Subjects between adolescence and older adulthood were asked to describe their causal theories for three social problems. Links between informal reasoning, as displayed by subjects in the study, and scientific reasoning are examined, and the development of reasoning competency is discussed. (BC)

Asserts the importance of developing in students an intrinsic valuing of intellectual activities as the firmest basis for sustaining intellectual motivation. Discusses how to develop in students an understanding of what it means to learn and to know, including a movement up the levels of epistemological understanding from realist to evaluativist.…