An experiment was designed to test the hypothesis that abstract materials increase accuracy in solving categorical syllogisms. In an attempt to encourage subjects to reason their way through the problems rather than to make judgments about the truth or desirability of the proffered conclusions, the premises were composed of familiar words in…

This study examined the relative effectiveness of two variations of an elective course on self-control and study behavior in modifying academic performance of freshmen undergraduate students enrolled in the independent studies program of the Universidad Simon Bolivar, in Venezuela. Of the 29 freshmen students selected to participate in this study,…

The Philosophy for Children Program was introduced to a class of deaf fifth graders as an instructional approach for reasoning skills. The program is intended to develop analytic skills required for intellectual functioning (including concept development, generalization, inference making, question formulation, and analogies). The program's major…

While teaching mechanical aspects of writing in English as a second language (ESL) to ten- and eleven-year-olds has been found to be relatively simple, the most difficult thing to teach, and the first to break down when guidance is removed, is logical information sequencing. Without guidance, most children will produce random sentences, but when…

A basic problem of disadvantaged students is their inability to deal with information: to assist the teacher the Niagara Centre of the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education has described a set of skills sequences that might be called Basic Thinking Skills. (JM)

The general purposes of this study were to analyze responses on five Piagetian formal operational tasks in a test-retest situation to determine the extent to which taking a pretest effected scores on posttests and to determine task and examiner reliabilities. Significant test score gains on Piagetian tasks appeared to result from test-retest…

The unified theory described in this paper characterizes human reasoning as an information processing system with a hierarchical sequence of components and subtheories that account for performance on successively narrower tasks. Both deductive and inductive theories are subsumed in the unified componential theory, including transitive chain theory…

The complex and multi-faceted nature of the cognitive process of reasoning is discussed. The factor-analytic history of the isolation and definition of the three most important currently recognized reasoning factors (general reasoning, induction, and logical or deductive reasoning) is traced through the psychometric literature, and the…

This paper develops a comprehensive and coordinated strategy for teaching critical reading and rational decision-making skills to college students. Five skills are identified as essential for developing sound reasoning processes: (1) developing an objective viewpoint, (2) identifying and clarifying an evaluative statement--the difference between…

This newsletter, published eight times during the academic year, is intended for elementary teachers interested in open education. The newsletter includes descriptions of actual classroom projects, discussions of teaching techniques, and sources of curriculum and instructional materials. This issue contains a description of several sets of logic…

This study examined the effects of certain contextual linguistic variables on the logical performance of subjects in grades 4, 6, and 12 of selected British Columbia schools as well as some theoretical problems underlying assessment of the development of logical abilities. The task consisted of 27 syllogistic problems based upon the information…

This document is a study guide designed to accompany an astronomy workshop conducted by the Task Group on Education in Astronomy. The purpose of the workshop is to improve the teaching of introductory astronomy courses for high-school and college non-science majors. Titles of the sections include: (1) Student Reasoning Patterns; (2) Analysis of…

THE DEVELOPMENT OF CRITICAL THINKING ABILITIES IS A PERVASIVE AND IMPORTANT OBJECTIVE OF AMERICAN SECONDARY AND HIGHER EDUCATION. ALTHOUGH CRITICAL THINKING ABILITIES HAVE RECEIVED RECOGNITION AS WORTHY EDUCATIONAL GOALS, FEW STUDY GROUPS AND EVEN FEWER TEACHERS ARE ABLE TO DEFINE THE MEANS OF INSTRUCTION THROUGH WHICH SUCH GOALS ARE REALIZED. IN…

College students were compared to adults for their reading comprehension of news items on two critical issues of national concern. The subjects were 109 adults and 97 college students who read ten short magazine articles on the Iran-United States hostage crisis and the U.S. energy problem. After reading the articles, the subjects' comprehension…