In the author's position as director of institutional effectiveness and currently as a department assessment chair, he relates that he has found it useful to use an analogy between flossing one's teeth and instituting assessment. There are more similarities between flossing and assessment than one might imagine. In this article, the author…

Previous research with the radial maze has found evidence that rats can remember both places that they have already been (retrospective coding) and places they have yet to visit (prospective coding; Cook, R. G., Brown, M. F., & Riley, D. A. (1985). Flexible memory processing by rats: Use of prospective and retrospective information in the radial…

To explicate certain phenomena, e.g., the possibility of deduction without definition, we hypothesize that an individual is able to understand and appreciate reasoning with a due feeling of its necessity when the concept image of each concept involved in the reasoning has reached a certain level of development; we then speak of "deep intuition".…

This Research & Policy Brief addresses the aspect of the teacher support system that is perhaps the most important and often the most weakly implemented: teacher learning and development. This brief includes the following to help state and district leaders select professional learning activities that are worth the allocation of scarce resources:…

This study characterized and compared the arguments eighth grade mathematics students created while working in technological and non-technological environments. Toulmin's (1958/2003) argumentation model was used to analyze the content and structure of the arguments, including the ways in which the students used the tools (technological and…

This study investigated 282 eight- to twelve-year-old Danish majority children's judgments and justifications of exclusion based on gender and ethnicity (i.e., Danish majority children and ethnic-minority children of a Muslim background). Children's judgments and reasoning varied with the perpetrator of the exclusion and the social identity of the…

Concept mapping is a technique to represent relationships between concepts that can help students to improve their meaningful learning. Using the cognitive theories proposed by Ausubel (1968), concept maps can help instructors and students to enhance their logical thinking and study skills by revealing connections among concepts that can simplify…

Taiwanese students consistently rank near the top on international exams on mathematics and science. In 2007, Taiwan recorded the highest TIMSS math score for eighth grade. The central education agency in Taiwan publishes detailed mathematics curriculum guidelines, which textbooks and national exams follow closely. In May each year, all ninth…

An argument map visually represents the structure of an argument, outlining its informal logical connections and informing judgments as to its worthiness. Argument mapping can be augmented with dedicated software that aids the mapping process. Empirical evidence suggests that semester-length subjects using argument mapping along with dedicated…

The 2007-2008 Positive Behavior Support (PBS) report provides a progress summary of PBS at AISD for the previous 4 years and summarizes the current district efforts to bring PBS to full-scale implementation.

Mathematical proof is an expression of deductive reasoning (drawing conclusions from previous assertions). However, it is often inductive reasoning (conclusions drawn on the basis of examples) that helps learners form their deductive arguments, or proof. In addition, not all inductive arguments generate more formal arguments. This article draws a…

Everyday experiences familiarize students with the ways in which electricity is used, but often the underlying concepts remain a mystery. Teachers often use analogies to help students relate the flow of electrons to other common systems, but many times these analogies are incomplete and lead to more student misconceptions. However, the "pass the…

This article explores epistemological awareness and instantiation of methods, as well as uninformed ambiguity, in qualitative methodological decision making and research reporting. The authors argue that efforts should be made to make the research process, epistemologies, values, methodological decision points, and argumentative logic open,…

Many exercises in mathematical induction require the student to prove a divisibility property of a function of the integers. Such problems are generally presented as being independent of each other. However, many of these problems can be presented in terms of difference equations, and the theory of difference equations can be used to provide a…

The chapters in this volume set a rich context for understanding the challenges that environmental evaluators face in their everyday work. In particular, the authors highlight the need for responsive, contextual, flexible, adaptive, multidisciplinary, and mixed-methods evaluation approaches. In this chapter, I reinforce their call and further…