Complex thinking is a desired competency in 21st-century university students, so technology-based teaching and learning strategies must be carefully considered when training them in complex reasoning skills. This systematic review aims to map research on the use of teaching and learning strategies supported by technology to enhance complex…

If we admit that students must be prepared for life and work in increasingly culturally-diverse and ever changing contexts through core curricula which are the competences that must be prioritized? What competences are 'strong candidates' to be considered as trans-regional and can lead to inclusive excellence in higher education? Does, this,…

The ability to reason about numbers in relative terms is essential for quantitative literacy, which is necessary for studying academic disciplines and for critical citizenship. However, the ability to reason with proportions is known to be difficult to learn and to take a long time to develop. To determine how well higher education applicants can…

The effect of using either abstract or concrete words on verbal problem solving was examined in this study. Twelve undergraduate students in each of two conditions mentally solved identically structured problems by reordering and chaining together previously memorized pairs of words. Subjects who received concrete words both memorized the word…

This study examined whether familiarity with content influences performance on conditional reasoning problems of the form P implies Q independently of ease of generation of specific examples of "Q and not-P." Results indicated that increased content familiarity resulted in higher performance levels. (Author/JAZ)

Two experiments were performed to determine whether practice on less complex problems, either smaller size or in familiar context, produces a strategy that transfers to similar but more complex problems. Practice on familiar problems was no more effective than practice on unfamiliar for transfer to another unfamiliar context for all sizes. (Author)

Possible legal justifications for "reasons"--statements that justify conclusions--are discussed. It is suggested that justification is a concept that should be taken seriously and is one that is guided by objective standards, authority, tautology, tradition, consequences, comparison, intuitive moral sense, internal consistency, determinism, or…

Describes characteristics of successful problem solvers and reports programs at all educational levels designed to help students improve their skills. (Author/MLF)

Three basic orientations to problem solving are defined and related to four profiles of problem environment. The contingency between problem-solving orientations and problem environment is presented by means of three formal models that are translated to fit the students' learning environment. Implications for further studies are discussed. (JD)

The conversion model of formal reasoning was examined for its ability to predict the decisions made by college students when solving concrete and abstract syllogisms. Results supported the model's contentions that reasoner's decisions reflect natural language processes in the encoding of syllogistic premises, and follow rationally from…

Four experiments compared three alternative models of linear syllogistic reasoning: (1) linguistic; (2) spatial; and (3) mixed linguistic-spatial. The mixed model, indicating the importance of both verbal and spatial ability, was supported by all four experiments, and for about three-fourths of the undergraduate students studied. (Author/GDC)

Depression has been linked to cognitive deficits and learned helplessness models in various theories. To examine depression effects on abstract problem solving ability and the relationship between intelligence and anxiety, 66 of 303 college students (23 male, 43 female), evidencing least and most depressed states as assessed by the Beck Depression…

Students and instructors may be frustrated with students' lack of understanding of sociological concepts. We suggest that the difficulty of teaching and learning sociology is that sociological concepts and relationships require the use of abstract reasoning patterns. Many students are unaccustomed to using these abstract reasoning patterns. We use…

Using Raven Progressive Matrices Test items, this study developed an empirical measure of subjects' ability to create new problems. The relationship between this ability and problem solving skills was examined. A very low correlation was found between inventing and solving problems. Problem creation was more difficult than problem solving. (BS)

Examined the effect of stimulus content on logical performance in a reasoning task. Earlier reports of the facilitating effect of thematic material on the tendency to reason logically were not supported, nor were previous reports that matching is the most common determinant of behavior. (Author)