Content area
Abstract
The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of three methods of teaching problem-solving strategies to Navajo children. The investigation compared the teaching of tasks involving specific and general problem-solving strategies via verbal instructions, modeling, and modeling plus self-speech training. The first two methods of instruction were theoretical representations of the primary learning modes for the Navajo child at school (verbal instruction) and at home (modeling). The third method of instruction was designed to provide the child with an appropriate model and covert verbal statements necessary to solve the problem task. In addition to determining which of these methods works best in teaching a specific problem-solving task, measures were taken to determine whether any of these methods facilitated problem-solving in other related tasks. Generally, the purpose of the study was to identify potentially useful variables in finding a more productive and culturally oriented method for teachers to use in working with Navajo children.
