The Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST), a measure of concept formation and set-shifting capacity, was administered to two groups of multiple sclerosis (MS) patients defined by clinical course. The chronic progressive patients achieved fewer conceptual categories due to significantly more perseverative responses than control patients, whereas the…

Tested the hypothesis that fourth-graders have a greater tendency than first-graders to represent transformations as ordered series of beginning, middle, and end states. Predominantly constructed states of fourth-graders were components of continuous movements or transformations, whereas those of first-graders related to the experimenters' on the…

The stock-in-trade of trainers are the models, frameworks, and structures used for teaching, coaching, and counseling. The authors argue that the better the conceptual models that managers and trainers use for managing their thinking, the better performance they will achieve. (JOW)

Four-year-olds were reliably accurate about movement potentials for the categories of mammals, nonmammalian animals, statues of animals, wheeled vehicles, and multipart, rigid objects. The three-year-olds' scores were significantly above chance in all categories but animals. Analyses showed that children were concerned about the cause of movement…

Responds to Biggs' article on the case presentation approach in clinical supervision. Notes that Biggs provides one of the few discussions explicating the tasks in case conceptualizations useful for enhancing cognitive development available in the literature. Raises concerns about Biggs' assumptions about the cognitive level of trainees and the…

Proposes that technical writing teachers have a special responsibility to use their subject matter to advance the critical reasoning processes required in the composing process, the disciplines, and the professions. Suggests 10 critical thinking skills to encourage in technical writing courses. (MS)

Discussed is research on children's understanding of zero and infinity and teaching suggestions for improving understanding. (RH)

Reviewed is research indicating problems in teaching and learning fractions and possible ways to improve instruction and learning. (RH)

Current educational reform trends, particularly those for social studies instruction, have tended toward a fact-laden curriculum which constrains students' development and application of ideas and higher-level thinking. Concepts as well as facts must be included if schooling is to encourage students' understanding of themselves as well as society.…

A novel approach to teaching mathematical induction was used, based on a Piagetian theory of learning abstract mathematical concepts in which the learner uses reflective abstraction to construct new schemas out of old ones. Computer experiences are used to induce students to make the appropriate reflective abstractions. (MNS)

Thirty learning disabled (LD), mild (educable) mentally handicapped (EMH), and normally achieving children were administered a concept utilization task. Results indicated that, for certain conceptualization abilities, LD children are more like normal learners than like EMH children. It is suggested that cross-categorical placement increases the…

Tests the distinction between inferring new categories on the basis of property information (predicted to be difficult) and inferring new properties on the basis of category information (predicted to be easier) among 57 preschool children. (HOD)

A variety of problems, ranging from vocabulary to pre-existing belief structures, prevent efficient learning among biology students. Several of these problems are discussed, with implications for teaching college level biology addressed. (JN)

Examines three conceptual and methodological problems characteristic of research on patterns of aging in rural versus urban environments. These include (1) lack of consistency and clarity in definitions of rurality and in the application of those definitions and (2) inconsistency in the way in which rural-urban comparisons are made and…

Described is an exercise that will help college-level psychology students learn abstract and relational thinking skills. The exercise will provide students with a new way to handle compare-and-contrast questions. (RM)