Teaching students to reason with data is not a totally new enterprise. A small but insistent statistics education community has been studying the process for decades. This commentary provides an introduction to some major themes of that research, in order to provide common ground for conversations between learning sciences researchers and those…

This commentary provides an overview of abduction, also known as Inference to the Best Explanation, and argues that the term and relevant problem-solving methods should be adopted by chemistry educators. Abductive reasoning, especially within the context of science and medicine, continues to be an active area of exploration for philosophers and…

Individuals draw conclusions about possibilities from assertions that make no explicit reference to them. The model theory postulates that assertions such as disjunctions refer to possibilities. Hence, a disjunction of the sort, "A or B or both," where "A" and "B" are sensible clauses, yields mental models of an…

Hinterecker, Knauff, and Johnson-Laird (2016) compared the adequacy of the probabilistic new paradigm in reasoning with the recent revision of mental models theory (MMT) for explaining a novel class of inferences containing the modal term "possibly." For example, "the door is closed or the window is open or both," therefore,…

Ginsburg (1977) observed that children typically develop surprisingly powerful informal (everyday) knowledge of mathematics and that mathematical learning difficulties often arise when formal instruction does not build on this existing knowledge. By using meaningful analogies teachers can help connect new formal instruction to students' existing…

In this response, I argue that Hodson and Wong's (2017) (see EJ1133274) critique of the consensus view, though valid, lacks a sufficiently detailed and elaborated alternative. Their emphasis on practice fails to define what the goals of engaging in practice might be. In contrast, the picture of science offered as consisting of six different…

In their 2016 work, Aguirre-Urreta et al. provided a contribution to the literature on causal measurement models that enhances clarity and stimulates further thinking. Aguirre-Urreta et al. presented a form of statistical identity involving mapping onto the portion of the parameter space involving the nomological net, relationships between the…

As reflected in the Next Generation Science Standards, concerns about the adequacy of education and career preparation in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields have led to fundamental shifts in the focus of K-12 science education. Such shifts are also highlighted in many of the articles within this special issue, and the…

Purpose: In this article, we respond to Catts and Kamhi's (2017) argument that reading comprehension is not a single ability. Method: We provide a brief review of the impact of strategy instruction, the importance of knowledge in reading comprehension, and possible avenues for future research and practice. Results: We agree with Catts and Kamhi's…

Lockhart and Keil have written an interesting monograph focusing on the development of reasoning about medicine, a relatively underexplored area of research with potentially broad implications with respect to the design of more effective medical interventions. In a set of fifteen studies with well over 2200 participants they examine how children…

This concluding commentary takes the perspective of research on practicing scientists and engineers to consider what open areas and future directions on relational thinking and learning should be considered beyond the impressive research presented in the special issue. Areas for more work include (a) a need to examine educational applications of…

The received view of mathematical practice is that mathematicians gain certainty in mathematical assertions by deductive evidence rather than empirical or authoritarian evidence. This assumption has influenced mathematics instruction where students are expected to justify assertions with deductive arguments rather than by checking the assertion…

This introduction to this special issue on "Thinking with Theory in Teacher Education" dedicates considerable space to broadly discussing the current U.S. political context to emphasize why, at this precise moment in history, educators, teacher educators, and educational researchers are in dire need of different ways to understand the…

This article is an investigation into G. E. M. Anscombe's suggestion that there can be cases where belief takes a personal object, through an examination of the role that the activity of teaching plays in Anscombe's discussion. By contrasting various kinds of "teachers" that feature in her discussion, it is argued that the best way of…

The role of analogies and metaphors has played a significant part in the work on teaching and learning science. This commentary discusses three papers from this current issue that cover a wide range of studies in the spirit of conceptual metaphors--ranging from a study somewhat similar to "classical" conceptual change, to a teacher…