Group Problem-solving Sessions Research Articles

Transitions in students’ epistemic framing along two axes

We use epistemological framing to interpret participants’ behavior during group problem-solving sessions in an intermediate mechanics course. We are interested in how students frame discussion and in how the groups shift discussion framings. Our analysis includes two framing axes, expansive vs narrow and serious vs silly, which together incorporate and extend prior work on how students frame discussions in physics education research. We present markers for where discussion falls on these axes. We support our conclusions with both microanalytic excerpts of discussion and overall analysis of 75 hours of videobased data. We find that the group spends most of its time in more serious framings, and slightly more than half of its time in more narrow ones. The teaching assistant is the participant who initiates the largest number of frame shifts, and her shifts include bids to all quadrants in the expansive or narrow and serious or silly plane.

15 Principles of Consumer-Oriented Audiologic/Aural Rehabilitation

15 Principles of Consumer-Oriented Audiologic/Aural Rehabilitation

A New Method for Analyzing Sequential Processes

Researchers studying sequential processes (e.g., marital conflicts, teacher-student interactions, etc.) often try to model how recent events affect current events. A researcher doing so faces several difficulties: the threat of combinatorial explosion due to comprehensive coding, continuous and discrete variables, and differences across time (nonstationarity) and across groups (group heterogeneity). The authors discuss three often-used methods of analyzing time-series data (conditional probabilities, sequential analysis, and Logit with lag variables) and the problems inherent in them. The authors then introduce a new method that addresses the above problems: dynamic multilevel analysis. To highlight the similarities and differences between these methods, the authors apply them to data from student group problem-solving sessions in an algebra class. The authors use the various methods to show how likelihood of agreement was affected by other recent speakers’ correct ideas, mathematics status, agreement, and rudeness.

Using Science Fiction Movies in Introductory Physics

This paper discusses the use of science fiction movies in introductory physics courses at Spelman College. There are several reasons to use these movies in the classroom environment. Movies are a visual learning aid. Introductory physics students show a strong interest in participating in movie-related activities compared to standard group problem-solving sessions. Finally, these activities encourage creative thinking and can be used to develop writing skills. The students involved with these movie-based activities have included biology and pre-medical majors taking general physics. In the introductory level courses, physics, chemistry, and engineering majors worked on movie-based activities.

A Primer on Work-Energy Relationships for Introductory Physics

There has been and continues to be considerable discussion in the educational community about different ways of relating the concepts of work and energy in introductory physics.1 The present article reviews a consistent and streamlined treatment of the subject, drawing particular attention to aspects seldom covered in textbooks. The paper is intended to clarify the central equations for introductory courses and to put the wider literature in context. It is specifically designed to tie closely in terminology and order of presentation to standard texts, so that it complements rather than supplants them. In brief, the key point is that there are two major categories of work, center-of-mass work and particle work.2 After an overview of these two approaches, I illustrate them with a couple of instructive examples that can be used in group problem-solving sessions in class.

Group Problem-Solving versus Lecture in College-Level Quantitative Analysis: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

The purpose of this semester-long study was to investigate the effect of replacing traditional lecture with cooperative group problem-solving sessions in a junior-level quantitative analysis course. The control and treatment groups had the same instructor, met on the same day, had the same reading assignments, and had common exams. The instructor worked sample problems for the control group. In the treatment group, students were assigned to heterogeneous cooperative groups of 4. The groups solved problems presented on an overhead that were the same or equivalent in content and number to those used in the control group. Students were responsible for making sure that all members of the group could work each problem. The students' reasoning abilities were measured by the Test of Logical Thinking (TOLT). Groups were compared on quiz, exam, final, and course grades. Other data included attitudinal surveys, observations, field notes, interviews, and open-response evaluations. No significant differences were found in content measures. Differences were found in the number of students dropping the course and in the attitudes and perceptions of the two groups. Qualitative measures support a number of assertions concerning more positive attitudes and lower withdrawal rates in the treatment group, and a case for mixed delivery modes.

Assessing and overcoming situational obstacles to dietary adherence in adolescents with IDDM

To develop and evaluate a tool for assessing selected aspects of dietary adherence in adolescents with diabetes mellitus (IDDM). The Situational Obstacles to Dietary Adherence Questionnaire (SODA) is a 30-item inventory that yields a total self-efficacy score and scales that measure cognitive and behavioral coping strategies. Alternative forms of the SODA were administered at the beginning and end of a summer camp for youngsters with IDDM in order to obtain evidence for its reliability and validity, and to evaluate the impact of an educational intervention. The program consisted of two 50-minute small group sessions intended to help adolescents with IDDM improve their ability to cope with challenging dietary situations. Using the method of anchored instruction, the campers first viewed a video about a teenager with diabetes who faces common situations that make diabetes self-management difficult. Group problem-solving sessions led by a registered dietitian were used to help campers learn more effective ways to solve dietary problems. Results suggested that the SODA has reasonable reliability and validity. In addition, anchored instruction improved dietary self-efficacy and changed young adolescents' estimates of how often they would use selected cognitive and behavioral strategies to solve dietary problems.

Interactive Videodisc as an Instructional Tool in Medical Education

At a time when medical educators are actively revising the undergraduate medical school curriculum to make it more responsive to exigencies of the 21st century, the use of interactive videodisc technology may well prove to be a significant addition. Using interactive videodisc technology may be instrumental in reducing the amount of a large lecture didactic learning and improving small group problem-solving sessions that better synthesize factual knowledge. It also provides important and valuable exposure to varieties of computer technology that play an increasingly important role in training and medical practice.

Type A behavior, need for control, and reactions to group participation

The present study examines the behavior of Type A coronary-prone subjects in group problem-solving sessions. Subjects discuss possible solutions to two problems in same-sex groups containing both Type As and Bs. As are much more likely than Bs to be seen as leaders and are rarely nominated as the least helpful member. Although A and B leaders are both seen as moderately likeable, A leaders' problem solutions are rated as lower in quality. Manipulations of problem importance and incentive for good solutions have similar effects on As and Bs. The results are discussed as being generally consistent with the proposal that Type As are primarily motivated by a need for control. Some indirect support is obtained for the idea that As are more susceptible than Bs to learned helplessness.

Group problem-solving sessions in PSI physics courses

First Page

Employee Participation in Manufacturing Job Design

The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of employee participation in job design activities on manufacturing performance and employee attitudes. Nine supervisors were given training in the use of participative job design techniques. As part of this training, each supervisor conducted eight or more group problem-solving sessions with his employees. These groups and a matched control group, which did not use participative methods, were evaluated in terms of output, employee attitudes, and the level of participation. The percentage of favorable job attitudes and the amount of performance improvement were both positively related to level of group participation. Output was increased by 45 and 90%, respectively, in the groups which achieved medium and high levels of employee participation.