CAN COMPUTERS TEACH PROBLEM-SOLVING STRATEGIES TO STUDENTS WITH MILD MENTAL-RETARDATION - A CASE-STUDY

In this investigation, students with mild mental retardation were prov ided with an animated tutorial computer program to learn mathematical problem solving. After training, results indicated that all students o btained significant gains from pretests to posttests; further, all stu dents reported positive attitudes toward computers after training. Tra nsfer of computer-assisted problem solving to paper-and-pencil problem solving was less consistent, anecdotal observations indicated that st udents appeared to rely on asking the adult trainer for assistance dur ing initial tutorial sessions, but demonstrated more independence at t he concluding sessions. Implications for future research and practice are discussed on the basis of these preliminary findings.