Examines ways in which the varying degrees of distance that occur in drama may help children to engage in more abstract levels of thought and language. (HTH)

Giambattista Vico, an 18th-century Neapolitan philosopher, believed that, from children, adults could learn lessons they could not teach themselves. This learning, however, is predicated on the necessity that genuine childhood be allowed to exist and that logic and abstraction are not introduced to children too soon. (JMK)

A total of 192 second- to sixth-grade children, showing three different levels of class-inclusion answers (failure, correct answer based on counting, correct answer based on logical reasons), performed four necessity tasks. Results are discussed with reference to individual and constructive generalization processes. (Author/RH)

The reasoning practices employed by students in the classroom are examined to display how they "know" something. Focus is placed on the interactional practices by which learning tasks are accomplished during classroom lessons. (JMF)

Investigates inferential behavior in five- and six-year-old children who made inferences about the spatial locations of models of animals and people in three experiments. Two levels of inference were found. Inferences of most five year olds were consistent with information given; Inferences of most six year olds were logically necessary ones.…

Reports three experiments based on the hypothesis that qualitative changes in verbal reasoning emerge, not from the conclusions children draw, but from what they accept as conclusive evidence. Results show a gradual development across 7-13 age range in ability to distinguish logically certain from only suggested or probabilistic conclusions.…

The relationship between memory and reasoning was investigated in three experiments involving children in grades one, four, and seven, and college students. Results indicated that performance was dependent on subjects' abilities to integrate relevant subskills, rather than on deficient reasoning or missing subskills. (RJC)

Describes a study in which 383 children in grades 1 through 5 were individually interviewed to find out at what point they construct unit iteration out of transitive reasoning. Indicates that most children construct unit iteration out of transitive reasoning by fourth grade. Suggests a better approach to the teaching of measurement that presents…

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…

Reacts to the publications "Curriculum Guidance for the Foundation Stage" and "National Numeracy Strategy: Framework for Teaching Mathematics from Reception to Year 6" published by the Department for Education and Employment in Great Britain. Makes the case for the marrying of formal and informal, abstract and concrete…

Analyzes the attitudes teachers hold about the use of abstractions in children's writing and examines some of the diction teachers impose on students in the name of concreteness. (RB)

To determine whether children possess representations and concepts of space before they acquire verbal descriptions of these, children's formation of symbolic representations of space and their acquisition of verbal referents for them were observed. It was found for subjects in the study that conceptual representations of space relations were…

Details a study that assessed two experimental approaches to improving reading comprehension among fourth grade children--one involving training in syllogistic reasoning and the other using comprehension questions--and concludes that neither approach was effective. (FL)

Shows how a teacher's questions and responses have positive impact on student comprehension. (MKM)