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The questions investigated concerned the social problem solving skills of 41 learning disabled (LD) students compared to 41 typical students in grades 10, 11, and 12. Since (a) LD students are generally described as impulsive, lacking in social judgment, and unaware of consequences; since (b) these social problems have been described as some of the most devastating for LD students as they interfere with their everyday adaptation to living; since (c) social decision making has been found to be somewhat correlated with mental and emotional health and the self-concept; since (d) studies have indicated a range of from 26% to 73% of the criminal population have a Learning Disability - indicating a difficulty in adapting to society; it appears very important that we find ways to improve the social adaptation of LD persons. This study was a beginning of research with this goal in mind.The questions investigated were: 1) are LD students as good as Non-LD in social problem solving, as measured by the number of solutions they can spontaneously generate to presented social situations; 2) do LD students tend to select the same categories of response to social conflicts as non-LD students, as measured by their choices from a group of predetermined solutions to the same presented social conflict situations; are LD student's self evaluations of their problem solving ability as accurate as the self evaluations of non-LD student's as measured by their responses on a revised version of the Problem Solving Inventory and their ability to generate solutions to problem situations. First, the social situations, revisions of situations from the MeansEnds Problem Solving test, were read by the tester while the student followed along with a printed copy of the text. The student was informed as to what he preferred to do and what he was expected to do. After hearing the social conflict, he was then instructed, "In one minute, tell me as many ways as you can that you would deal with this this situation." Thus, no inappropriate behaviors were suggested. Second, the student was presented the same social situations in the same manner. He was then presented eight choices. He was told, "From the following choices, circle the letters next to the four choices you would most likely use to deal with this situation". The goal of the experiment was to determine if the LD person would choose the same types of strategies for adapting as the typical student. As there were no pre and post tests, the names of the individuals were not required, only whether or not they were LD and possibly their grade level. This would guarantee confidentiality. Tests were administered individually for generating solutions and in small groups where answers could be written.Next, the experiment attempted to determine if there is a relationship between one's ability to generate solutions and their self-rating as problem solvers. A modified version of Heppner's Problem Solving Inventory was prepared. It was believed that a statistical analysis of the two factors using LD and Non-LD students would give an indication of this relationship.The documents used in the test were: 1. the revision of the Means-Ends Problem Solving Test and 2. the revision of the Problem Solving Inventory. These are attached to this document in the appendices.The results of the study indicated that there is no statistically significant difference between the LD and the Non-LD students ability to generate solutions to the problem solving situations. There was no statistically significant difference in the self-evaluated problem solving ability of the two groups. There was a statistically very significant difference in the type of response category selected by the LD students when compared with non-LD students. / Department of Special Education

This research adopts a sociocultural framework (Vygotsky, 1978) to investigate how multilingual children express their mathematical reasoning during collaborative problem solving. The topic is important because North America is becoming increasingly multicultural, and according to mathematics teachers this has complicated the challenges of teaching and learning mathematics. Many educators assume that children should be competent in the language of instruction before they engage with mathematical content (Civil, 2008; Gorgorió & Planas, 2001). A review of recent research in this area challenges the idea that multilingual students need to have mastered the official language of instruction prior to learning mathematics (Barwell, 2005; Civil, 2008; Moschkovich, 2007). These researchers demonstrate that the knowledge of the language of instruction is only one aspect of becoming competent in mathematics. My research was designed to build on the findings of the current research on multilingual children’s reasoning in order to more fully understand how multilingual children express their mathematical understanding and reasoning. For this study, two multilingual families, each with 3 children between the ages of 8 and 12, participated in a mathematical problem-solving activity. Findings show the children’s mathematical reasoning was evidence-based drawing on mathematical knowledge and world knowledge.

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No description available.

