affinity with the prospect of attempting as a group to resolve problems in their own
way within an overall supportive milieu that provided guidance when needed. The
pupils did not feel threatened by the approach and became comfortable with the
idea that they could change their minds. The group situation appeared to provide a
greater number of possible solutions to problems than each individual pupil would
have provided, a view noted by Sprod and Jones (1996). Both the teacher and
researchers observed that there were few off-task incidents during the intervention
and that these decreased as the intervention proceeded. This was particularly the
case during the ‘Using the Mental Model to Solve Problems’ and ‘Reflection’
phases.
Researcher and teacher observations suggest that pupils found the teaching–
learning package to be supportive and straightforward. They responded positively to