A study examined the transcript of a group enquiry conducted according to the practice of philosophical enquiry with eight gifted children (ages 8-12). Use of a central metaphor was seen to play the role of a "conceptual playground," permitting the children to exercise both their imagination and their reasoning abilities. (Contains references.)…

Reports survey results on proof conceptions. Presents an overview of responses at the end of year 8 (age 13 years) and year 9 (age 14 years). Distinguishes three strategies--empirical, focused-empirical, and focused-deductive--that represent shifts in attention from an inductive to a deductive approach. Indicates some progress from year 8 to year…

Presents a model for teaching reasoning using technology in the contexts of algebra and geometry. (MKR)

Three- and four-year olds were asked to recall their own or another person's actions and to acknowledge the false belief upon which the action was based. They showed excellent recall of inappropriate actions based on a false belief, but failed to use the recalled action as a clue to acknowledge the false belief upon which it was based. (TJQ)

Comments on the articles presented in this issue devoted to the Japanese perspectives on conceptual change. Discusses the overall conveyed message: The human cognitive system is a thematically organized knowledge base with agentive causality as the main mechanism for explain phenomena and analogy as the main mechanism for promoting conceptual…

Comments on the articles presented in this issue devoted to the Japanese perspectives on conceptual change. Suggests that different approaches to knowledge acquisition and conceptual change should be carefully examined in light of their implications for the teaching of science. Discusses critically the issues advanced from the Japanese…

Presents research findings and teaching implications of mathematics as reasoning and students' reasoning abilities in mathematics. (20 references) (MKR)

Employing a sample of 51 12-year-old British secondary pupils, a study analyzed children's written and oral responses to a series of (contradictory) historical questions concerning the Boston Massacre of 1770. Many students were capable of abstract historical reasoning--critiquing sources, detecting bias and ambiguity, and determining flaws in…

Describes the different types of reasoning in scientific research activity. Outlines three different but complementary ways to integrate history into the presentation of science. Considers and illustrates the close historical relationship between mathematics and physics. (Contains 50 references.) (ASK)

A study investigated whether 73 adults with mental retardation had difficulty understanding emotion-descriptive concepts and whether that difficulty can be attributed to difficulty with abstract concepts. Participants performed better on nonemotion than emotion concepts measures. There were no differences between abstract and nonabstract concepts…

Examines the criteria that middle school students, nonscientist adults, technicians, and scientists used to rate the validity of conclusions drawn by hypothetical students from a set of evidence. The sources of the groups' differing epistemic criteria rest in their different spheres of cultural practice. Explores implications of this perspective…

Describes 15 types of analogies, their facilitating function in mental processing, the kinds of knowledge for which they are most effectively employed, and their applicability across subject matter. Eight steps for constructing and presenting analogies and types of analogical relationships are included. Prevention of misconceptions is discussed.…

Presents a theoretical framework based on interviews with undergraduate students and written questionnaires to study how undergraduate students cope with abstract algebra concepts. Indicates that students' responses can be interpreted as a result of reducing the level of abstraction. Examines the theme of reducing abstraction based on three…

People spontaneously discover new representations during problem solving. Discovery of a mathematical representation is of special interest, because it shows that the underlying structure of the problem has been extracted. In the current study, participants solved gear-system problems as part of a game. Although none of the participants initially…

One of the most challenging daily experiences of teaching young adolescents is helping them transition from Piaget's concrete to the formal operational stage of cognitive development during the middle school years. Students who have reached formal operations can design and test hypotheses, engage in deductive reasoning, use flexible thinking,…