The Cross-Contextual Transfer of Problem Solving Strategies from Logo to Non-Computer Domains.
Karen P. Swan, John B. Black · 1988
This report investigated the relationship between learning to program LOGO and the development of problem solving skills. Subjects were 133 students in grades 4-8 who had at least 30 hours of experience with both graphics and lists programming in Logo. Students were randomly assigned to one of three contextual groupings, which received graphics, lists, or both graphics and list problems, according to grade level. Groupings remained constant across six instructional units corresponding to six problem solving strategies believed to be helpful for children programming computers: subgoals formation, forward chaining, backward chaining, systematic trial and error, alternative problem representation, and analogical reasoning. Highly significant differences were found across both contextual groupings and grade levels for all strategies except backward chaining, suggesting that a pedagogy combining a focus on particular aspects of general problem solving, direct instruction, and a mediated learning environment will enable the development of problem solving skills with Logo programming and their transfer to non-computing domains. Highly significant differences were also found between grade levels on measures of subgoals formation, systematic trial and error, and analogy, suggesting that there are developmental differences in students' abilities to acquire and transfer particular problem solving strategies. No significant differences were found between contextual groupings, suggesting that students' abilities to transfer problem solving skills did not vary depending upon the base context(s) in which those skills were acquired. Data results are displayed in one table. (43 references) (EW) *********************************************************************** Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. ************************************************** ***** ****************