Abstract
This study was designed to varify a detailed problem solving model developed by Ko (1992). The model was instruction oriented to have every step concretely out lined. Three classes of fifth grade students were assigned to experimental, reading, and discussion groups respectively. The students in the experimental group read environment related materials and received problem soliving skills instruction. The reading group read the environmental materials only. The discussion group read and discussed the materials. The rationale behind the design was: if discussion plused reading the same environmental knowledge or the reading alone can help students solve the environmental problems as the students who had the reading and the problem solving training did, then the detailed problem solving model had no significant values. After 26 weeks of instruction, three groups of students had gained equivalent amount of environmental knowledge. However, the experimental groups outperformed the other two groups in the way of systematical analysing the problem and evaluation their proposed solutions. Other than the problem solving skills, the problem solving group also showed selfmonitoring and self-reflective thinking. The different performance resulted from different treatments was discussed in detail. The results imply that treating problem solving processes as structured thinking processes is helpful for students to organize knowledge and to make good use of the knowledge, in our case, to solve the environmental problems.
| Keywords: | Problem Solving; Environmental Education |
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