Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: In the following paper I argue that in our contemporary global political climate ? which is characterized by gross power differentials between the global North and South ? the ?international humanitarian regime? conceptualizes refugees as a "problem" to be "solved". It is through this conceptualization that repatriation has become the preferred ?durable solution? to refugees? plight. Rather than solving refugees? problems, however, I contend that repatriation today serves to solve the problem of refugees. As such, I argue that repatriation is not only far from a durable solution, but far from a solution at all. I suggest that if we wish to truly help refugees find durable solutions to their problems we must first interrogate the unequal global power dynamics that produce refugee situations.

Publication Type: Research Symposium Poster
Abstract: While students tried to solve city waste problems, researchers studied used heuristics and metacognitive processes, using questionnaires and interviews. Preliminary results show that strategies and reasons of use are diverse and applied as much in class as in other contexts.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Examines and compares a cohort of father clients in a family drug treatment court program. Demographic and outcome data are compared with mothers in the same program. Discussion of recovery and family reunification needs unique to fathers.

Publication Type: Research Report
Abstract: This report explores developing problem solving skills of first-semester calculus students (n=202) at a midsize (25,000 students) university in the southwest with one-fourth of the student body enrolled at the graduate level. The study was designed to determine base-line problem solving performance among the first-semester calculus students and then measure any change in problem solving performance over the course a fifteen-week semester. Also, an experimental group (n=73) worked 1.5 hours per week in addition to regular class time on challenging group problem solving activities. Findings suggest that students moved from an emergent or developing performance to a proficient performance over the course of the semester at each level of sophistication studied.

Publication Type: Poster
Abstract: To investigate variations in students’ strategy development, the proposed research engages students in problem-solving interviews, which have been widely used in research on mathematical problem solving (e.g., Star, 2001; Hunting, 1997). Specifically, study participants were prompted to share and explain their ideas before and after they solved problems. Data from these problem-solving interviews were used to identify, categorize and analyze students’ developmental changes of strategies in problem solving. There are three main results. First, students’ utterances got more sophisticated as they gained problem solving experience. Students gradually increased the detail and rationale included in their descriptions of strategies as they engaged in more problem-solving practice. Second, students’ written strategies got more sophisticated as their utterances got more sophisticated. Several students changed or added new written strategies when their utterances displayed more detail about their choices on problem-solving strategies. Third, students became more successful problem solvers (getting more correct answers) as their written strategies and utterances became more sophisticated.