Identifies the types of reasoning involved in middle grade mathematics with regard to multiplicative structures and the difficulties students have with the concepts, why these difficulties might occur, and the interconnections within this content area. Offers four recommendations for the preparation and professional development of teachers.…

Examines two theoretical approaches on how we understand our own and others' minds: a causal explanatory and an interpretive social approach. Explores the relations between these views and suggests that the real challenge of the cognitive revolution is to unite the two approaches, to achieve a causal naturalistic account of the acquisition and…

Suggests that a better understanding of the development of children's theories of mind, requires theoretical perspectives that do not privilege the child who conceptualizes or actively participates in social interactions. Proposes that a better understanding of the relationships among brain, psyche, behavior, and culture should be promoted. (AA)

Examines Astington and Olson's proposal under the context of von Wright's and Hempel's theories of explanation and understanding. Suggests that for taking children's meaning making seriously, researchers should find a principled way to acknowledge the role of interpretation in scientific thinking even in the making of explanation itself. (AA)

Examines the relationship between causal-explanatory and interpretive-hermeneutic approaches to how we understand our own and others' minds. Suggests that the two approaches discussed by Astington and Olson are mutually enlightening but, contrary to the proposed position, are irreducible to each other. (AA)

Points out agreement that the concepts a child acquires are variants of those exemplified by the cultures in which they grow up. Suggests, however, that learners interpret these cultural practices in terms of models causally determined by their cognitive or representational capacities and by the stock of concepts currently available. (AA)

In this paper I focus on the transition from everyday to scientific ways of reasoning, and on the intertwined roles of meaning-making dialogue and science content as they contribute to scientific literacy. I refer to views of science, and how scientific understanding is advanced dialogically, by Hurd (Science Education, 1998, 82, 402-416), Brown…

Teachers tend to design worksheets to assist their students to develop their spatial skills. Many secondary schools students may not have sufficient concrete experiences to tackle abstract reasoning in geometrical concepts competently. In addition, students who are non-visual and spatial learners may have difficulties in learning geometrical…

In a multiple baseline design, a teenager with a mental age of four years was taught two abstractions. One was the oddity principle (selecting the one object in a group which differs from the rest). The other was seriation (aligning objects along a continuum of size, and inserting new objects into their proper places in the alignments). These…

This exploratory study had two goals: (1) to identify signs of abstraction and consolidation of abstractions of functional concepts in students in a situation-based curriculum; and (2) to use theoretical arguments as well as experimental evidence in order to shape notions of abstraction and consolidation of abstractions. The methodology was…

This study evaluated the generally recommended concrete-to-abstract hierarchy for presenting a new skill, with three students with learning disabilities in grades 1, 2, and 4. The three subjects enrolled in the Multidisciplinary Diagnostic and Training Program's classroom housed on the University of Florida campus in Gainesville. Following…

The need for developing cognitive skills in early adolescents as they move from concrete thinking to more abstract operations has been documented. College students seeking the middle school endorsement in education were trained to utilize matrices as graphic constructs of textual materials. By examining these content matrices, prepracticum…

Building on the assumption that the most important skill for the future is the ability to think, an initial framework for an intellectual processes curriculum theory is described. A definition of intellectual processes is formulated first: Intellectual processes are those mental operations that enable one to acquire new knowledge, apply that…

A multiple choice achievement test was constructed in which both cognitive level and degree of abstractness were controlled. Subjects were 75 students from a major university in the Southwest. A group of 13 judges, also university students, classified the concepts for degree of abstractness. Results indicated that both cognitive level and degree…

One of a series dealing with current issues affecting language arts instruction, this paper focuses on thinking skills. The paper begins by raising two issues: whether thinking skills should be taught as part of each subject area, as a separate skill, or both, and whether English and language arts teachers have a special role in the teaching of…