The author suggests that transparency in all venues, including social work education, practice and policy, and the conduct and reporting of related research, will be required to advance the effectiveness of professional education. Possibilities for improving the quality of professional education differ in terms of how evidence-informed practice is…

This study extended the work of S. Siddiqui, R. F. West, and K. E. Stanovich (1998), who studied the link between general print exposure and syllogistic reasoning. It was hypothesized that exposure to certain text structures that contain well-delineated logical forms, such as popularized scientific texts, would be a better predictor of deductive…

This article started as a debate between the two authors. Both authors present a series of propositions about quality standards in education research. Cook's propositions, as might be expected, not only concern the importance of experimental trials for establishing the security of causal evidence, but also include some important practical and…

The ability to make inferences for the purposes of comprehension is considered an important factor in pragmatic ability. In this experimental group study with stroke patients, the ability to make inferences and its associations with sustained attention and verbal working memory were explored. A group of 14 left-hemisphere-damaged individuals had…

Many teacher preparation programs provide opportunities for their preservice educators to gain the requisite technology integration skills and knowledge. However, they often ignore the dispositions that affect whether a teacher will actually use technology in the classroom. In an effort to address this oversight, the McKay School of Education at…

A study examined whether composition specialists can counterbalance the potential privileging of the assessment perspective, or of self-appointed interpreters of that perspective, through the study of assessment discourse as text. Fourteen assessment texts were examined, most of them journal articles and most of them featuring the common…

Psychologists know that reasoning human beings do not spontaneously follow the rules of formal logic when using implication. Addressing this phenomenon, Piaget employed the concept of "significant implication," which exists when the meaning of a subsequent proposition is "included" in the meaning of an earlier one, and is not…

A discussion of the application of artificial intelligence to natural language processing looks at several problems in language comprehension, involving semantic ambiguity, anaphoric reference, and metonymy. Examples of these problems are cited, and the importance of the computational approach in analyzing them is explained. The approach applies…

A series of studies was conducted to determine whether children's reasoning is capacity-limited and whether any such capacity, if it exists, is based on the working memory system. An N-term series (transitive inference) was used as the primary task in an interference paradigm. A concurrent short-term memory load was employed as the secondary task.…

Evaluates arguments concerning the generality and statistical analysis of single-subject data. Considers the role of philosophy of science in evaluating research methodology. Single-subject data have special relevance for psychologists and educators who focus on the individual but statistical techniques for analyzing data have numerous…

Describes a procedure called Generating Reciprocal Inferences Procedure (GRIP), which teaches inferential comprehension using direct or explicit instruction, a generative process, and reciprocal questioning. (RS)

Demonstrates the consequences on total misdiagnosis rates of using conventional (fixed) rather than flexible (Bayesian) rules when using the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory in diagnosis. Concludes that the range of base rates and the separation of distributions of normal and abnormal scores affect the difference in the misdiagnosis…

Maintains that metaphors may be used to help secondary students understand the figurative language often encountered in social studies. Shows how labels were attached to real dominos which were then tipped over to explain the "domino effect," a theory often referred to in foreign affairs. This experience was related to "event chains" which were…

This article reviews literature on kinetic structure, a low-inference variable related to lesson organization. Kinetic structure significantly affects student achievement and student perception of lesson effectiveness. Training programs to increase kinetic structure and other results concerning structure are discussed. (Author/MT)

Methods by which structural models correct for the effects of attenuation due to measurement error are reviewed, and implications of such disattenuation for interpreting the results of structural equation models are considered. Recommendations are made for improving the practice of disattenuation, and caution is urged in drawing inferences based…