Applies discourse analysis to an interview with Noam Chomsky to show the use of language to facilitate authority. Discusses idealism and scientism, change and the role of the intellectual, Chomsky's dualism, his "problem," his method, creativity and composition, activism and the intellectual, and the future of intellectualism. (PRA)

Adolescents with mental retardation viewed a story enacted with props and were asked questions about the knowledge and beliefs of the characters. Subjects performed worse than did nondisabled children matched for mental age. Subjects did better on questions requiring first-order reasoning than on those involving second-order reasoning. (Author/JDD)

Employing a sample of 51 12-year-old British secondary pupils, a study analyzed children's written and oral responses to a series of (contradictory) historical questions concerning the Boston Massacre of 1770. Many students were capable of abstract historical reasoning--critiquing sources, detecting bias and ambiguity, and determining flaws in…

Shares the results of a study in which 204 first grade students were interviewed. Interprets the findings in light of Piaget's emphasis on abstraction. Concludes that children represent ideas at their respective levels of abstraction. (Author/ASK)

Describes the different types of reasoning in scientific research activity. Outlines three different but complementary ways to integrate history into the presentation of science. Considers and illustrates the close historical relationship between mathematics and physics. (Contains 50 references.) (ASK)

Proposes that children progressively recognize deeper and deeper similarities between their physical angle experiences, and classify them firstly into specific situations, then into more general contexts, and finally into abstract domains. Indicates that the standard angle concept first develops in situations where both arms of the angle are…

A study investigated whether 73 adults with mental retardation had difficulty understanding emotion-descriptive concepts and whether that difficulty can be attributed to difficulty with abstract concepts. Participants performed better on nonemotion than emotion concepts measures. There were no differences between abstract and nonabstract concepts…

Examines the criteria that middle school students, nonscientist adults, technicians, and scientists used to rate the validity of conclusions drawn by hypothetical students from a set of evidence. The sources of the groups' differing epistemic criteria rest in their different spheres of cultural practice. Explores implications of this perspective…

Describes 15 types of analogies, their facilitating function in mental processing, the kinds of knowledge for which they are most effectively employed, and their applicability across subject matter. Eight steps for constructing and presenting analogies and types of analogical relationships are included. Prevention of misconceptions is discussed.…

Describes and analyzes a learning episode in which two children in year 4 interact with each other and their teacher while playing a probability game involving chocolate M&Ms. Children developed key ideas in probability from a game that was designed to produce cognitive conflict. (ASK)

This study compared the spatial-geometrical abilities of 85 students (ages 5-13) with learning disabilities (LD) and 94 children without LD, matched for IQ and age. Generally, students with LD did not perform as well as same-aged students without LD, suggesting that LD students experience delayed development in this general spatial-cognitive…

Presents a theoretical framework based on interviews with undergraduate students and written questionnaires to study how undergraduate students cope with abstract algebra concepts. Indicates that students' responses can be interpreted as a result of reducing the level of abstraction. Examines the theme of reducing abstraction based on three…

Presents the first of two articles examining Alfred North Whitehead's notion of the rhythm of the university, discussing the rhythm of teaching and learning, the importance of academic freedom to an imaginative faculty, and the relationship between Whitehead's own pedagogy and his considerable administrative practice. The paper's purpose is to…

We comment on the paper "The co-emergence of machine techniques, paper-and-pencil techniques, and theoretical reflection: A study of CAS use in secondary school algebra" by Carolyn Kieran and Paul Drijvers. We look at aspects of Kieran and Drijvers' analysis with regard to "task-technique-theory" in the light of a model of abstraction in context…

As engineers gain experience and become experts in their domain, the structure and content of their knowledge changes. Two studies are presented that examine differences in knowledge representation among freshman and senior engineering students. The first study examines recall of mechanical devices and chunking of components, and the second…