In looking to the future, some writers on religious education (RE) have attempted to evaluate current approaches to the subject. Some have characterised any significant change in approach as a "paradigm shift", a term derived from Thomas Kuhn's work in the philosophy of science. This article examines the uses of the terms…

P. Maguire, B. Devereux, F. Costello, and A. Cater discussed the Gagne and Shoben (1997) CARIN theory of conceptual combination and, after presenting a sample drawn from the British National Corpus and comparing the two corpora, concluded that the Gagne and Shoben corpus is too small and unrepresentative. They then discussed the mathematical model…

A medical model has advantages over a legal model in thinking about special education, especially in responding supportively to difference, meeting individual needs, and practicing prevention. The legal conceptual model now dominates thinking about special education, but a medical model promises a brighter future for special education and for…

Presents some additional comments from the current authors regarding their original article Interpolation processes in object perception: Reply to Anderson (2007). As this exchange concludes, we believe that the account of interpolation and object formation proposed by Kellman and Shipley (1991), further developed in recent years (Kellman, 2003;…

A major problem in understanding a new theory is that rapid gains in popularity are accompanied by misconceptions and distortions (Valsiner, 1988). A developmental theorist, Lev Vygotsky, has rapidly become a much repeated name at all levels of educational psychology: theoretical, empirical, and pedagogical. And once again, inexplicable…

Comments on an article by Rips et al. L. J. Rips, S. Blok, and G. Newman (2006) proposed that singular concepts, which support the tracing of individual objects across their existence, are governed by a principle of causal continuity. They purported to show that causal continuity is better than existing theories at explaining judgments of the…

Responds to comments made by Rhemtulla and Xu on the current authors' original paper Concepts of individual objects (e.g., a favorite chair or pet) include knowledge that allows people to identify these objects, sometimes after long stretches of time. In an earlier article, the authors set out experimental findings and mathematical modeling to…

Discussed are the nature of the development of conceptual relationships, and the structure of concepts. The topics are presented with regard to the importance of combining metaphors with two alternate approaches to learning, the first being rote learning and the other being inductive learning. The paper is intended to be a model of the concept of…

This book represents a compilation of the views and ideas of the late Hans Freudenthal, representing his last major contribution to the field of mathematics education. Rather than a presentation of new views, Freudenthal selected and streamlined old ideas, many gathered from his lectures in China, and formed a review of questions and issues in…

Notes that many psychological theories assume things belong in the same category because of their similarity. Recounts several arguments claiming, however, that similarity is an empty notion or is an insufficient quality upon which to base categorization. Concludes that, though these arguments have merit, similarity can be sufficiently constrained…

The concept of ecosystem signifies the study of living species and their physical environment as an integrated whole. Traces the historical development of the concept in Great Britain and America. (Contains 38 references.) (MDH)

Although this book is about how things work, it is also about flaws in the U.S. economic system. It is difficult to realize that every economic activity gravitates toward monopoly or rebellion against monopoly. This is the subject of the book, which is the result of 50 years of actual experience, informed observations, and trained readings. The…

Seeks, in a reasoned analysis, to bring to the consciousness of home economists a model underlying thought and action in the home economics profession. (CT)

Presents a model of the hierarchy or gradations of a student's knowledge of things and the words that signify them, ordering these variations in terms of difficulty. Offers strategies for matching vocabulary instruction to student's prior knowledge, promoting natural growth in meaning vocabulary, lifelong vocabulary learning, and teaching specific…

A conceptual model for home economics is composed of four components: (1) the goal of home economics (optimum family and individual life); (2) the intervention process; (3) the disciplines working to achieve the goal; and (4) environmental influences (natural, human behavioral, and human-constructed environment). (JOW)