In this article we report on a study focused on revealing and categorizing the arguments that preservice mathematics teachers put forward when they are asked about why mathematics is taught, which is a question closely related to the justification problem in mathematics education. Another focus of the study is the identification of myths within…

With this study, the contribution of the waste management themed summer program, which includes enriched activities considering the learning needs of gifted students, has contributed to the students' environmental attitudes, creative thinking skills and critical thinking dispositions. A five-day program was applied to gifted (n = 29) fifth grade…

Supporting young students in developing meanings for the set-theoretic function definition is emphasized in 6th-12th grade curricula around the world. In prior work, we have highlighted how covariational reasoning supports college students in constructing relationships that afford considering mathematical properties important for a set-theoretic…

Building on prior research during the first year of college, this study explores how students' interactions with student affairs professionals impact their growth on cognitive outcomes for students over four years of college.

Critical thinking skills are the 21st-century life skills that are needed by students. However, in elementary schools, there are no instruments that are truly effective and efficient to measure critical thinking skills. This research aims to develop an open-ended question assessment instrument to measure students' critical-thinking skills, to test…

The arts have been part of human endeavor throughout the history of civilization. They have defined cultures and enriched our lives. Despite their value, the arts have not been given equal priority with other academic disciplines, either in K-12 or in tertiary education. Recognizing the value of arts education for the overall cognitive development…

This exploratory study sought to understand the meaning of cognitive presence for graduate students in a blended learning course. Four research questions guided the investigation, which employed a qualitative instrumental case study approach as the research design. Several data sources were used including: semi structured interviews with graduate…

Critical thinking extends to all aspects of professional engineering, especially in technical development, and, since the introduction of the ABET 2000 criteria, there has been an increased emphasis in engineering education on the development of critical thinking skills. What is hoped for is that the students obtain critical thinking skills to…

Formal education was used by the apartheid government to prepare black South Africans for manual labour, thus there was little curricular focus on the development of higher-order cognitive skills. With the abolition of apartheid in 1994, the education system was re-valued and re-evaluated to provide wider access to quality education; the focus of…

Scholars in the helping professions have become increasingly concerned with how the fruits of their labor can promote social justice (e.g., Vera & Speight, 2003; Swank & Fahs, 2013, North, 2009). At present, there is a lack of theoretical convergence around what social justice consciousness, aptitude, awareness, or orientation actually…

Pollution phenomena are complex systems in which different parts are integrated by means of causal and temporal relationships. To understand pollution, children must develop some cognitive abilities related to system thinking and temporal and causal inferential reasoning. These cognitive abilities constrain and guide how children understand…

This paper outlines the development and implementation of an online educational intervention designed to enhance moral reasoning in higher level tax students. Before decisions are made about how to behave ethically, cognitive moral reasoning takes place. The importance of education in developing morally sensitive individuals who use principled…

The present study investigated the developmental relationship between cognitive thinking and diversity beliefs among late adolescents from a postPiagetian perspective. The participants were 762 Taiwanese undergraduates aging from 19 to 25 years. The Social Paradigm Belief Scale was used to assess three modes of cognitive development of late…

This study estimates the effects of a deep approaches to learning scale and its subscales on measures of students' critical thinking, need for cognition, and positive attitudes toward literacy, controlling for pre-college scores for the outcomes and other covariates. Results suggest reflection is critical to making gains across the outcomes.

Organic chemistry education is one of the youngest research areas among all chemistry related research efforts, and its published scholarly work has become vibrant and diverse over the last 15 years. Research on problem-solving behavior, students' use of the arrow-pushing formalism, the investigation of students' conceptual knowledge and…