Variation and Selection in Two Different Problem‐solving Situations

Abstract

The two authors of this paper were engaged in research in different disciplines and were carrying it out by apparently quite different methods. This combined paper is a reaction to their discovery that the theories being used to examine the data in both cases were based on Donald Campbell's evolutionary model of learning, often known as blind variation and selective retention. The two projects, using a computer program for teaching simple linear equations in secondary school mathematics, and making railway signals in design and technology in primary schools, both encouraged creative strategies and evaluative reflection, in their different activities to good effect.