Problem-Solving Instruction and Students' Acquisition, Retention and Structuring of Economics Knowledge.

This experiment investigated the effects of problem-solving instruction on knowledge acquisition, retention, and structuring in contrast to expository instruction in high school social studies. A non-equivalent comparison group quasi-experimental design was used to study the instructional treatments in six intact high school classes composed of 163 students. Knowledge acquisition and retention were measured by a 25-item researcher-constructed instrument. Students' knowledge structures were inferred by means of a modified ordered tree technique. The knowledge structure measures did not differ between the two groups of subjects at a statistically significant level. However, problem-solving instruction produced greater knowledge acquisition and retention than expository instruction with medium effect sizes at statistically significant levels.

[1]  J. Bruner.  The act of discovery. , 1961 .

[2]  Jacob Cohen.  Statistical Power Analysis for the Behavioral Sciences , 1969, The SAGE Encyclopedia of Research Design.

[3]  Ernst Z. Rothkopf,et al.  The Concept of Mathemagenic Activities1 , 1970 .

[4]  J. Greeno,et al.  Structural differences between outcomes produced by different instructional methods. , 1972 .

[5]  Richard E. Mayer,et al.  Information Processing Variables in Learning to Solve Problems , 1975 .

[6]  Richard C. Anderson.  The notion of schemata and the educational enterprise , 1977 .

[7]  G. Mckenzie.  The Fallacy of Excluded Instruction: A Common but Correctable Error in Process Oriented Teaching Strategies , 1979 .

[8]  James P. Shaver,et al.  The Status of Social Studies Education: Impressions from Three NSF Studies. , 1979 .

[9]  J. Bransford.  Human Cognition: Learning, Understanding and Remembering , 1979 .

[10]  Judith S Reitman,et al.  Organization revealed by recall orders and confirmed by pauses , 1980, Cognitive Psychology.

[11]  Paul J. Feltovich,et al.  Categorization and Representation of Physics Problems by Experts and Novices , 1981, Cogn. Sci..

[12]  J. Reitman,et al.  Knowledge organization and skill differences in computer programmers , 1981, Cognitive Psychology.

[13]  Richard E. Mayer,et al.  Instructional Variables in Text Processing , 1982 .

[14]  Henk G. Schmidt,et al.  Activation and restructuring of prior knowledge and their effects on text processing , 1982 .

[15]  John D. Bransford,et al.  Differences in the precision of self-generated elaborations. , 1982 .

[16]  Timothy A. Post,et al.  Problem-Solving Skill in the Social Sciences , 1983 .

[17]  H. Schmidt.  Problem‐based learning: rationale and description , 1983, Medical education.

[18]  R. Glaser.  Education and Thinking: The Role of Knowledge. , 1984 .

[19]  Norman Frederiksen,et al.  Implications of Cognitive Theory for Instruction in Problem Solving , 1984 .

[20]  E. Gagné.  The cognitive psychology of school learning , 1985 .

[21]  Moshe Naveh-Benjamin,et al.  Inferring students' cognitive structures and their development using the "ordered tree technique." , 1986 .

[22]  John D. Bransford,et al.  Teaching thinking and problem solving: Research foundations. , 1986 .

[23]  S. Mckee.  Impediments to Implementing Critical Thinking. , 1988 .

[24]  J. Bransford,et al.  Memory access: The effects of fact-oriented versus problem-oriented acquisition , 1988, Memory & cognition.

[25]  M. Ashcraft.  Human memory and cognition , 1989 .

[26]  Joseph J. Onosko.  Comparing Teachers' Thinking about Promoting Students' Thinking , 1989 .

[27]  John R. Hayes,et al.  The complete problem solver, 2nd ed. , 1989 .

[28]  John D. Hoge,et al.  Higher Cognitive Thinking Skills in Social Studies: Concepts and Critiques. , 1991 .