Reports survey results on proof conceptions. Presents an overview of responses at the end of year 8 (age 13 years) and year 9 (age 14 years). Distinguishes three strategies--empirical, focused-empirical, and focused-deductive--that represent shifts in attention from an inductive to a deductive approach. Indicates some progress from year 8 to year…

A theoretical model of person memory and judgment--the processes underlying the formation of person impressions--is presented. It incorporates both specific behaviors and abstract personality dispositions or behavioral tendencies. The model accounts for factors affecting recall of social information and interpersonal judgments and is applicable to…

Three basic orientations to problem solving are defined and related to four profiles of problem environment. The contingency between problem-solving orientations and problem environment is presented by means of three formal models that are translated to fit the students' learning environment. Implications for further studies are discussed. (JD)

Three experiments investigated children's typical errors in judging the truth of universally quantified conditional sentences containing "P and not-Q." The error survived on sentences referring to particular things. For second- and fifth-graders, the error survived for nonuniversally quantified conditionals, and for second-graders, the…

Discusses Vygotsky's theories about concept formation, his distinctions between everyday and theoretical concepts, and how empirical generalizations can lead to misconceptions. Examines the implications of these theories for mathematics instruction and its relationship to the current mathematics reform. (34 references) (MDH)

Studied children's grasp of make-believe transformations they had seen enacted. Children indicated the pretend outcome by choosing a picture depicting no change or a picture depicting the pretend change. Older children chose correctly, even with the addition of a picture of an irrelevant transformation, but younger children did not. Autistic…

Presents a model for teaching reasoning using technology in the contexts of algebra and geometry. (MKR)

Three- and four-year olds were asked to recall their own or another person's actions and to acknowledge the false belief upon which the action was based. They showed excellent recall of inappropriate actions based on a false belief, but failed to use the recalled action as a clue to acknowledge the false belief upon which it was based. (TJQ)

Comments on the articles presented in this issue devoted to the Japanese perspectives on conceptual change. Discusses the overall conveyed message: The human cognitive system is a thematically organized knowledge base with agentive causality as the main mechanism for explain phenomena and analogy as the main mechanism for promoting conceptual…

Comments on the articles presented in this issue devoted to the Japanese perspectives on conceptual change. Suggests that different approaches to knowledge acquisition and conceptual change should be carefully examined in light of their implications for the teaching of science. Discusses critically the issues advanced from the Japanese…

Presents research findings and teaching implications of mathematics as reasoning and students' reasoning abilities in mathematics. (20 references) (MKR)

Describes four projects that support the transition from an abstract to a concrete notion of the effective use of technology in the secondary school classroom: The Interactive Mathematics Program, Systemic Initiative for Montana Mathematics and Science, University of Chicago School Mathematics Project, and Connected Geometry. (MKR)

Discusses the historical, cultural, and pedagogical roots, as well as reasons inherent in mathematical thought that may explain U.S. students' resistance to learning mathematics. Concludes that bridging the gap between theory and practice can be facilitated by a hands-on approach that employs experiments and model making. (PR)

Describes a model for generative teaching of comprehension that focuses on students' knowledge base and preconceptions; motivation; attention; and generation of new models and explanations. Generative teaching procedures for facilitating comprehension in elementary school are reported. (Author/LB)

This study with 12 elementary school children with mild mental retardationship found that the relation between lexical knowledge and mental age depended upon the nature of the vocabulary test. Results suggested that mental age in this population was more strongly related to knowledge of abstract relational terms than to knowledge of labels for…