It has been suggested that preverbal infants evaluate the efficiency of others' actions (by applying a "principle of rational action") and that they imitate others' actions rationally. The present contribution presents a conceptual analysis of the claim that preverbal infants imitate rationally. It shows that this ability rests on at least three…

Identifying the challenges his students faced both with recall and analysis of the content they had learned for their GCSE course, Ed Durbin devised a solution which focused not on exam skills and revision lessons, but on using Key Stage 3 to build the 'hinterland' of contextual knowledge and causal analysis his students required to make sense of…

This set of seven experiments examines reasoning about the inheritance and acquisition of physical properties in preschoolers, undergraduates, and biology experts. Participants (N = 390) received adoption vignettes in which a baby animal was born to one parent but raised by a biologically unrelated parent, and they judged whether the offspring…

We have applied the heuristic-analytic theory of reasoning to interpret inconsistencies in student reasoning approaches to physics problems. This study was motivated by an emerging body of evidence that suggests that student conceptual and reasoning competence demonstrated on one task often fails to be exhibited on another. Indeed, even after…

Temporal and causal information in text are crucial in helping the reader form a coherent representation of a narrative. Deaf novice readers are generally poor at processing linguistic markers of causal/temporal information (i.e., connectives), but what is unclear is whether this is indicative of a more general deficit in reasoning about…

Problems teaching probability in Tonga (in the South Pacific) led to the question how language and culture affect the understanding of probability and uncertainty. The research uses a discursive approach to find the endorsed narratives which underlie Tongans' reasoning in situations of uncertainty. I aim to justify the claim that the Tongan…

Teachers are viewed as the most significant factor affecting student learning. However, research in science education showed that teachers often demonstrate misunderstandings of science very similar to students. The purpose of this research was to correct conceptual difficulties in science of Thai primary school science and non-science teachers…

Mathematical reasoning ability, are component that must be governable by the student. Mathematical reasoning plays an important role, both in solving problems and in conveying ideas when learning mathematics. In fact there ability are not still developed well, even in middle school. The importance of mathematical reasoning ability (KPM are…

The relevance of the article in question is that the success of pupils' learning depends not only on the aptitude of pupils, but also on the teaching technique, including universal educational technique of various complexities. This problem is relevant on all levels of learning--from nursery schools up to higher education, including refresher…

We investigated how participants associated with each other and developed community in a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) about Rhizomatic Learning (Rhizo14).We compared learner experiences in two social networking sites (SNSs), Facebook and Twitter. Our combination of thematic analysis of qualitative survey data with analysis of participant…

As an extension to an activity introducing Year 5 students to the practice of statistics, the software "TinkerPlots" made it possible to collect repeated random samples from a finite population to informally explore students' capacity to begin reasoning with a distribution of sample statistics. This article provides background for the…

This research investigates the social learning affordances of a room-sized, immersive, and interactive augmented reality simulation environment designed to support children's understanding of basic physics concepts in a science center. Conversations between 97 parent-child pairs were analyzed in relation to categories of talk through which…

This paper explores the nature of students' quantitative reasoning and conceptions of functions supporting their ability to symbolize quadratic function rules, and the meanings students make of these rules. We analyzed middle school students' problem solving activity during a small group teaching experiment (n = 6) emphasizing quadratic growth…

Offering expertise in the teaching of writing (Kim Jaxon) and the teaching of science (Leslie Atkins Elliott and Irene Salter), this book will help instructors create classrooms in which students use writing to learn and think scientifically. The authors provide concrete approaches for engaging students in practices that mirror the work that…

The Theory of Formal Discipline (TFD) suggests that studying mathematics improves general thinking skills. Empirical evidence for the TFD is sparse, yet it is cited in policy reports as a justification for the importance of mathematics in school curricula. The study reported in this article investigated the extent to which influential UK advocates…