This study examines the effects of maternal teaching style on the developing problem-solving abilities of children with Down Syndrome. Mothers were divided into two groups of three each, mothers with positive expectations versus mothers with negative expectations. Mothers and children were videotaped while the mother taught the child to construct a small pyramid from 21 interlocking blocks and again when the child attempted the task independently. The tapes were coded and analyzed to examine maternal instructional style and subsequent independent child performance. Mothers who were considered to have positive expectations towards their children used appropriate scaffolding behaviors significantly more often than the mothers who were considered to have negative expectations towards their children. The children of mothers who were effective scaffolders were significantly more adept and independent problem-solvers than the children whose mothers were not effective scaffolders. The more contingent the mother's instructions were, the more independent and successful the child appeared. Scaffolding is discussed in terms of its benefits for instructing children with Down Syndrome.

The purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness of problem-based learning (PBL) as an alternative teaching method in biology. Eighty-one, ninth grade biology students worked collaboratively in groups, of 2 or 3, to generate a fictitious patient case, which was then exchanged, for other students to solve. This process was repeated on two occasions. Data from pre/post questionnaires and groups' verbal and written protocols were analyzed. Results showed that certain cognitive processes strengthened over time. Significant improvements were also noted in the quality and content of students' written scenarios and solutions, and in students' interest in working collaboratively. Overall, this study confirms that PBL has numerous benefits and holds great potential as an instructional method in biology.

Research in decision making has identified the importance of prior knowledge and heuristics on decision making behaviour. These develop with experience in a fashion similar to how domain experts develop specialized knowledge structures and heuristic reasoning patterns. This research is extended to the domain of health and lay decision making in a series of studies characterizing conceptualizations of health and illness, information-seeking strategies, and the impact of medical information on lay decision making. Lay subjects included those with diabetes, heart disease, and no identified ongoing medical diagnosis. / Semi-structured interviews and think aloud methodology were employed. Interviews focused on understanding of health and illness, prior knowledge and beliefs, and decision making. In Study One, subjects were presented with health-related problem scenarios and instructed to think aloud as they reasoned through them to make decisions. In Study Two, subjects (lay and medical) were presented with a telecommunications device and scenarios of data to enter into the system. All data were audiorecorded, transcribed, and analyzed for factors and strategies related to information-seeking and decision making behaviours. / Lay understanding of health and illness was characterized as feeling well and functioning in everyday life. The knowledge used in making decisions was based on experience and socio-cultural tradition. Knowledge about disease was found to be decoupled from decisions to act related to illness. Additional information was sought using four criteria grounded in common experience: accessibility, familiarity, complexity, and credibility. These characteristics influenced interactions between lay people and domain experts, such as health care providers, and with technology designed by experts for lay users. / Both technical and lay people make decisions with incomplete information and uncertain outcomes. For lay people making decisions about health-related issues, this incomplete knowledge is filled in based on everyday life rather than medical and scientific facts.

This thesis has investigated the positive and negative analogical transfer in which we proposed three hypotheses that shed more light on the process of human behaviour in problem solving. We have found that people exhibited both positive and negative analogical transfer in the conducted study. The positive and negative transfer depends on two factor process; search space and type of transformation. This predication was tested in an experiment with four conditions by using matchsticks arithmetic problems. Results have indicated the activation of positive transfer in the problems that share the same search space and type of transformation. On the other hand, negative transfer was activated when the problem search space and type of transformation were different. Results have also indicated, in several comparisons that were made, a simultaneous activation of both positive and negative transfer.

The unique language of mathematics incorporates words, numbers, symbols and diagrams. These elements and their associated mathematical concepts introduce reading and comprehension requirements that are not experienced in other disciplines. It is the responsibility of teachers to ensure that students are educated about, and encouraged to apply mathematical language in a variety of contexts. This is essential to the development of mathematical problem solving, where word problems often feature in classroom instruction and assessment, and where mathematical language is expected within student responses. Mathematics teachers need to be mindful that the validity of test items used to assess student mathematical problem solving ability are not influenced by other variables such as vocabulary comprehension difficulty. This study discusses the vocabulary which Year 9 students identify as difficult when undertaking word problem tasks in pen and paper test situations. To challenge generalised assumptions that teachers may make, this study focused on development of an instrument to monitor and evaluate the vocabulary comprehension of individual students within the classroom, and with respect to their particular school context. Analyses of findings support the requirement of reading proficiency in mathematics, and in particular, of vocabulary comprehension to student performance on mathematical problem solving assessment comprised of word problems.