Restatement and paraphrase, and the syntactic operations that generate them, can serve as the basis for techniques involving explanation, and the production of new sentences in the second language classroom. The basic operations involved are known intuitively by the native speaker but must be taught and practiced if the ESL learner is to get a…

Conceptual level is a personal characteristic that describes persons on a developmental hierarchy of increasing conceptual complexity, self-responsibility, and independence. The relationship between gender and conceptual level was explored in a group of 70 male and 63 female college students. The This I Believe Test (TIB) was administered to…

A year-long seminar for elementary teachers in analytic thinking for children (ATC) is offered at the School of Education at Texas Wesleyan College. ATC uses philosophy and logic to help children understand how they think and to improve their reasoning. Four guidelines are given: (1) Discuss the nature and function of authorities and arguments…

Reported are results of a study that examined the relationships between university students' entry characteristics and achievement in biology. Variables judged most likely to be predictors of achievement were: (1) scholastic aptitude (quantitative and verbal); (2) level of cognitive development; (3) locus of control; (4) grade point average; (5)…

Linear syllogisms present two premises, each describing a relation between two terms. The individual's task is to infer the relation among the three terms of the linear syllogism, and then answer a question about one or more of these relations. For example, "John is taller than Bob. Sam is shorter than Bob. Who is the tallest?" Students…

It has been suggested that cognitive style interacts with performance on tasks measuring formal thought. It is hypothesized that cognitive style interacts with task context rather than with the underlying formal thought processes. Experiments are reported to clarify the type of task that elicits an interaction and to determine whether such…

This selected bibliography lists 489 monographs, articles, and reports dealing with reasoning skills and their applications to social science problems. These citations, representing those items acquired by the Center for Reasoning Studies at Piedmont Technical College, include theoretical works on problem-solving, values education,…

This curriculum program is intended to promote the development of primary grade children's ability to think. A number of learning activities or tasks are presented along with the teaching strategy to be used in implementing them. The first part of the book describes aspects of the teaching strategy, including selecting activities, preparing for…

This study assesses the abilities of kindergarten children who attended the Mt. Druitt Early Childhood Project (MDECP) in Australia to apply logical processes to mathematic problems not generally found in the classroom. The mathematical abilities of 56 children enrolled in one of the MDECP's five programs (competency, cognitive, behaviorist,…

The set of three units, designed for middle and junior high school gifted students, includes 30 lessons on logic and critical thinking. Each lesson includes information on objectives, materials, and teaching presentation suggestions. Ten deductive reasoning lessons focus on such topics as fact and opinion, tests for validity of deductive…

Three studies to determine the effects of adult models on interrogative strategies of children (ages 6-11) are reviewed. Two issues are analyzed: (1) the comparative effectiveness of various types of modeling procedures for changing rule-governed behaviors, and (2) the interaction between observational learning and the developmental level of the…

Two experiments which investigated the young child's ability to deal with multiplicative classes and relations (considered behavioral indices of concrete operations thought) in double series and cross class matrices are described and discussed. In the initial study, 160 children from preschool through grade 2 received six matrix subtasks…

This research investigated the use of conditional language by students in fifth, sixth, and seventh grades on four types of tasks, and compared this usage with scores on the Cornell Conditional Reasoning Test (CCRT) and with the ability to recall information. One hundred thirty-two subjects were randomly selected from school populations, and…

The research findings of Siegel, Wohlwill, Goodman, and others suggest that reading is a thinking skill which may be facilitated by the instruction of transferable problem-solving skills. In order to maximize learning in young children, it is important to provide opportunities which allow the exchange of information and concepts from one activity…

Presented in the bibliography is information on approximately 60 commercially distributed instruction materials or programs appropriate for use with handicapped preschool children. Program summaries are grouped into the following categories: gross motor, fine motor, perception, reasoning, language, social, infants, and core (covering three or more…