A test-retest study of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator with 99 graduate students over 20 months yields findings consistent with previous studies, but an examination of type dynamics using log-linear analyses indicates that dominant thinking and dominant sensing do not retest as well as dominant intuition and feeling. (SLD)

College students (N=135) were presented with novel, ill-defined problems and asked to select concepts they thought would help solve the problems. The use of concepts organized around long-term goals was positively related to indices of solution quality and originality. (DB)

Explored whether and how understanding of biological explanation changes with development. Found that adults and children similarly distinguished between biology and psychology and about specific processes underlying biological change. Children's attributions of intention to biological organs or body parts did not differ from those of adults.…

Ninth and 12th graders completed intellectual ability measures and engaged in reasoning about hypothetical arguments that were either consistent or inconsistent with their own theories. Results indicated that intellectual and verbal ability predicted each of several reasoning indexes. Neither ability measures nor age were related to reasoning…

Addresses difficulty levels and the importance of providing experience at all levels. Levels are count and land, at which children do not understand if the number arrived at is reasonable; number sense and relationships, where children are developing a sense of reasonableness; and parts of numbers, when children are able to work flexibly with…

Studies whether Piagetian reasoning, general intelligence and achievement motive tap different mental structures, and the relative importance of these measures for concept attainment in physics. Concepts chosen for the study were force, couple, total internal reflection and atom. Results indicate that proportional reasoning, combinatorial…

Examines the levels of geometric reasoning commonly exhibited by primary school students, namely visualization, analysis, and informal deduction. Describes open-ended tasks that can be conducted in small groups or in a whole group setting. (KHR)

Describes a way of using the extended metaphor of an imaginary airline that bridges the gap between students' work with logic and their creation of proofs. (KHR)

Reports survey results on proof conceptions. Presents an overview of responses at the end of year 8 (age 13 years) and year 9 (age 14 years). Distinguishes three strategies--empirical, focused-empirical, and focused-deductive--that represent shifts in attention from an inductive to a deductive approach. Indicates some progress from year 8 to year…

Presents classroom vignettes in which middle grade students with developmentally different views of geometry stimulate each other's reasoning by externalizing mental images through modeling and discourse. (KHR)

Describes how a teacher integrates assessment into every aspect of instruction. Highlights a portion of a unit on linear measurement. (KHR)

The relationship between higher order reasoning and sex bias was investigated among children 7, 9 and 11 years old. Children read arguments enhancing their own or other gender, then rated argument intelligence, judged other children based on observations, and justified their arguments. Findings showed that own-gender reasoning biases declined with…

Discusses how to teach students to evaluate information they find on the Internet. Highlights include motivation of Web site owners; link-checking; having student create Web pages to help with their evaluation skills of other Web sites; critical thinking skills; and helpful Web sites. (LRW)

Analyzes video recordings of three undergraduate students' textbook-based homework. Focuses on the ways in which their exercise reasoning is mathematically well-founded or superficial. Indicates that most strategy choices and implementations are carried out without considering the intrinsic mathematical properties of the components involved in…

This article describes how the affinity diagram, a tool for gathering information and organizing it into natural groupings, can be used in inclusive classrooms. It discusses how students can be taught to use an affinity diagram, how affinity diagrams can be used to reflect many voices, and how affinity diagrams can be used to plan class projects.…