIEW OF OUR HIGH-TECH FUTURE, by Ian Reinecke (New York: Penguin Books, 1984–$7.95, paper)     

Visual performance and reading in seven and eleven year old children

Groups of seven and eleven year old children were given a test of visual performance in which they viewed a small white disc on a black background in a tachistoscope and reported whether the disc appeared to disappear when the experimenter switched very briefly to a second completely black field. The shortest disappearance reported was taken as a measure of their dark interval threshold. The threshold decreased with age for girls, who also had a higher threshold than boys at both ages. When the subjects were grouped according to their threshold, the girls at seven and eleven who had a moderate threshold were superior on reading accuracy to those of low and high threshold. For the boys this was so at eleven, but not at seven.     

What’s the body got to do with it? Exploring embodied,political readings in the classroom through poetry

ABSTRACT

This essay attempts to explore the links between politics, poetry, and collective, embodied readings and discussion in the classroom. When my Year 12 class were asked ‘What is Poetry?’, their answers suggested something in the Romantic tradition – of poetry as expressive, individual and emotional. My experience studying poetry with my Year 9 class suggests something altogether different – that studying poetry allows students to have an embodied and collective reading. In the sense that politics concerns the control of bodies, poetry allows the class to read in an embodied sense, thus politically, in a way that assessment criteria and the demands of high-stakes testing, with their focus on individual understanding, do not. Thus, I argue for the study of poetry as essential in terms of recognising students’ political agency – not primarily as exam-takers but as citizens of a country and an Earth they will, to put it grandly, inherit.     

Dark-interval-threshold,illumination level and children's reading performance

Nine-year-old children were given a test of dark-interval threshold (DIT), and two parallel forms of the Neale Analysis of Reading Ability, one at low and the other at high illumination. DIT was measured by determining the shortest interval which caused a white disc viewed in a tachistoscope to disappear when the experimenter switched briefly to a second (black) field for an interval which ranged from 20 ms to 300 ms. A reasonable range of individual differences in DIT was found. There was a significant interaction (p<0.05) between DIT and illumination level in their effect on reading accuracy. Children who had a short DIT read more accurately in high than in low illumination, and the performance was reversed for long DIT subjects.     

Revisiting the Pink Triangle Exercise: An Exploration of Experiential Learning in Graduate Social Work Education

The pink triangle exercise is an example of an experiential learning exercise that creates cognitive dissonance and deep learning of unrealized internalized biases among social work students. Students wear a button with a pink triangle on it for 1 day and write a reflection paper. The exercise increases self-awareness, cultural competence, and the understanding of abstract concepts. An analysis of reflection papers over three annual courses revealed consistent themes, which were presented back to students. The thematic analyses, an application of the process of experiential learning, and the implications this exercise and type of learning are presented.