Reported is an attempt to examine the nature of the reasoning used by college students who consistently erred on timer tape problems and a comparison of their performance with that of students who made logical responses. The author suggests that the poor performance of students, classified as intuitive responders, is a result of their use of an…

Some of the "supra-grammatical" features of scripts written by undergraduate students in India are examined. The script writing was a test administered to assess the proficiency of students in the advanced cognitive and rhetorical skills involved in composition, both in their native language and English. The particular type of composition chosen…

The first two parts of this paper deal with the potential and reality of mathematics in education. In the third section, some recommendations are made for narrowing the gap which seems to exist between the potential and the reality. Among these fifteen recommendations are: (1) the public should be educated about the nature of mathematics; (2)…

A TECHNOLOGY WAS NEEDED TO BRIDGE THE GAP BETWEEN EDUCATIONAL THEORY AND THE PRACTICE OF TEACHING. THE CHIEF GOAL WAS TO DEVELOP A PROCEDURE FOR TEACHING CHILDREN THE METHOD OF DIFFERENCE, THE PROBLEM-SOLVING STRATEGY IN WHICH EACH FACTOR IS VARIED IN SUCCESSION WHILE ALL OTHER FACTORS ARE HELD CONSTANT. THE COMPONENTS, SCOPE, AND LIMITATIONS…

A SERIES OF EXPERIMENTS WAS DESIGNED TO STUDY THE VALUE OF TEACHING CHILDREN SUCH A COMPLEX PROBLEM-SOLVING STRATEGY AS TO USE KNOWLEDGE OF RESULTS AFTER A PERFORMANCE TRIAL TO REJECT MORE THAN ONE HYPOTHESIS AT A TIME (MULTIPLE HYPOTHESIS STRATEGY). APPROXIMATELY 150 THIRD-GRADE CHILDREN WERE DIVIDED INTO 3 GROUPS--THOSE TAUGHT THE MULTIPLE…

This study investigated the relationships between Piagetian logical reasoning abilities with an information processing capacity, and first-grade children's performance on verbal addition and subtraction problems. An analysis of simple arithmetic problems indicated that several reasoning abilities identified by Piaget are needed to achieve…

Objectives, with sample test items and explanations of answers are presented for instruction in judgment and logic in analyzing fallacies and weaknesses in arguments. This type of material is not usually taught in pre-college curricula, but has been geared for the secondary grades. Each fallacy is explained after the stated objective, and answers…

TO INCREASE THE YOUNG EDUCABLE MENTAL RETARDATE'S KNOWLEDGE OF APPROPRIATE SOCIAL RESPONSES, A TRAINING PROGRAM WAS DESIGNED UTILIZING THE PRACTICAL SYLLOGISM. SUBJECT GROUPS, AGED 3-9 TO 10-3, INCLUDED (1) 32 EDUCABLE MENTAL RETARDATES WITH A MEAN IQ OF 66, DIVIDED INTO CONTROL AND EXPERIMENTAL GROUPS OF 16 EACH, (2) 16 AVERAGE CHILDREN WITH IQ'S…

This experiment tested the hypothesis that stimulation in a given mode of discourse (e.g., the argumentative, or "A", mode of theme writing) will improve the quality of compositions written in that mode, but decrease the quality in another mode (e.g., the descriptive, or "D", mode). Ninety first-graders were required to write two themes in the "D"…

Two examples of student prose are analysed as instances of the unreasoned, illogical thinking which the author considers prevalent at the university level today. Causes for student inability to communicate by means of objective argument are explored, and a course, "Investigation, Thinking, and Arguing," is outlined as a suggested replacement for…

The 16 lessons in this course--the result of experiments conducted with 7th-and 8th-grade pupils at Nettelhorst School in Chicago--deal with "the relationship between language and thought, with the scientific use of language, and with some misuses of language." Each lesson has two parts: (1) a "Teacher Summary" which gives the basic semantic…

The three papers presented in this publication examine in depth the thought and practices that currently prevail in the specialized areas of reading and concept attainment. Two of the papers deal with concept learning and the transformation of this knowledge into instructional guidelines. The third paper considers the importance o f concept…

The Chinese language has long been regarded, mostly by historians and philosophers, as an inadequate vehicle for developing science. This is because the Chinese have developed only correlational logic, analogical thought and relational thinking, which are inappropriate to science. The cause is said to be the structure of Chinese, specifically: (1)…

A method of examining individual variation in responses to Inhelder-Piaget formal reasoning tasks is proposed as a means of identifying cognitive style components of formal reason and as a means of generating more complete descriptions of observable manifestations of formal reasoning. The method is one used by human ethologists and consists of…

In reviewing the ancient, well-worn debate on the relationship between literature and values, it may be seen that the current pedagogical theory of developing response to literature is parallel to the argument for helping students articulate their own values. Two approaches to clarifying values are the values clarification approach (Louis Raths,…