Examines relationship between Connected and Separate Knowing dimensions of Knowledge Styles Inventory (K. Knight and others, 1994) and learning modes of A. Kolb (1984), formal operational reasoning (B. Inhelder and J. Piaget, 1958, 1975; G. Tobin and W. Capie, 1981), and vocabulary and abstract thinking abilities (W. Shipley, 1940). Findings…

The use of facilitated communication by a 13-year-old boy with autism, severe mental retardation, and a seizure disorder is described. Several specific answers given to questions about short stories the facilitator was not familiar with indicated that, not only did the subject originate his own responses, he also demonstrated simple inferential…

Tested with adolescents and adults two predictions from Markovits and Barrouillet's developmental model of conditional reasoning related to the effects of the association between antecedent and consequent terms and the formulation of the minor premise on uncertainty responses. Found results consistent with hypotheses and indicating importance of…

Findings from a large database on student learning (videotapes over 10 years in 10 elementary and secondary school classrooms) show that when students engage in conversations in the presence of material objects, these objects provide a phenomenal background against which students can enact metaphorical gestures that embody entities that are…

Contrasts students' presymbolic and symbolic procedures in generalizing activities. Uses the semiotic-cultural theoretical approach and focuses on the role of body, discourse, and signs when students refer to mathematical objects. Identifies types of generalizations and discusses a specific kind of rupture in the ostensive gestures and…

This study found that 33 children (ages 7-16) with learning disabilities were deficient in their inferential skills compared to normally achieving children but were not deficient in the metacognitive skill of paying attention to errors. Results also indicated that LD children do not constitute a homogeneous group. (JDD)

Discussion of students' prior knowledge and its effect on analogical reasoning focuses on four case studies of high school and college students that were designed to determine factors important for success in overcoming misconceptions via analogical reasoning. Explanatory models are explained, and abstract transfer versus explanatory model…

Discusses issues stimulated by Elizabeth Hatton's examination of teachers' work as "bricolage" in a prior article. Explores the connection between creative potential and pedagogic knowledge and the science of the abstract and the concrete. Presents potential reforms that could enhance teachers' capacity to gain pedagogic knowledge. (JS)

Twenty-one autistic and 21 nonautistic retarded adolescents and young adults were compared on British Picture Vocabulary Scale items considered emotion-related or highly abstract. Autistic subjects' lower scores on emotion-related items suggest autism-specific impairments in grasping these concepts. No differences were found for abstract/concrete…

Specific teaching strategies to help hearing-impaired secondary students comprehend abstract concepts include (1) pinpointing facts and fallacies, (2) organizing information visually, (3) categorizing ideas, and (4) reinforcing new vocabulary and concepts. Figures provide examples of strategy applications. (DB)

Presents young children's concepts related to probability grouped by definite, possible, and definitely not. Discusses the teaching methods of the probability concepts. (YP)

Discusses the spatial aspects of Greeno's model of conceptual domains and applies the theory to geometry learning. Examines the relationship between mathematical and spatial thinking in light of Greeno's environmental/spatial view of learning. (Contains 16 references.) (MDH)

Describes a map skills unit used in a second grade classroom in which teachers and students engaged in activites that moved from the concrete to the abstract and from trips around the school neighborhood to a "trip" to Europe. An insert includes two map study ideas for use in intermediate grades. (SM)

The comprehensibility, interestingness, familiarity, and memorability of concrete and abstract instructional texts were studied in 4 experiments involving 221 college students. Results indicate that concreteness (ease of imagery) is the variable overwhelmingly most related to comprehensibility and recall. Dual coding theory and schema theory are…

(MDH)