This chapter presents alternative approaches, individually and collectively, in the context of earlier instructional theory development and emergent contemporary trends. Of course, selection and use of instructional theories does not necessarily involve the same issues and prospects found in the selection and use of therapy theories. However, research findings and guidelines about selections among instructional theories are not as extensive as the work concerning therapy and counseling theories. Considering the close affiliation between some of these "failed" innovations and instructional theory, it is worth noting some of the processes by which theories seem to have been selected in education and training during the past century. The chapter provides numerous examples of inquiry techniques through which instructors can aid students to develop and test hypotheses (or rules) about factors influencing focal length. These examples take into account some of the problems one encounters when using inquiry instructional techniques.

Previous research has focused on risky decision making rather than calculated risk taking. Cognitive risk tolerance is sensible risk taking based on an individual's ability to formulate and express one's ideas despite potential opposition or negative assessment in regard to reputation, integrity, and honor which we propose is needed for creativity, innovation, and global competitiveness. The goal of this study was to investigate procreative and countercreative attributes and their association with cognitive risk tolerance for different college majors. Social Science (Psychology/History/Political Science) and Arts (Art/Architecture) majors reported significantly higher cognitive risk tolerance than Engineering, Education, Health Professions, Music, Business, and Undecided students. Procreative attributes (unconventional, insightful, confident, inventive, reflective, and interests wide) were associated with higher cognitive risk tolerance while countercreative attributes (mannerly, conservative, interests narrow, and cautious) were negatively associated with cognitive risk tolerance. Implications are that creative attributes and cognitive risk tolerance share qualities that are conducive toward creativity and innovation in higher education.

Online instruction will more likely be effective if it fits with, and is perceived by, students as being functionally relevant for their education, work, or other personal contexts. Existing practice may emphasize an ad hoc approach to online design by being pragmatic and somewhat unsystematic. It is proposed that using a functional relevance perspective, as described in this chapter, is more likely to have designers and online learners attain a greater advantage in using the capacity of the Internet to support teaching and learning. This chapter introduces the concept of functional relevance and identifies some of the underlying theories. Discussions are made on how the concept of functional relevance can be used as a conceptual framework to identify and to drive decision-making processes that occur during the design and development of instruction.

ABSTRACT The purpose of this research was to investigate similarities and differences in general, artistic, and scientific creativity between engineering versus music students, as 2 groups respectively representing scientific and artistic domains. One hundred music and 105 engineering students from a large, Northeastern university completed measures of general creativity, music creativity, engineering creativity, and a demographic questionnaire. Results indicated that musicians scored higher in general and artistic creativity, with no significant differences in scientific creativity. Participants had higher levels of creativity, compared with normative data from previous studies. Gender, age, and specialization within major yielded no significant differences. Implications for creativity measures are discussed, including cognitive risk tolerance.

In this paper we offer suggestions about ways in which technology resources might be more readily supportive of learning and teaching as well as less frustrating to use. We note that information technology professionals and others, not only educators, often find that hardware/software doesn't work as depicted by advocates. It is suggested that technology resources need to be more compatible with ways that people work rather than always making people adjust to technology resources. Despite today's more complex technology resources, the original purpose of facilitating student learning is too often forgotten, even though that focus on learning was recognized decades ago. Ubiquitous computing and blended learning can reveal other problems. It is proposed that there is too much emphasis on technology resource features without sufficiently determining that they actually will be useful, and that important improvements could occur if/when end-users were consulted actively throughout design and development processes. Potentially helpful applications will actually be helpful depending on the degree to which they are relevant for how teachers and students function.

One means of ensuring that K-12 computer science teachers are knowledgeable about computer science and school curricular content is by “retraining” experienced teachers. This study examined aptitudes and attitudes of elementary and secondary teachers as predictors of success in two NSF-funded retraining projects. Results are discussed in terms of success measured by course exams, course projects, and course grades. Similarities and differences regarding elementary versus secondary teachers are considered.

A program for retraining secondary teachers to teach computer science is described. The program is based on a model that included three laboratory-based computer science courses and an instructional design course emphasizing critical thinking. Participants met once a week for three hours for 15 weeks. They received three graduate credits per course if they completed all four courses. Participants did quite well on an independent exam, administered by the School District of Philadelphia, to qualify as a computer science teacher at the secondary school level. Aspects of the retraining program that were considered successful as well as those aspects that could be changed to improve the retraining program are discussed.

Many resources available to aid financial services professionals emphasize investment products rather than client characteristics. Financial advisors can use various resources to review quantitative details about investment products, for example, investor-clients’ previous investments, past performance of particular investment products, ratings of investment products presently available in the market place, and so on, but have little more than intuitive, subjective judgments as a basis for understanding clients’ investment needs and aspirations relevant to their investment decisions. In Etzioni’s terms, financial services professionals have a wide array of resources concerning “Logical/Empirical” (L/E) factors but comparatively few systematic techniques or guidelines for accurate assessment of clients’ “Normative/Affective” (N/A) attributes.(5*6’ The authors address these practical matters in the context of (a) Heider’s contention that scientific psychology can benefit from analysis of commonsense psychology beliefs, (b) person perception theory, and (c) problem solving