Although many students who enter kindergarten are cognitively ready to meet the demands of the kindergarten mathematics curriculum, some students arrive without the early abstract reasoning abilities necessary to benefit from the instruction provided. Those who do not possess key cognitive abilities, including understandings of conservation,…

This paper describes the effects of learning support on simulation-based learning in three learning models: experiment prompting, a hypothesis menu, and step guidance. A simulation learning system was implemented based on these three models, and the differences between simulation-based learning and traditional laboratory learning were explored in…

A commonly accepted definition of online learning is that students have access to learning experiences in: time, place, pace, learning style, content, assessment, and pathways (Chen, 2003). Although this is true, there is a considerable concern about the level of abstraction involved in online education. Critics of flexible learning call it just…

This paper examines the role of scaffolding in the process of abstraction. An activity-theoretic approach to abstraction in context is taken. This examination is carried out with reference to verbal protocols of two 17 year-old students working together on a task connected to sketching the graph of |f|x|)|. Examination of the data suggests that…

In this paper, we present a didactic analysis of the mathematical concept of implication under three points of view: sets, formal logic, deductive reasoning. For this study, our hypothesis is that most of the difficulties and mistakes, as well in the use of implication as in its understanding, are due to the lack of links in education between…

Discusses the level of knowledge, understanding, and ability relative to mathematics for the college graduate in the 21st century. Focuses on mathematical literacy and abstraction such as the definition of abstraction, difficulties in addressing abstraction, and one approach to helping students learn to address abstraction. (Contains 12…

The concept model addressed in this paper is the set of assumptions, data, and inferences used in the instructional design of concept learning. A new way of looking at concepts is presented that takes into account the declarative and metacognitive components of concept learning and use. Implications for instruction are outlined. The paper is…

This study examined the conduct of academic tasks in six secondary classrooms, focusing specifically on assigments requiring some higher level cognitive operations, with attention to how management strategies and classroom conditions associated with these assignments affect their cognitive demands on students. Analysis of tasks in these six…

The author argues that metaphors have a vividness and emotive force, plus the ability to express openness, which makes them a crucial part of the educational process. (Author/RK)

The authors discuss the results of their study into the behavior, values, and attitudes of students and teachers. They found that each person has a particular approach to learning or teaching that is most comfortable for them. Four learning/teaching channels are detailed: concrete sequential, abstract sequential, abstract random, and concrete…

A method for stimulating thought processes and broadening the imaginative scope. (RB)

Educators generally assume that questioning promotes learning and that higher level questions do so better than lower level questions. But there are a number of problems with these assumptions. First, the classification of questions as higher level or lower level is ambiguous. The distinction is confused by such issues as non-controversial…

Presents a developmental approach to teaching programing at all educational levels which stresses concepts rather than syntax; provides motivation, relevant examples, and activities; proceeds from concrete to pictorial to abstract according to age and experience of learners; and utilizes increasingly complex activities building upon and extending…

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)