Analogical reasoning is a core facet of higher cognition in humans. Creating analogies as we navigate the environment helps us learn. Analogies involve reframing novel encounters using knowledge of familiar, relationally similar contexts stored in memory. When an analogy links a novel encounter with a familiar context, it can aid in problem…

The aim of this work is to examine pre-architects' use of metaphorical reasoning as a tool for design problem solving exercises in an unfamiliar environment. It is to improve their sense of place, which helps to identify and capture design concepts, as well as define goals and requirements. Regarding the three metaphorical reasoning operations of…

Art therapy can be particularly successful in addressing the specific needs of individuals struggling with anorexia nervosa (AN) through the use of the creative process. This article provides an understanding of the effect of malnourishment on the brain for individuals with AN and discusses how their unique needs can be met through the application…

Entropy is often introduced to students through the use of the disorder metaphor. However, many weaknesses and limitations of this metaphor have been identified, and it has therefore been argued that it is more harmful than useful in teaching. For instance, under the influence of the disorder metaphor, students tend to focus on spatial…

Arguments over conceptions of giftedness and provisions for the gifted bear similarities to arguments over key constructs in other disciplines. We can clarify and strengthen the conceptual foundations for gifted education by going beyond psychology and education to explore theory and research in other disciplines such as cultural anthropology,…

As president of the California Council on Teacher Education from 1994-1996, teacher educator Grace Grant reflects on the first conference she attended of the then California Council on the Education of Teachers in 1976 at the Ahwahnee Hotel in Yosemite National Park. The keynote speaker was Gary Fenstermacher, the then-director of teacher…

This paper uses the hammer-and-nail metaphor to highlight the rigidity and impulsiveness that can be found in student mathematical behaviour. The hammer-and-nail phenomenon can be attributed to two plausible causes: (1) the way the human mind works; and (2) the way mathematics is traditionally taught in school. In this paper, the following aspects…

This reproduces, for fun, a conversation between three professors at the University of Illinois, that originated at a dinner party over a couple of bottles of good red wine.

In this article the authors explain that when engaging in a problem-solving conversation with a child, their goal goes beyond helping the child reach a correct answer. They want to learn about the child's mathematical thinking, support that thinking, and extend it as far as possible. This exploration of children's thinking is central to…

For more than one hundred years teachers have paddled beside the great ocean of mathematical adventure. Between them they have taught millions of young people. A few have dived in and kept swimming, some have lingered on the shore playing in pools, but most have dipped their toes in and run like heck in the other direction never to return. There…

Quantitative literacy is an important proficiency that pertains to "word problems" from science, history, and other fields. Unfortunately, teaching how to solve such problems often is relegated to math courses alone. This article examines how quantitative literacy also involves concepts and skills from English composition and the substantive…

The author builds on arguments he has made elsewhere that good commercial video games foster deep learning and problem solving and that such games in fact promote mastery as a form of play. Here he maintains that some good video games engage players with an important type of play, namely of play as discovery, of play as surmising new possibilities…

Grounded in the work of W. Edwards Deming, this article describes the basics of systems thinking, viewing a business as a system, and contrasts improving a system with solving a problem. The article uses the human body as a metaphor to describe the various aspects of viewing a business as a system at the concept level and maps the Deming cycle,…

Many philosophers of education emphasise the impossibility to really "solve" philosophical--and with that, educational--problems these days. Philosophers have been trying to give philosophy a new, constructive turn in the face of this insolvability. This paper focuses on irony-based approaches that try to exploit the very uncertainty of…

University administrators can take a cue from pilots. Pilots regularly face decision situations where much lies in the balance. So it is with university administrators. The department, college or university itself can be compared to an aircraft. In flight, there are times when the sun shines and winds are favorable: a comfortable flight results…