With the world and its structures becoming ever more complex, and the nature of future employment becoming ever more unpredictable, the notion of 'cognitive flexibility' has a high profile in educational and psychological debate. The contributions in this volume analyze the nature of cognitive flexibility, as well as the impact of different types of beliefs on cognitive flexibility.

Making adequate decisions requires considering input from a variety of continuously evolving sources rather than adhering to predetermined procedures. Adopting a position in a debate necessitates the critical evaluation of different alternatives, while solving a problem entails selecting appropriate problem-solving strategies. Meanwhile, studying requires students to integrate a range of interventions, and treating a patient involves making a differential diagnosis. The common factor, cognitive flexibility, lies at the core of effective functioning in complex, domain-specific environments.

Cognitive flexibility can be described as the disposition to consider diverse information elements while deciding on how to solve a problem or to execute a learning-related task in a variety of domains. The concept of 'disposition' implies that individuals will not always demonstrate cognitive flexibility even if they are in principle able to act in a cognitively flexible way. The notion does not require that alternatives are always deliberately considered, which is why this volume's tandem discussion of beliefs is key element of the discussion. Beliefs play a central role in cognitive flexibility and relate to what individuals consider to be important, valid and/or true. Of specific interest is the relationship between epistemological beliefs and cognitive flexibility, especially as a particular subset of epistemological beliefs seems to be a prerequisite to a cognitively flexible disposition."

About the Book Series The idea for the Book Series "Innovation and Change in Professional Education" (ICPE) was born in 1996. While working on another publication in this area, we noticed that professional educators faced similar problems without even knowing from each other. It was this observation that resulted in examining the possibilities for a new publication platform about professional education with input from different professions. We wanted to develop a publication source that would bring together educators and researchers to exchange ideas and knowledge about theory, research and professional practice. But we were not only striving for a book series informing readers about important themes in the professions. A second goal was to focus on processes of change and innovation. We were heavily involved in innovations going on in our institutions, and were convinced that a better understanding was needed in a wide range of issues critically important to the future of professional education. It was our belief that scholarly publications about innovation processes may support fundamental change in professional education. ICPE reflects our view that professional education deserves such a publication platform. It aims to approach critical questions of educational innovations, and to examine dynamics of educational change in various professional domains in the context of innovation processes. The books will include contributions from frontline practitioners, leading researchers, or distinguished scholars in professional education, delivering reports of empirical or theoretical research, reviews, interpretations of evaluation studies, or descriptions of innovative approaches.

This books deals with computer-mediated cooperation and communication scenarios in teaching and learning situations, leisure activities (e.g. laypersons looking for expert information on the internet), and net-based communication at work. Such scenarios will become increasingly important. But the successful use of such computer-mediated settings is not trivial. Cooperative learning and work itself requires special skills and strategies. And the technical settings with sometimes restricted, sometimes new possibilities for communication add problems on top of the cooperation itself. What are the barriers in computer-mediated communication for cooperative learning and work? Which are the most relevant biases in computer-mediated information processing? Based on empirical research, the contributors from psychology, education and computer sciences offer different perspectives on the nature and causes of such barriers. The chapters also give an answer to the question as to how it might be possible to overcome these barriers and biases to fully gain advantage from the new technical opportunities. researchers in all fields related to the use and evaluation of computer software in communication settings.

Once the basic idea of hypertext had spread rapidly throughout the world via the Internet, the reception of hypertexts soon became subject of empirical research among psychologists, cognitive scientists, and educational researchers. As easy to use software for the writing of hypertexts (HTML editors) is now broadly available, there are no longer any technical obstacles for the use of hypertext production in teaching and learning. This book presents and analyses the learning effects that can be anticipated from the production of hypertexts. It includes laboratory experiments, studies on the production of hypertexts in the context of educational institutions, and reports on software environments designed for the production of hypertext. It includes theoretical, empirically and developmentally oriented contributions. The first three chapters link up directly with research on traditional writing while addressing aspects of the interaction between content and rhetoric during hypertext writing. The next three chapters focus on cooperative learning of students in and through the production of hypertexts. The following two chapters look at new technological possibilities, namely, a software environment for transforming textbooks into personalized hypertexts and the design of hypervideos. The final chapter discusses potential methods for further research.

With the world and its structures becoming ever more complex, and the nature of future employment becoming ever more unpredictable, the notion of 'cognitive flexibility' has a high profile in educational and psychological debate. The contributions in this volume analyze the nature of cognitive flexibility, as well as the impact of different types of beliefs on cognitive flexibility. Making adequate decisions requires considering input from a variety of continuously evolving sources rather than adhering to predetermined procedures. Adopting a position in a debate necessitates the critical evaluation of different alternatives, while solving a problem entails selecting appropriate problem-solving strategies. Meanwhile, studying requires students to integrate a range of interventions, and treating a patient involves making a differential diagnosis. The common factor, cognitive flexibility, lies at the core of effective functioning in complex, domain-specific environments. Cognitive flexibility can be described as the disposition to consider diverse information elements while deciding on how to solve a problem or to execute a learning-related task in a variety of domains. The concept of 'disposition' implies that individuals will not always demonstrate cognitive flexibility even if they are in principle able to act in a cognitively flexible way. The notion does not require that alternatives are always deliberately considered, which is why this volume's tandem discussion of beliefs is key element of the discussion. Beliefs play a central role in cognitive flexibility and relate to what individuals consider to be important, valid and/or true. Of specific interest is the relationship between epistemological beliefs and cognitive flexibility, especially as a particular subset of epistemological beliefs seems to be a prerequisite to a cognitively flexible disposition.

What are the barriers in computer-mediated communication for cooperative learning and work? Based on empirical research, the chapters of this book offer different perspectives on the nature and causes of such barriers for students and researchers in the field.

About the Book Series The idea for the Book Series "Innovation and Change in Professional Education" (ICPE) was born in 1996. While working on another publication in this area, we noticed that professional educators faced similar problems without even knowing from each other. It was this observation that resulted in examining the possibilities for a new publication platform about professional education with input from different professions. We wanted to develop a publication source that would bring together educators and researchers to exchange ideas and knowledge about theory, research and professional practice. But we were not only striving for a book series informing readers about important themes in the professions. A second goal was to focus on processes of change and innovation. We were heavily involved in innovations going on in our institutions, and were convinced that a better understanding was needed in a wide range of issues critically important to the future of professional education. It was our belief that scholarly publications about innovation processes may support fundamental change in professional education. ICPE reflects our view that professional education deserves such a publication platform. It aims to approach critical questions of educational innovations, and to examine dynamics of educational change in various professional domains in the context of innovation processes. The books will include contributions from frontline practitioners, leading researchers, or distinguished scholars in professional education, delivering reports of empirical or theoretical research, reviews, interpretations of evaluation studies, or descriptions of innovative approaches.

Die Psychologie ist exemplarisch fur eine Disziplin, die einerseits wesentliche Beitrage zur Grundlagenforschung leistet, andererseits praktische Probleme aufgreift und versucht, Losungen fur diese zu entwickeln. Daruber hinaus ist die Psychologie eine in hohem Masse durch gemeinsame Standards und Methoden definierte Disziplin. Das vorliegende Buch beruht auf einem Rundgesprach der DFG im Marz 2004 und dokumentiert den aktuellen Forschungsstand zu der Frage, was Grundlagenforschung und Anwendungsforschung unterscheidet, was sie gemeinsam haben und welche Kriterien zur Qualitatssicherung in unterschiedlichen Teilbereichen der Psychologie anzulegen sind."