A study with 57 second graders identified some logically irrelevant transformations that children considered relevant in relation to the weight of an object. Two logically relevant transformations, movement upward and movement downward, were irrelevant to the subjects, whether texture, continuity, temperature, and darkness were generally…

Because traditional instruction ignores students' personal construction of mathematical meaning, mathematical thought development is not properly nurtured. Several issues must be addressed, including adults' ignorance of math- and student-learning processes, identification of math-education research specialists, the myth of coverage, testing…

A qualitative approach was used to examine the cognitive processes students engaged in while playing recreational computer games. Participants were 21 high school students. Results indicated that players practiced complex cognitive processes such as interpreting explicit and implicit information, inductive reasoning, metacognitive analysis, and…

Twenty-eight sign language interpreters participated in a battery of tests to determine if a profile of cognitive, motor, attention, and personality attributes might distinguish them as a group and at different credential levels. Eight interpreters held Level II and nine held Level III Virginia Quality Assurance Screenings (VQAS); the other 11…

A culturally appropriate test, The Test of Ability To Explain for Zulu-speaking Children (TATE-ZC), was developed to measure verbal problem solving skills of rural, Zulu-speaking, primary school children. Principles of "non-biased" assessment, as well as emic (culture specific) and etic (universal) aspects of intelligence formed the theoretical…

Despite the importance accorded to helping students make conceptual connections and arrive at a more sophisticated understanding of how ideas, concepts, theories, and explanations interact with and inform one another, educators have few maps to help them describe the process by which students learn to make these connections. Through skill theory,…

This paper contains a consideration of the nature and role of warrants for research conclusions in educational research. The paper argues the need for an explicit warrant in the form of a logical and persuasive link between the evidence produced and the conclusions drawn (with appropriate qualifications and caveats). It describes social scientific…

Undergraduate biology programs are currently undergoing reform to involve students in biomedical research. Engaging students in more active, hands-on experiments allows students to discover scientific principles for themselves, and to develop techniques of critical thinking and problem solving. This models the world of real scientific research,…

One of the most challenging daily experiences of teaching young adolescents is helping them transition from Piaget's concrete to the formal operational stage of cognitive development during the middle school years. Students who have reached formal operations can design and test hypotheses, engage in deductive reasoning, use flexible thinking,…

A study investigated whether expressive writing facilitated abstraction in language use, thereby improving reading comprehension. Ninety students enrolled in four required basic skills reading courses at a suburban community college in New Jersey were divided into a control and an experimental group. Students in the experimental group wrote…

Two studies were conducted to determine the effects of gender, reasoning level, and inductive and deductive computer-simulated experiments (CSE) on problem-solving abilities in introductory general chemistry. In the pilot study, 254 subjects were randomly assigned to control (computer-assisted-instruction tutorials), inductive or deductive CSE…

Because analogical reasoning plays a major role in content area reading comprehension, teachers should learn to teach analogy-solving skills and to identify the kinds of difficulties some elementary students will have in solving them. Analogies are statements of relationships wherein one term is similar to another term. Relationships in analogy…

This paper takes the position that logical knowledge is distinct from conceptual and procedural knowledge and can make a unique contribution to the understanding of knowledge acquisition. This view of logical knowledge departs from the traditional Piagetian view of stages and the overriding view of logic as the sole means of constructing new…

A study of the effects of the Instrumental Enrichment cognitive intervention program with 41 severely hearing impaired secondary school students was conducted. Experimental and control groups were compared in regard to general cognitive functioning, problem-solving strategies, reading comprehension, and mathematics. Experimental subjects were…

This paper provides a brief overview of some of the current thought on teaching problem-solving and decision-making skills and presents selected exercises that have been used successfully in a graduate course in problem-solving and decision-making strategies. In addition to learning theories that are presented in order to help learners understand…