We constructed a new taxonomy for inferential thinking, a construct called Integrative Inferential Reasoning (IIR). IIR extends Pearson and Johnson's (1978) framework of "text-implicit" and "script-implicit" question-answer relations, and integrates several other prominent literacy theories to form a unified inferential…

Over the past few decades there has been increased attention on instructional practices that incorporate and build on student thinking. To effectively implement these practices, it is essential for an instructor to demonstrate responsiveness to student thinking. Although important, responsiveness is not well-understood at the post-secondary level.…

The metronome is a frequently used time-keeping tool in music instrument practice. However, if its speed is set beyond a comfortable level for the performer, their eye movement (EM) patterns can betray pressure that might have been placed on the visual processing system. The patterns of the eyes moving forward or back, (saccades); when the eye…

Research into the effect of questions asked during storybook reading in preschool settings has rarely investigated questions that elicit higher order thinking. In the current study, Blank et al.'s Four Levels of Abstraction were used to code teacher questions and child responses from 177 individual storybook reading sessions with eight…

"Reader, say something smart. Right now. Share a deep insight or a subtle point. Quick. No? OK (with obvious disappointment), I'll come back to you later. Anybody else?" We've all experienced this in school, the author notes--the teacher giving up, concluding that we weren't going to say something smart in the allotted…

Technology has changed every aspect of our lives such as communication, shopping, games, business, and education. Technology has been used for decades in the teaching and learning environment in K-12 education and higher education, especially in mathematics education where the use of instructional technology has great potential. Today's students…

We investigated 7- to 10-year-old children's productive extension of semantic memory through self-generation of new factual knowledge derived through integration of separate yet related facts learned through instruction or through reading. In Experiment 1, an experimenter read the to-be-integrated facts. Children successfully learned and…

Thoughtful implementation of the Common Core State Standards for Mathematics (CCSSM) (CCSSI 2010) presents an opportunity for increased emphasis on the development of mathematical understanding among students. Granted, ascertaining the mathematical understanding of an individual student is highly complex work and often exceedingly difficult.…

Students in two iterations of a statistics course were required to develop work-related research questions that could be analyzed by the statistical techniques discussed in class. They were also expected to present the question and other research design components in a manner that could be comprehended by statistical novices. To provide sufficient…

Recent studies show that a new strategy called differential-associative processing is effective for learning related concepts; however, our knowledge about differential-associative processing is still limited. Therefore the goals of the present study are to assess the duration of knowledge that is acquired from using differential-associative…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to consider how simulations are increasingly used in training programs for the development of skills such as leadership. However, the requirements of leadership development go beyond the development of task specific procedural knowledge or expertise that simulations have typically been used to develop.…

Presents a proposed unifying relationship between instructional methods and cognitive operations, and argues that it is the location of the processing of the learning task that defines the function, type, and extent of the instructional method required. More than 50 references are listed. (MER)

Although it employs a relatively small array of behavioral concepts and processes, Relational Frame Theory provides an account of how some of the most complex verbal events can be understood behaviorally and may be established systematically. In the current paper, the findings from a research agenda that has clear and widespread implications for…

The study with three profoundly deaf subjects (ages 11-13) investigated whether there is a chain of functional relationships among a method of interaction referred to as a mediation, a cognitive function referred to as spontaneous comparative behavior, the operation of categorization, and the reading comprehension tasks of using lexical cohesion…

Two studies are reported in which the relative difficulty of the utilization of two response strategies, matching and oddity, was assessed. Subjects for the first study were children ages 5-7, 8-10, and 11-13 years; in the second study, college adults were tested. Generally, subjects took more trials to learn matching problems than oddity…