Problem Statement: The interest in raising levels of achievement in math and science has led to a focus on investigating the factors that shape achievement in these subjects. Understanding how different learning styles might influence science achievement may guide educators in their efforts to raise achievement. This study is an attempt to examine…

The task consisted of categorizing a set of slides depicting concepts of freedom, nonfreedom, justice, and nonjustice. The results of the analysis indicated that abstract thinkers performed significantly better than did concrete thinkers and that performance increased as a function of grade level. (Author/BJG)

Information about individuals' representations of problems was obtained from studies on reasoning and problem categorization. College students (N=62) participated in a study of the transition from concrete to formal reasoning using the pendulum and chemical yellow tasks. Over a 10-12 week period, 47 students participated in 10 training sessions on…

Conceptual level is a personal characteristic that describes persons on a developmental hierarchy of increasing conceptual complexity, self-responsibility, and independence. The relationship between gender and conceptual level was explored in a group of 70 male and 63 female college students. The This I Believe Test (TIB) was administered to…

The incorporation of computer-managed instruction into an academic program made it necessary to identify those cognitive styles, abilities, and aptitudes which were relevant to the success or failure of trainees in the Navy's Basic Electricity and Electronics (BE/E) School in order to minimize the attrition rate. Measures of 6 styles, 6 abilities,…

Recent contributions from theory, research, and practice in second-language instruction are discussed in relation to mathematics education. Three methods of teaching and learning second languages are described--"Delayed Oral Production," the "Silent Way," and the "Counseling Learning/Community Language Learning." (KR)

Discussed are preservice elementary teachers' misconceptions and inconsistent beliefs about multiplication and division with decimals. Sources of inconsistencies and recommendations for overcoming inconsistencies are included. (KR)

Reports three experiments to test age-related difFerences in sentence memory arising from sources other than noncognitive factors. Age-related differences are discussed in terms of deficiencies at encoding and retrieval. (PMJ)

Describes the contents of a book entitled The Care and Feeding of Ideas: A Guide to Encouraging Creativity which considers the thinking process, why skills need to be developed, and how students use or should use these thinking skills. (RT)

Discussed are inconsistencies and cognitive conflict with respect to current mathematical knowledge of students and how that knowledge might be modified is discussed. The inconsistencies that students generate for themselves and those produced by the teacher are described. (KR)

Papers presented at the 1980 National Conference on Reasoning, Piaget, and Higher Education are presented which address the implications of Piaget's research on the teaching of reasoning skills in higher education. Contents include the following: "Piaget: An Agenda, Not an Answer for the 80s," by Catherine M. Warrick; "Project…

This study of Piagetian formal reasoning in seventh grade students reports the relationships between four aspects of the ability to control variables in an experiment and the relationships between those four aspects and other constructs. The four aspects of the ability to control variables identified are: (1) set up a controlled experiment, (2)…

Discussed are the issues of inconsistencies and compartmentalization and the use of inconsistencies in the classroom. Included are discussions on paradoxes, the naive student, logical reasoning ability, and the development of the students' cognitive structures. (KR)

Discusses a system of classification for students' inconsistent ideas in mathematics, the sources of students' mathematical inconsistency, and instructional strategies for helping students to resolve apparent learning inconsistencies. Language, curriculum, and instruction are included in the discussion. (KR)

Psycho-epistemology provides a framework for this study on interrelationships among teachers, subject matter, and learners. Chapter 1 presents the polemics that lead to the problem, including sections on educational divergence, the noncumulative nature of knowledge in education, the divergence of opinion regarding the "best" teaching and…