| Abstract: | There is evidence to suggest that mature students, perhaps studying at home where human tutors are not readily available, learn particularly effectively in a problem-solving environment. Also, they appear to be especially responsive to analogies and metaphors. We seek to exploit these effects by requiring students to transform problems into alternative forms before solving them. Three examples are given of domains where the student has to convert the formulation into an equivalent diagram. Arguably, the process of performing this transformation increases their understanding of the subject area. |
