The Development of Problem Solving Capabilities in Pre-service Technology Teacher Education

Enhancing the problem solving capabilities of students and employees has become a national educational issue. The Commission on Pre-College Education in Mathematics, Science and Technology (1983) declared that “problem-solving skills, and scientific and technological literacy — [are] the thinking tools that allow us to understand the technological world around us” (p. v). More recent reports that have focused on entry-level workplace skills by Carnevale, Gainer, and Meltzer (1990) and United States Department of Labor (1991) [SCANS Report] also underscore the importance of developing students' problem solving abilities. As a result of this decade of emphasis on problem solving, efforts to enhance the capabilities of students to solve problems have reached most disciplines and most educational levels (Birch, 1986; Bransford, Goin, Hasselbring, Kinzer, Sherwood, & Williams, 1986; Kulm, 1990; Lombard, Konicek, & Schultz, 1985; Thomas & Englund, 1990).