Abstract
The present two studies examined problem-solving
in nuclear science by 97 gifted junior high school, 21 senior high school,
237 first year undergraduate, 7 undergraduate physics majors, and 10 graduate
teaching assistants. The first study examined differences between “expert”
and “novice” approaches, whereas the second study investigated
the learning of problem-solving skills with a pre– and posttest. The
results showed that with increased experience or expertise, students tended
to solve the problems using higher levels of Bloom’s (1956) taxonomy.
Junior high school students’ performance improved significantly after
a week-long hands-on nuclear physics class. However, when solving a more conceptual
nuclear physics problem, there were no significant differences in the pre-
and posttests of the gifted students at the same grade level. These studies
suggest that gifted junior high school students have comparable cognitive
abilities to older students, but that they lack the necessary knowledge base,
that they use problem solving strategies that are “lower” on Bloom’s
taxonomy, and that they focus on memorization rather than methods which are
evaluative or synthetic.