Knowledge about the structure of arithmetic expressions enables people to reason effectively about such expressions, including an ability to judge equivalence under transformations. This paper reports an empirical study of six middle-school children who judged the equivalence of three sets of three-term arithmetic expressions with an addition and…

Research on mathematics instruction is reviewed in order to respond to two questions: (1) Has the influx of talented people who have entered the mathematics instruction field over the last three decades changed anything? and (2) Will any of the work being done actually improve mathematics instruction? The different ways in which parents, students,…

A study sought to determine if there were significant relationships among preservice teachers' learning style, attitude toward reading, composite score on the American College Test (ACT), declared major, high school grade point average, vocabulary score, and reading comprehension score in predicting performance in a basic skills course in reading…

Critical thinking skills were taught to students in a lower-track freshman English class through the use of cross-disciplinary subject matter. Given a set of three transmission electron micrographs, or photographs of magnified tissue used in histology and pathology, students were asked to support their conclusions on which two of micrographs A, B,…

A training study, consisting of three treatment cycles for a total of nine 50-minute class sessions, was conducted to determine the combined effect of directed reading-thinking activity (DRTA) and conceptual mapping as organizational strategies for college freshmen of low writing ability. Each cycle included DRTA instruction, mapping, discussion,…

Prepared by writing center directors, the articles in this book examine the pedagogical theories of tutorial services and relate them to actual center practices. The 19 articles are arranged into three categories: writing center theory, writing center administration, and special concerns. Specific topics discussed in the articles include the…

The future of computers in education and the research needed to realize the computer's potential are discussed in this report, which presents a summary and the conclusions from an invitational conference involving 40 computer scientists, psychologists, educational researchers, teachers, school administrators, and parents. The summary stresses the…

The articles in this collection approach the theme of "Reading in the Age of the Computer" in a variety of ways. Topics covered in the 26 articles include the following: (1) children, school, and computers; (2) new kinds of electronic learning environments; (3) the personal computer for creative learning and thinking; (4) going beyond…

This paper is a review of the research literature related to theories of reasoning and teacher thinking. Judgment theory, decision theory, and problem-solving theory are discussed. Reviews are provided for studies from three major research projects on teacher thinking: The Institute for Research on Teaching, Special Study C of the Beginning…

The purpose of this descriptive study was to investigate the developmental patterns in logical reasoning of students in grades 6-10 over a span of 20 months. The Group Assessment of Logical Thinking (GALT) was administered to the sample (N=84) during the fall of 1986, the fall of 1987, and the spring of 1988. The GALT measures six reasoning modes:…

The combinational-format item (CFI)--multiple-choice item with combinations of alternatives presented as response choices--was studied to determine whether CFIs were different from regular multiple-choice items in item characteristics or in cognitive processing demands. Three undergraduate Foundations of Education classes (consisting of a total of…

This paper examines the cognitive processes associated with higher-order thinking strategies--i.e., cognitive processes directly associated with the employment of knowledge in the service of problem solving and creativity--in order to more clearly define a prescribed instructional method to improve problem-solving skills. The first section of the…

Synergistic psychology has been proposed as a meta theory for synthesizing different psychological theories into an explanation of how social, cognitive, and biological factors interact in human behavior. The basic theoretical assumption in synergistic psychology is that internalized social interactions become higher mental functions that regulate…

A study examined preschool children's awareness of literacy. Subjects included 18 children from 2 classrooms of prekindergarten children who lived in a black, inner-city neighborhood and attended a school that believed in providing formal reading and writing instruction in the prekindergarten year. Subjects were asked how they were learning, how…

The Scientific Theory and Method Project (STAMPS) is concerned with students' understanding of two areas of science in secondary schools. One is understanding what a scientific theory is, and the other is understanding the methods used in conducting scientific research. In the science curriculum these topics are often described as the process of…