Cocreating meaning in collaboration is challenging. Success is often determined by people's abilities to coordinate their language to converge upon shared mental representations. Here we explore one set of low-level linguistic behaviors, linguistic alignment, that both emerges from, and facilitates, outcomes of high-level convergence. Linguistic…

This book assists teachers in providing curriculum to identify gifted students of diversity in the early years, without the formal use of traditional measures of ability. Appropriate for small and large group settings, the pedagogical tools and lessons in this book provide young students with teaching and learning experiences designed to uncover…

Arithmetic problem solving is a crucial part of mathematics education. However, existing problem solving theories do not fully account for the semantic constraints partaking in the encoding and recoding of arithmetic word problems. In this respect, the limitations of the main existing models in the literature are discussed. We then introduce the…

In the spirit of the networking of didactical theories, it is advocated in this presentation in favor of a mixed networking of philosophical theories, namely Husserlian phenomenology and hermeneutics, and didactical theories to produce a fertile interplay between philosophy and mathematics education. The cross-analysis of students' work on a…

Vygotsky measured his 'zone of proximal development' in years. To do this, he needed a scheme of age periods, and a set of tasks that could diagnose the next age period without defining it. In this paper, we compare the age periods in his late lectures with Halliday's categories of logico-semantic expansion as used by three adolescent…

We can now get purposefully directed in the way we assess our learners in light of the emergence of evidence from the field of neuroscience. Why higher-order learning or abstract concepts need to be the focus in assessment is elaborated using the knowledge of semantic and episodic memories. With most of our learning identified to be implicit, why…

In this article we explore a problematic aspect of automated assessment of diagrams. Diagrams have partial and sometimes inconsistent semantics. Typically much of the meaning of a diagram resides in the labels; however, the choice of labeling is largely unrestricted. This means a correct solution may utilize differing yet semantically equivalent…

Effects of self instruction training on the communication skills of a profoundly hearing impaired 10-year-old child were studied. Training included modeling a series of problem solving steps. Results indicated that self-instruction was immediately effective on pragmatic behaviors and that the influence on semantic behaviors was gradual. (Author/DB)

College students' strategies to discriminate relevant from irrelevant information in algebra story problems were identified and compared to strategies used by younger students in previous studies. College students identified numbers relevant for solution (Experiment 1) or provided verbal reports as they computed answers (Experiment 2). Type of…

The Test of Problem Solving (TOPS) was evaluated by 20 speech-language clinicians based on designer claims that the test assesses integration of semantic, linguistic, and reasoning ability and taps skills needed for academic and social acceptance. Results challenged the content validity of the test. (Author/DB)

This study identified cognitive processes that underlie individual differences in working memory (WM) and mathematical problem-solution accuracy in elementary school children at risk and not at risk for serious math difficulties (SMD). A battery of tests was administered that assessed problem solving, achievement, and cognitive processing in…

Six papers dealing with decision support and knowledge based systems are presented. Five of the papers are concerned in some way with the use of artificial intelligence techniques in individual or group decision support. The sixth paper presents empirical results from the use of a group decision support system. (CLB)