Gap reasoning is an inappropriate strategy for comparing fractions. In this article, Patrick Sullivan and Joann Barnett look at the persistence of this misconception amongst students and the insights teachers can draw about students' reasoning.

The goal of this article is to make the case for a radical exemplar account of child language acquisition, under which unwitnessed forms are produced and comprehended by on-the-fly analogy across multiple stored exemplars, weighted by their degree of similarity to the target with regard to the task at hand. Across the domains of (1) word meanings,…

The purpose of this paper is to consider most critical issues of mystical epistemology in Rumi and Bonaventura once the views on subject, reality of the world, and the possibility of knowledge were expressed. This research referring works of Rumi and Bonaventura studies this issue through a descriptive-analytical method. Rumi and Bonaventura…

Abilities in scientific thinking and reasoning have been emphasized as core areas of initiatives, such as the Next Generation Science Standards or the College Board Standards for College Success in Science, which focus on the skills the future will demand of today's students. Although there is rich literature on studies of how these abilities…

This paper discusses variation in reasoning strategies among expert mathematicians, with a particular focus on the degree to which they use examples to reason about general conjectures. We first discuss literature on the use of examples in understanding and reasoning about abstract mathematics, relating this to a conceptualisation of syntactic and…

Discussion of image database systems focuses on semantic queries and shows how an image is abstracted into a hierarchy of entity names and features; how relations are established between entities visible in the image; and how a "fuzzy" matching technique is used to compare semantic queries to image abstractions. (Author/LRW)

Despite its apparent simplicity, random assignment is an abstract concept for many students. This article describes a classroom demonstration that uses a standard deck of playing cards. In small groups, students randomly assign playing cards (i.e., participants) to 2 treatment groups. Following randomization, students compare the relative…

Explains abductive reasoning; compares it to more traditional forms of logic, i.e., deduction and induction; and describes a computerized tutorial called A.R.T. (Abductive Reasoning Tool) that was created to foster abductive reasoning. Implications of using abductive techniques in instructional design are suggested. (Contains 13 references.) (LRW)

Explores strategies to encourage students' understanding of proportional reasoning. Conducts a study to compare the proportional reasoning of students studying one of the new standards-based curricula with that of students from a control group. (ASK)

This paper describes the rationale behind and the development and utilization of a bibliographic instruction course which incorporates formal abstract reasoning skills. The limitations of the search strategy technique of bibliographic instruction are discussed as well as the fact that many college students have not developed sophisticated…