In large measure the authors agree with Tobias and Fletcher's (2012) comments stating that clearer operational definitions of game features are needed to enable research on games and learning. The authors cannot accept that games are a subset of simulations, preferring to identify instances when games and simulations overlap and when they do not.…

This article presents the authors' response to McVee, Dunsmore, and Gavelek's "Schema Theory Revisited." In "Schema Theory Revisited," McVee, Dunsmore, and Gavelek (2005) proposed a rearticulation of schema theory intended to encompass the ideas that schemata and other cognitive processes are embodied, that knowledge is situated in the transaction…

Philosophical interest in reason is traced historically from its classical roots to its current context. While philosophic enquiry has had little discernable effect on what is happening in schools, educational philosophers should pose significant reflective questions to educators and help clarify the language of issues being discussed. (BS)

Major themes from the previous light articles on literacy, reasoning, and education are highlighted. Common inferences about the needs for organizational change, loosening of governmental rules and controls, and field-initiated research are described. The general exclusion of the affective domain from this discussions of higher order reasoning is…

This paper analyzes the teaching of reasoning and civility (citizenship) from the historical perspective of psychology. Three perspectives of human rationality--humans as rational, boundedly rational, and collectively rational--have differently defined the learner, the task, the teacher, and educational research. Unwillingness to address humans as…

The research and development of mental (standardized) testing and its relationship to educational practice is traced historically from its pre-World War I roots to its controversial national prominence in the 1970s. How standardized tests have been used in research and in schools is analyzed. (BS)

Literacy, reasoning, and civility in education are discussed from the perspective of social organization and cultural patterning. Schools are part of the larger social environment and perpetuate social class and rank as well as teach the curriculum. Reforms should change the social relations between teachers and students as well as instructional…

An economic viewpoint is applied to four educational issues in the acquisition of reasoning skills: (1) defining reasoning; (2) methods for producing and developing reasoning skills in the classroom; (3) how the economy allocates and values reasoning skills; and (4) future economic needs for reasoning skills. (BS)

Three research areas relevant to the relationship between writing and reasoning are reviewed: (1) cultural consequences of written language, including changes in reasoning ability; (2) individual consequences of particular writing experiences; and (3) the status of writing activities in American schools. Further research is needed to establish how…

Although there is a renewed interest in having reasoning skills taught in schools, current methods of organizing, staffing, and governing classrooms retard the teaching of critical thought. The limited impact of progressive educational reforms, an earlier movement for critical thinking, is assessed. Needed policy and research directions to improve…