The U.S. Department of Education's Higher Education Center for Alcohol and Other Drug Abuse and Violence Prevention publishes "Catalyst," a newsletter covering current Alcohol and Other Drug Abuse and Violence (AODV) prevention issues at institutions of higher education. "Catalyst" discusses emerging issues and highlights innovative efforts on…

This study examined the use of form and function analogy object boxes to teach second graders (n = 21) animal adaptations. The study used a pretest-posttest design to examine animal adaptation content learned through focused analogy activities as compared with reading and Internet searches for information about adaptations of animals followed by…

Peer collaboration can be a useful tool in a school classroom to help students perform at their best. With whom should students be paired, though? Previous research yields inconsistent findings regarding whether the benefits of peer collaboration depend on the gender or friendship of collaborators. We paired students with a same-gender friend or a…

This response to Myers's concept of the teacher as a service professional considers each of his positions in analogy form. With support from the literature from education and elsewhere, the article maintains that teaching is a profession and that it matters greatly to teachers and society that it be strengthened as such. Examples are offered…

Preschool teachers use the domino effect--standing dominos on end in rows and pushing one over--to examine how play contributes to children's acquisition of knowledge. Using diagrams, photos, and vignettes of children between the ages of 3 and 5 years, the authors demonstrate how children at different stages of development use physical knowledge…

Since Polya, Wertheimer, and Hadamard's descriptions of qualitative reasoning strategies used by scientists and mathematicians, very little data have been collected on whether these strategies are actually used by experts. This study used video-taped thinking-aloud interviews to examine the problem solving strategies of professors and advanced…

A criticism of Youniss' (1975) dialectical conception of Piaget's figurative-operative distinction. It is suggested that the figurative-operative distinction does not meet the criteria for a subject-object dialectic. (JMB)

The study of problem solving is made through the analysis of the process that leads to the final answer. The type of information obtained through the study of the process is compared with the information obtained by studying the final answer. The experimental technique used permits to identify the sequence of questions (tactics) that subjects ask…

Discussion of Piaget's three catagories of contradiction. (MS)

Analyzes the Gambler's Fallacy, the perception of interdependence among events which are in fact unrelated. Describes how reasoning errors occur when the perceived interdependence influences predictions about subsequent events. Elaborates the distinction between Gambler's Fallacy and similar but sound reasoning strategies. (BH)

Describes how certain tendencies in reasoning, namely the failure to consider negative instances disconfirming evidence for one's hypotheses, may interfere with accurate personal and social judgments. Presents suggestions for clinical interventions that would help clients negate the destructive hypothesis they may have about themselves or others.…

Assessed 3- to 7-year-old children's sensitivity to logical necessity by contrasting performance in insufficient and sufficient information conditions. A search task used in Experiments 1 and 2 allowed children to search for additional information in insufficient conditions. A judgement condition used in Experiment 2 required a "can't tell"…

Reasoning and imagining are seen as very different acts of mind. Imagination connotes the counterfactual and the unruly; reasoning connotes a realistic and rule-bound activity. Good reasoning depends crucially on the vigorous exercise of imagination. Good informal reasoning is as difficult, and as dependent on imagination, as mathematical…

Logical positivism, or logical empiricism, emphasizes rationality, especially preferring the verification of facts over speculation. This report clearly places traditional research methodology in education in the arena of logical positivism. Since reality is seen as ordered and objective, assumptions are made about people and the gathering of…