In this paper, we report a pilot study on engaging a group of undergraduate students to explore the limits of sin(x)/x and tan(x)/x as x approaches to 0, with the use of non-graphic scientific calculators. By comparing the results in the pretest and the post-test, we found that the students had improvements in the tested items, which involved the…

Both additive and proportional reasoning are types of quantitative analogical (QA) reasoning. We investigated the development and nature of primary school children's QA reasoning by offering two missing-value word problems to 3rd to 6th graders. In one problem, ratios between given numbers were integer, in the other ratios were non-integer. These…

This paper presents preliminary results of longitudinal study on the development of children's geometric thinking in dynamic geometry environments. Here we investigate young children's (age 7-8, grade 2/3) interactions, in a whole classroom setting with an Interactive Whiteboard, with Sketchpad-based tasks involving the use of different types of…

The purpose of this study was to investigate the inquiry features demonstrated in the inquiry tasks of a high school Earth Science curriculum. One of the most widely used curricula, Holt Earth Science, was chosen for this case study to examine how Earth Science logical reasoning and authentic scientific inquiry were related to one another and how…

This study investigates the relationship between deterministic and probabilistic reasoning when students experiment on a real-world situation involving uncertainty. Twelve students, aged eight to nine years, participated in an outdoor teaching activity that called for reflection on the growth of sunflowers within the frame of a sunflower lottery,…

Classroom discourse is a valuable teaching and learning tool. Discussions allow students to improve their communication and reasoning skills in mathematics and help teachers assess students' understanding of mathematical ideas. To get the greatest benefit from discussion, teachers must elicit student thinking, listen carefully to their ideas,…

When confronted with a challenging problem, many solvers may at first think that not enough information has been provided. If, however, they suspect that the problem is solvable, this feeling typically influences them to persevere as well as monitor and reflect on their efforts. In this article the authors present four nonroutine tasks that they…

This dataset contains the results of a quasi-experiment, testing Karl Pearson's "drunkard's walk" analogy for an abstract random walk. Inspired by the alternate hypothesis that drunkards stumble to the side of their dominant hand, it includes data on intoxicated test subjects walking a 10' line. Variables include: the…

Background: The ability to generate and flexibly change concepts is of great importance for the development of academic and adaptive skills. This paper analyses the conceptual reasoning ability of children with mild intellectual disability (MID) by their achievements on the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST). Method: The sample consisted of 95…

Creative teamwork in multidisciplinary teams is a topic of interest to cognitive psychologists on the one hand, and to both social and organizational psychologists on the other. However, the interconnections between cognitive and social layers have been rarely explored. Drawing on mental models and dissonance theories, the current study takes a…

We have investigated the various approaches taken by first-year university students (n[image omitted]550) when asked to determine the direction of motion, the constancy of speed, and a numerical value of the speed of an object at a point on a numerical linear distance-time graph. We investigated the prevalence of various well-known general…

The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM 1991, 2000) recommends that students be positioned as sense makers who weigh one another's ideas and judge their mathematical validity. The instructional tool discussed in this article helps students engage in discussions that foster student reasoning, then settle on correct mathematics.…

The present study investigated cognitive abilities in children with difficulties in mathematics only (n = 48, M = 8 years and 5 months), combined mathematical and language difficulty (n = 27, M = 8 years and 1 month) and controls (n = 783, M = 7 years and 11 months). Cognitive abilities were measured with seven subtests, tapping visual perception,…

Socioscientific issues (SSI) are potentially controversial topics, which can be examined using a social and a scientific perspective. The inclusion of these topics in elementary and secondary classrooms has caused a number of conflicts over the past century. In the present study, I explore the willingness of teachers to include three SSI:…

This research project examined the contribution internally assessed course work makes to motivating young people to think historically; that is to develop reasoned, evidence-based understandings of the past that equip them to participate in society as critical citizens who can think independently and adjudicate between competing claims of…