Middle School Students' Decision-Making on Solid Waste Management in Taiwan.

The purpose of the study was to determine the effectiveness of a HyperCard simulation upon student's concepts, opinions, and option-rankings on solid waste management, and to investigate what cognitive activities of the students were involved in the decision-making processes. One hundred eighth-grade students in Taiwan participated in this investigation. The subjects were randomly assigned into the computer-assisted-learning, the simulation-printed-materials, and control groups. The subjects received pre- and post-tests of achievement, opinion, and option-ranking on solid waste management. Students' decision-making behaviors were traced by the computer program for understanding the students; decision-making processes. Interviews verified the consistency of students' decision-making behavior. There were no significant differences on the achievement test score, the opinion assessment score, and the option-ranking score among the three groups. However, the subjects in the computer-assisted-learning group changed significantly on their option-ranking behaviors after the treatment. It was found that the students' information-searching behaviors were very different from each other, though the strategy used most frequently by the students for searching information is the conjunctive strategy. Interviews suggested that students made decisions by using their personal intuitive conceptions and feelings about solid waste management. Contains 16 references. (MDH)