Formulates a framework for characterizing elementary children's (n=20) statistical thinking based on a review of research and a cognitive development model, and refines it through a validation process. Proposes four thinking levels which represent a continuum from idiosyncratic to analytic reasoning. Results confirm the four levels of children's…

Considers the cognitive mechanisms available to individuals which enable them to operate successfully in different parts of the mathematics curriculum, such as children's arithmetic shows divergence in performance. Explains how students cope with the transition to advanced mathematical thinking in different ways, leading once more to a diverging…

Two experiments explored the effect of linguistic input on 18-month-olds' ability to form an abstract categorical representation of support. Infants were habituated to 4 support events (i.e., one object placed on another) and were tested with a novel support and a novel containment event. Infants formed an abstract category of support (i.e.,…

Discusses three motives for and approaches to question-asking, and concludes that the approaches augment and complement each other by accentuating different aspects of the speech communication process. (MH)

Contemporary dispute among teachers of rhetoric between those who prefer the classical tradition of rhetoric and those who champion an epistemic view of rhetoric has antecedents among the disputes of the ancient Greek scholars. Some of the vital themes of epistemology can be traced back to Protagoras of Abdera, one of the two great leaders of the…

This paper presents two puzzles that have emerged in a series of completed and ongoing studies at Queen's University, Ontario. These puzzles concern teachers' professional knowledge, a term used to refer to the non-propositional forms of knowledge assumed to be of importance to professional action. This research assumed that the professional…

A theory of adult cognitive development which includes two post-formal operational stages is described. The paper is divided into three sections. The first section provides background for discussion of the theory. A case study in which various employees in a hypothetical organization react to a problem is provided. Examples of pre-logical,…

A study of elementary school children's reasoning processes about every-day objects resulted in implications for the design of curriculum materials used in geography. (Author/KM)

This cross-national/cross-cultural study attempted to determine whether the development of the concept of space is universally invariant in sequence and rate, and whether the capability to deal with the world through two-dimensional reconstructions is innate or affected by experience in different cultures. (Author/RK)

Preference scores were determined for several different groups of students ranging in age from seven to adult. In addition, instruments were administered to determine the cognitive level at which the students were capable of functioning. Comparisons between the students' cognitive level and preferences were made. The results indicated that the…

In an attempt to determine whether knowledge of teachers' conceptual systems can be used to predict teaching styles in handling information and applying sanctions, the teaching styles of 136 home economics student teachers from three midwestern universities were measured by coding tape-recorded lessons according to Joyce's system, and two…

Previous research has shown that sequences in which instances from the same category appear successively facilitate performance in concept attainment. This could be due to subjects adopting strategies which involve comparisons of instances from within the same category. However, if subjects were to adopt a strategy involving comparisons of…

The purpose of thinking is to collect information and to make the best possible use of it. Because of the way the mind works to create fixed concept patterns we cannot make the best use of new information unless we have some means for restructuring the old patterns and bringing them up to date. Our traditional methods of thinking teach us how to…

Teaching students to use specific details is perhaps the college writing teacher's most troublesome job. Much time and effort is wasted by marking students' papers with comments such as "specify,""details,""illustrate," or "demonstrate." Significant concrete details should occur to a writer before the generalization does, since the best kind of…