Two key research issues in the field of causal learning are how people acquire causal knowledge when observing data that are presented sequentially, and the level of abstraction at which learning takes place. Does sequential causal learning solely involve the acquisition of specific cause-effect links, or do learners also acquire knowledge about…

My starting point for this paper is a problem in critical thinking pedagogy--the difficult of bringing students to a point where they are able, and motivated, critically to evaluate their own deeply held beliefs. I first interrogate the very idea of a deeply held belief, drawing upon Wittgenstein's idea of a framework belief--a belief that forms…

This paper, of theoretical nature, explores the levels of approach and abstraction of research in the field of education policy: description, analysis and understanding. Such categories were developed based on concepts of Bourdieu's theory and on the grounds of epistemological studies focused on education policy and meta-research. This paper…

Computational thinking (CT) is regarded as an essential twenty-first century competency and it is already embedded in K-12 curricula across the globe. However, research on assessing CT has lagged, with few assessments being implemented and validated. Moreover, there is a lack of systematic grouping of CT assessments. This scoping review examines…

Although most early-childhood educators agree on the value of play in child development, they find it increasingly harder to advocate for play given today's pressure for academic achievement. Using the theoretical work of Lev Vygotsky, the authors discuss how make-believe play among children helps them develop skills critical for success in school…

Several proposals for addressing religious literacy or including religious content in American public schools point to potential advantages for intellectual and moral development. These proposals include moral arguments, which suggest that religious literacy is an individual and social good. Although the proposals selected for this analysis span…

Central to ambitious teaching is a constellation of practices we have come to call "leveraging student thinking." In leveraging, teachers position students' understanding and reasoning as a central means to drive learning forward. While leveraging typically is described as a feature of mature practice, in this article we examine…

A characterization of the modelling process in science is proposed for science education, based on Mario Bunge's ideas about the construction of models in science. Galileo's "Dialogues" are analysed as a potentially fruitful starting point to implement strategies aimed at modelling in the classroom in the light of that proposal. It is…

In response to the authors, I demonstrate how threshold concepts offer a means to both contextualise teaching and learning of quantum physics and help transform students into the culture of physics, and as a way to identify particularly troublesome concepts within quantum physics. By drawing parallels from my own doctoral research in another area…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to illustrate how associationism mistakenly assumes that direct experience is possible; that is, there is expectation-free observation and association without prior expectation. Thus, associationism assumes that learning involves the absorption of information from the environment itself. However, contrary…

Sketching three different approaches to mathematics education, I choose for a pluralistic view, called multimathemacy. The focus is on cultural diversity and particular and local skills and insights in the out-of-school knowledge of the children. "Trivial mathematics" as Hardy called it can be used as a bridge between these skills and…

Suor et al. (2017) present a compelling new evolutionary framework that offers an alternative interpretation of the well-established findings of cognitive deficits in children raised in harsh early environments. They argue that such findings do not convey a complete picture of those children's cognitive development, because children's cognition…

There is much of value for educationists in the work of the great Russian novelist and thinker, Fyodor Dostoevsky. This paper explores a key theme in Dostoevsky's later writings: the notion of a "Golden Age". It compares the ideal depicted in Dostoevsky's story "The Dream of a Ridiculous Man" with the implied utopia of the…

This article reenvisions fallacies for composition classrooms by situating them within rhetorical practices. Fallacies are not formal errors in logic but rather persuasive failures in rhetoric. I argue fallacies are directly linked to successful rhetorical strategies and pose the visual organizer of the Venn diagram to demonstrate that claims can…

Many technological artifacts (e.g., humanoid robots, computer agents) consist of biologically inspired features of human-like appearance and behaviors that elicit a social response. The strong social components of technology permit people to share information and ideas with these artifacts. As robots cross the boundaries between humans and…