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Problem solving is of critical importance in many disciplines. In medicine, the clinician's ability to arrive at the correct diagnosis often means the difference between life and death. Despite its importance and a significant amount of research regarding how to improve problem solving, few unambiguous answers have emerged for promoting problem solving learning. This paper focuses on explaining those gains, both theoretically, and in terms of the qualitative data collected from learners over the past two years. The goal of the paper is to associate those gains with specific characteristics of the DP (Diagnostic Pathfinder, a software learning tool designed to help clinical pathology students improve their ability to solve diagnostic problems) by and meaningfully categorizing and characterizing thousands of comments from students who used the DP in a number of different settings, and to use those comments to illustrate, from the students' perspective, how using the DP accomplished what it did. These ideas will be tied to current theory regarding the teaching and learning of problem solving.

1Boy Crusoe

By Allan Eric

Also published as" A Yankee Crusoe" . A 15 year old hard working and studious farm boy finds the lure of adventure on the seas as a merchant seaman more than he can resist. This is his story. " I was born in a little town in the State of Maine, near the close of the Civil War. My boyhood life did not differ materially from that of the average farmer's son in the remote country districts of New England--except, perhaps, that I read more and thought more. Hard work on the rugged soil, two terms each year in the little yellow country schoolhouse, a day's fishing now and then filled the early years of my life full to over-flowing. " What he gets is enough excitement and adventure to overflow his wildest dreams. How he experiences disaster and uses his wits and knowledge to overcome every problem makes for a great read. - Summary by Phil Chenevert