This book shows students how to increase their power to analyze problems and comprehend what they read. First it outlines and illustrates methods that good problem solvers use in attacking complex ideas, then it provides practice in applying these methods to a variety of comprehension and reasoning questions. The "Whimbey Method" of teaching…

Examines relationship between Connected and Separate Knowing dimensions of Knowledge Styles Inventory (K. Knight and others, 1994) and learning modes of A. Kolb (1984), formal operational reasoning (B. Inhelder and J. Piaget, 1958, 1975; G. Tobin and W. Capie, 1981), and vocabulary and abstract thinking abilities (W. Shipley, 1940). Findings…

The use of facilitated communication by a 13-year-old boy with autism, severe mental retardation, and a seizure disorder is described. Several specific answers given to questions about short stories the facilitator was not familiar with indicated that, not only did the subject originate his own responses, he also demonstrated simple inferential…

Tested with adolescents and adults two predictions from Markovits and Barrouillet's developmental model of conditional reasoning related to the effects of the association between antecedent and consequent terms and the formulation of the minor premise on uncertainty responses. Found results consistent with hypotheses and indicating importance of…

Contrasts students' presymbolic and symbolic procedures in generalizing activities. Uses the semiotic-cultural theoretical approach and focuses on the role of body, discourse, and signs when students refer to mathematical objects. Identifies types of generalizations and discusses a specific kind of rupture in the ostensive gestures and…

This study found that 33 children (ages 7-16) with learning disabilities were deficient in their inferential skills compared to normally achieving children but were not deficient in the metacognitive skill of paying attention to errors. Results also indicated that LD children do not constitute a homogeneous group. (JDD)

Discusses the spatial aspects of Greeno's model of conceptual domains and applies the theory to geometry learning. Examines the relationship between mathematical and spatial thinking in light of Greeno's environmental/spatial view of learning. (Contains 16 references.) (MDH)

(MDH)

Speculates that the prewriting technique of "clustering" can be an effective tool for multicultural college students learning sophisticated scientific concepts. Asserts that teachers must be willing to take risks and nurture students' creativity and self-confidence if such techniques are to succeed and supplant or supplement the lecture…

This study explored the moral reasoning and scientific argumentation of 31 Finnish adolescents gifted in science. In qualitative essays and interviews, the pupils were asked to identify moral dilemmas in science and provide solutions to them. Two illustrative cases of students' argumentation who had either average or high scores on the Defining…

An instructional program designed to help middle school students with severe learning disabilities learn about story themes, and focused on enhancing ability to generalize to themes not included in the instruction, was evaluated. Findings indicate students with learning disabilities can profit from instruction geared toward abstract higher order…

The 16 units of this book are designed as textbook supplements to encourage students to think mathematically and as mathematicians. Each unit begins with an orientation session which raises general concerns that always occur within mathematical exploration. This is followed by a short, original text in which a mathematician creates a particular…

This paper introduces successive and coordinate intellectual thinking skills, using concepts as a best case example. The attributes and optimal presentation requirements of successive and coordinate concepts are reviewed, and types of errors commonly associated with successive and coordinate skills are delineated. The effects of both of these…

The purpose of this paper is to review literature on analogical reasoning, to work out the implications of Polya's model of analogical problem solving, and to propose an alternative model of instructional design based on the use of analogical reasoning. Justification of the model is based on research on the nature of analogical thought and an…