The Structure of Ill-Structured (and Well-Structured) Problems Revisited

Educational Psychology Review - In his 1973 article The Structure of ill structured problems, Herbert Simon proposed that solving ill-structured problems could be modeled within the same...     

Research Training Needs of Scientist‐Practitioners: Implications for Counselor Education

Counselors (N = 911) reported the research skills needed for practice and subsequent research training needs. Findings indicate that counselors have a high need for research skills at work, but training needs differ significantly by counselor type. Recommendations include increasing emphasis on single‐case design, survey design, and widely available data analysis tools.     

Explorations in promoting conceptual change in electrical concepts via ontological category shift

Chi (1992, 1993) Chi et al. (1994) suggests that many of the difficulties encountered by students in learning Physics concepts arise because they attribute the ontology of material substances to these concepts. These concepts are actually a special type of process - 'Constraint-Based Interactions' (CBI). Slotta and Chi (1996) reported on a study where a group of students explicitly trained in the CBI ontology showed significant gains over a control group in problem solving performance in eight simple electric circuit problems. This paper reports on a series of four studies which explore the usefulness of the ontological categorization framework in investigating students' alternative conceptions of electric circuits and in developing a teaching strategy for promoting conceptual change in the learning of basic electric circuitry concepts.     

The Freedom to Teach

Maintaining that academic freedom is necessary if schools are to function effectively, Dr. Dahl presents lucid arguments to support his position.     

Challenges of assuring the development of graduate attributes in a Bachelor of Arts

All universities in Australia are asked to develop various attributes in their degrees. From 2011, the Australian Qualifications Framework has stipulated some of these attributes for the various levels of qualifications. There are many challenges that face assuring the development of graduate attributes in a Bachelor of Arts as the degree typically has very few core units (if any), a wide choice of subjects, a limited prerequisite structure and, unlike many professional degrees, the BA does not have an external accrediting body. This paper describes an approach used to identify the pathway undertaken by each individual student in a History major of the Bachelor of Arts. This pathway was used to identify the graduate attributes that each student should have developed, as articulated by the lecturers. Student perceptions were then compared with the graduate attributes that were intended to be developed through each individual's combination of units studied. In summary, through analysing the two methods (student perceptions and unit pathway) we found that they concurred with respect to only three-quarters of the graduate attributes. Possible reasons for the discrepancies and future research are discussed. The need for multiple methods of providing evidence of the development of graduate attributes is confirmed.     

Perfectionism in Gifted High-School Students: Responses to Academic Challenge

Through a qualitative interview design, this study investigated how participation in a rigorous academic environment may influence gifted students who demonstrate high levels of perfectionism. The study also examined how their responses to a rigorous academic and residential environment may differ according to the type of perfectionism. Findings indicated that some socially prescribed perfectionists reported an increase in perfectionism, whereas some self-oriented perfectionists reported an increase followed by a decrease in their perfectionism. Overall, the majority of the participants, regardless of their type of perfectionism, indicated a decrease in their perfectionism as a result of their new academic environment. Reactions to experiencing imperfections ranged from calm to guilt or even anger, depending on the type of perfectionism. Implications for working with gifted students who show high levels of perfectionism are discussed.