Contemporary rhetoricians are concerned with the re-examination of classical doctrines in the hope of finding solutions to current problems. In this study, the author presents a methodological perspective consistent with current interests, by re-examining the assumptions that underlie each classical precept. He outlines an inventional system based…

A modified version of Inhelder's and Piaget's bending-rods task was administered twice in succession to 9-, 11-, and 13-year-olds. Subjects were then categorized as spontaneous, latent, or nonusers of the formal operational control-of-variables strategy according to whether they used the strategy on the first, second, or neither administration.…

The conversion model of formal reasoning was examined for its ability to predict the decisions made by college students when solving concrete and abstract syllogisms. Results supported the model's contentions that reasoner's decisions reflect natural language processes in the encoding of syllogistic premises, and follow rationally from…

It is argued that a course in legal and moral philosophy should be included in the law school curriculum. Some benefits are that it would provide instruction in logic necessary for the construction of good legal arguments, and it would increase comprehension of the jurisprudential and moral basis of our legal system. (JMD)

Based upon the concept that the psychological meaning of a syllogism depends upon the order of the premises in addition to the formal logic expressed, the analogical theory of the interpretation of syllogisms is developed, experimentally tested, and implemented as a computer program. (CTM)

Several examples of student-written programs "teaching" a computer to guess systematically in finding a number between 0 and 10,000 are illustrated. These lend support to the contention that rather than being a "natural" application, using a binary search is a learned technique. (MN)

Describes the life and work of Charles Peirce, U.S. mathematician and philosopher. His accomplishments include contributions to logic, the foundations of mathematics and scientific method, and decision theory and probability theory. (MA)

An analysis of methods of teaching children to solve verbal arithmetic problems is presented together with transcriptions of interviews in which children solve problems by reference to problem types. (SD)

Children's ability to infer consequences from sentences automatically was assessed in two cued recall experiments. Seven- and eight-year-old children and adults served as subjects. (JMB)

Four tasks which are frequently used to evaluate adolescent reasoning skill: (1) the pendulum task; (2) the ramp problem; (3) the cart experiment; and (4) the invisible magnetism experiment are analyzed to determine the Piagetian concepts that each measures. (CP)

Describes a cognitive-skills approach to teaching physics, Spanish, and philosophy. The approach relies on students verbalizing their thinking as they solve problems. (IRT)

While there is good reason to stress critical thinking skills in the liberal arts curriculum, these skills should be complemented by training in alternative methodologies that focus on synthetic, dialectic, and creative modes of awareness and expression. (MSE)

Describes the difficulties involved in developing a sense of responsibility for commonly owned property and offers four elementary and one middle school activity to help achieve this goal. Included are a list of children's trade books and classroom simulations dealing with the concept of public property. (JDH)

Teachers are encouraged to utilize rational-emotive therapy to prevent and deal with classroom behavior problems. Rational-emotive therapy is defined, the ABC model of rational thinking briefly explained, types of irrational thinking identified, and suggestions for becoming a rational thinker are offered. Classroom examples are given. (DB)

Discusses critical thinking as the process of moving fluently among abstraction levels. Defines three components involved in fluency of movement: (1) knowledge, or an awareness of the existence of abstraction levels; (2) payoff, or the reason for acquiring fluency; and (3) timing, or a consciousness of abstraction levels at a given time and place.…