Investigated proportional reasoning of a select group of older, college-bound adolescents on a task set in a geometric/spatial context with a multiple-proportion, multiplicative structure. Sex-related differences and the influence of course experience in mathematics and science were also investigated. (JN)

Mathematically gifted boys (N=77) and girls (N=62) completed a mathematics reasoning test, a verbal reasoning test, a measure of spatial ability, and a personality test. Findings indicated that boys not only have higher mathematical reasoning ability than girls, but also that this ability is the single best predictor of their mathematical…

Describes three experiments that tested autistic children's nonverbal and verbal categorization abilities. Concludes that autistic children do not suffer a specific cognitive deficit in ability to categorize and form abstract concepts. (HOD)

Describes teaching students how to evaluate materials containing judgments based on a modification of a model by J. E. Sparks and C. Johnson called the pyramid of reading power. (EL)

Lawson's test was used with 66 ninth grade and 63 tenth grade students. Results show: that boys outperformed girls; a small correlation between achievement in science and mathematics and the Lawson test; and that Israeli students achieved significantly higher than United States students on the Piagetian skills measured by the test. (Author/JN)

This study examined whether postprimary education enhances informal reasoning skills, operationalized as skill in constructing arguments about everyday issues. Eight subject groups, balanced for six, ranged over high school, college, graduate school, and nonstudents with or without bachelor's degrees. (Author/BS)

Data from 60 observations of 10 teachers and 10 each of their students showed that type/quality of teaching strategy predicted 37 percent of variance in engagement and that the more indirect the teaching strategy, the greater the students' involvement in learning tasks. Implications of these and other findings are discussed. (Author/JN)

A lesson on the French Revolution illustrates how reading, writing, reasoning, and researching skills can be integrated into history instruction. (RM)

Contends that current efforts to resolve the crisis in science education will have very little impact on the problem as a whole. Suggests that preservice and inservice teacher education programs focus on helping teachers grasp subject matter and their capacity for abstract, logical reasoning. (JN)

A study of a group of Australian primary student teachers' reasoning ability and its relationship to prior science studies, science elective choice during teacher training, and integrated process skill achievement in a preservice science education course, are discussed, as are their implications regarding their effectiveness in teaching science at…

A relationship was postulated between the experienced difficulty of patterns and the amount of disorientation of their reproduction. It was proposed that the underlying factor, in the comparison of Africans to Europeans, might be the development of the concept of horizontality, which reduces dependence on the perceptual pull of the prevailing…

The development of abstract mathematical thinking is an essential part of mathematics and the geometry is regarded as a suitable domain to serve this purpose. As different technologies such as computers and graphing calculators are widely being used, curriculum developers on geometry should take these technologies into consideration. Several…

Although mathematics deals with generalizations relating abstract ideas, very little attention has been given in the mathematics education literature to the role of abstraction and generalization in the development of mathematical knowledge. In this paper, the meanings of "abstraction" and "generalization" are first explored by…

Nearly a quarter of a century ago, John G. Nicholls proposed the four developmental levels of motivational reasoning that focused upon the roles that ability and effort play in academic success. These levels theoretically begin at early childhood and end at adolescence. This report attempts to validate the developmental and predictive nature of…

Activities designed for primary children to develop the geographic concepts of spatial arrangement and location, as well as to build basic map skills, are outlined. (Author/KM)