Capacities for abstract thinking and problem-solving are central to human cognition. Processes of abstraction allow the transfer of experiences and knowledge between contexts helping us make informed decisions in new or changing contexts. While we are often inclined to relate such reasoning capacities to individual minds and brains, they may in…

The construct of static and emergent shape thinking (Moore & Thompson, 2015) characterizes differences in students' reasoning about graphs. In our previous work with middle school students, we found that this construct may also be useful in characterizing students' reasoning about other representations such as simulations and tables. In this…

Clinical judgment is a priority nursing skill to ensure the delivery of safe and effective nursing care. New graduate nurses lack the clinical judgment skills that are necessary for entry-level nursing practice. Nurse educators must therefore implement teaching strategies that foster clinical judgment. This study evaluated the clinical judgment of…

Background: Sound clinical reasoning is crucial for synthesizing assessment and contextual information into evidence-based and patient-centred management decisions. Whilst clinical reasoning processes and development have been explored in broader health contexts, to date there has been limited evaluation of how clinical reasoning skills are…

Sampling distributions are fundamental for statistical inference, yet their abstract nature poses challenges for students. This research investigates the development of high school students' conceptions of sampling distribution through informal significance tests with the aid of digital technology. The study focuses on how technological tools…

Teachers routinely observe and interpret student behavior to make judgements about whether and how to support their students' learning. Simulated cases can help pre-service teachers to gain this skill of diagnostic reasoning. With 118 pre-service teachers, we tested whether participants rate simulated cases presented in a serial-cue case format as…

Aim/Purpose: To identify and rectify the learning difficulties of online learners. Background: The major cause of learners' failure and non-acquisition of knowledge relates to their weaknesses in certain areas necessary for optimal learning. We focus on e-learning because, within this environment, the learner is mostly affected by these…

When students reason during school science, they often refer to conceptions that are derived from out-of-school experiences and are poor proxies for science orthodoxy. However, for some areas of science, these conceptions represent only a proportion of students' full conceptual knowledge, for tacit understanding exists that is superior to the…

As teachers of political theory, our goal is not merely to help students understand the abstract reasoning behind key ideas and texts of our discipline. We also wish to convey the historical contexts that informed these ideas and texts, including the political aims of their authors. But the traditional lecture-and-discussion approach tends to…

Prior research has established an executive function advantage among bilinguals as compared to monolingual peers. These non-linguistic cognitive advantages are largely assumed to result from the experience of managing two linguistic systems. However, the possibility remains that the relationship between bilingualism and executive function is…

Two concepts predominate in studies of spatial invasion: territoriality (personalization and defense of a fixed spatial area) and personal space (a portable area surrounding the individual, which is responsive to environmental change). Spatial invasions were carried out by occupying a marked seat (invade condition), and adjacent seat (adjacent…

The nature of computational linguistics, and formulation of problems in literary analysis to which this approach can be applied, are considered. A review of current work in this field and an illustration of how this work might be used in an analysis of Shakespeare's writing are presented. (RW)

The cognitive processes in a widely used, non-verbal test of analytic intelligence--the Raven Progressive Matrices Test (J. C. Raven, 1962)--were analyzed. The analysis determined which processes distinguished between higher-scoring and lower-scoring subjects and which processes were common to all subjects and all items on the test. The analysis…

This digest considers the role of personal computers in the education of gifted students. There is evidence that students are working "smarter," whether they are learning and using more information, understanding key concepts and relationships better, or developing higher level thinking skills. Research findings concerning the specific…

The material presented here is designed to be used as a training program in the preparation, selection, and use of visual aids in instruction. Some prior training in the application of behavioral principles to the preparation of instructional materials is assumed. The program consists of a handbook and a workbook. All the information in the…