Research On Transfer Of Problem-solving Strategies

The dissertation views mental models as the intermedia of domain-specific knowledge and problem-solving strategies, tries to explore the correlation among domain-specific knowledge, mental models and transfer of problem-solving strategies from the perspective of mental models, and provides some practicable instructional proposals for promoting transfer of problem-solving strategies. The dissertation is composed of seven chapters.Chapter One mainly states the meaning of transfer, the main factors of making an impact on transfer and the views of mechanism of transfer under different research paradigms, and reviews the history of transfer research and looks forward to the future of transfer research. As a basic learning phenomenon or general character of human cognition, transfer is one of the main purposes of schooling, and always holds the very important position in the research of educational psychology. Nowadays, the research on the views of mechanism of transfer has formed three research paradigms: Behaviorist or empiricist paradigm, cognitive or rationalist paradigm and situative or pragmatist-sociohistoric paradigm. Research on transfer more and more presents the trend of the integration research of transfer and problem-solving. The dissertation follows the cognitive or rationalist paradigm, builds a bridge between transfer research and problem-solving research, and tries to explore the correlation among domain-specific knowledge, mental models and strategy selection and transfer in problem-solving.Chapter Two presents the meaning of problem, problem-solving and problem-solving strategies, introduces the cognitive processes in problem solving and the present research difficulty of problem-solving strategies, and elaborates three paths of problem-solving research: Generating a solution, problem representation and the interplay between representation and solution. The present research on problem solving more and more takes on the trend of the integration research of problem representation and solution generation. The dissertation explores the transfer of problem-solving strategies from the perspective of mental models, which embodies this research trend.Chapter Three clarifies the nature of mental models on the basis of the review of the history of mental models, discusses the relationship between mental models and representation and reasoning in problem-solving. Mental models are the kind of synthetical representation, which may consist of any combination of propositional or imaginal representations. The appropriateness of mental models is vital to problem solving: Correct mental models contribute to problem solving, different mental models decide the difficulty of problem solving. Reasoning in problem-solving depends on mental models, which could roughly predict the process and results of reasoning in problem solving. The dissertation tries to open out the problem-solving strategies by identifying the individual's mental models in problem solving in order to achieve the transfer of problem-solving strategies.Chapter Four illustrates research thinking, tasks and methods of this dissertation, including research goal, subject selection, experimental tasks and materials. Also, this chapter elaborates the rationality and validity of verbal protocol analysis.Chapter Five concerns the first empirical research, aims to explore the correlation among domain-specific knowledge, mental models and strategy selection in problem-solving. Based on the introduction of the research problems, subjects, research materials and procedures, the dissertation analyzes the differentiation of the subjects' domain-specific knowledge, the effects of domain-specific knowledge on mental models and mental models on the selection of problem-solving strategies.Chapter Six concerns the second empirical research, aims to explore the correlation among domain-specific knowledge, mental models and strategy transfer in problem-solving. Based on the introduction of the research problems, subjects, research materials and procedures, the dissertation analyzes the subjects' performance and verbal reports in three tasks of the electric motor experiment, and puts forward the relevant conclusions.Chapter Seven summarizes the conclusions of the whole research, and points out some disadvantages of this research and the significance to educational practice.