Analogical reasoning in restructuring scientific knowledge

This study presents the results of an experiment which investigated analogical reasoning in knowledge acquisition in a natural school setting. The aims were to evaluate the efficiency of analogy in the conceptual restructuring of a science topic and compare the effects of analogy in different learning conditions. Two analogical topics of physics (water flow and heat flow) were studied by means of two experiments performed in the classroom with concrete objects. Eighty-four 5th graders, divided into three experimental conditions (given analogy, constructed analogy, no analogy), took part in the study. The quantitative analysis mainly confirms the hypothesis that analogy can be a productive way to trigger a process of knowledge restructuring while students learn a new topic. However, the effective use of the analogy was affected by the experimental condition: When the analogy was constructed by the learners themselves, instead of being presented and justified by the teacher, it acted indeed as a more powerful tool in understanding the new topic which required changing their initial conceptions. The qualitative analysis shows the children’s explanations of the heat flow phenomenon and different conceptual outcomes of the learning process. Finally, educational implications are considered.     

Analogical reasoning and the development of algebraic abstraction

This paper presents a theory of the development of algebraic abstraction which extends Sfard's (1991, 1994a,b) and Mason's (1982, 1989) ideas on the learner's progress from operational or process-oriented thinking to the abstract or structural perspective. The theory incorporates a process of analogical reasoning to account for the means by which the learner might construct expressions of generality and subsequently manipulate them as mathematical objects. Such reasoning entails similarity comparisons in which a mapping is made between the corresponding relational properties of algebraic examples. These comparisons may firstly entail unpacking the relations in the examples in order to highlight the structural commonalities. The common relational structure is subsequently extracted to form a knowledge basis, namely, the construction of a mental model or representation that expresses the observed generalisation. The theory is applied to an analysis of secondary school students' approaches to classifying a set of complex equations. A student who appeared capable of algebraic abstraction within the domain of the task is contrasted with two students who were at a pseudostructural stage, where their focus on syntactic surface structures prevented them from forming the relational mappings needed for the construction of generalised models of the equation types.     

Client partnership throughout the performance improvement/human performance technology model

Partnerships between the performance consultant and client occur through collaboration with all stakeholders to make decisions during every phase of the human performance technology (HPT) process. During the HPT process, the performance consultant fulfills the role of expert, critic, facilitator, doer, and spectator. Regardless of the role, a performance consultant needs to assess the ongoing situation, apply the appropriate skills and techniques required to adequately handle the situation, and foster customer partnership and collaboration through the HPT life cycle.     

Analogical reasoning in adolescents with intellectual disability: effects of external memories and time processing

Analogical reasoning involves the comparison of pictures as well as the memorisation of relations. Young children (4–7 years old) and students with moderate intellectual disability have a short memory span, which hampers them in succeeding traditional analogical tests. In the present study, we investigated if, by providing external memory hints, the visual aid could enable these participants to succeed in analogies comprising more relations than their memory span was able to manage. Our analogical test, composed of 2 × 2 matrices, was administered in two versions: the standard version, similar to traditional tests, required the participant to memorise all the relations involved in order to discover the solution, whereas the construction version required him/her to construct the answer part by part by using external memories, which potentially increased success by offloading the memory. Our results show that students with moderate intellectual disability reached results similar to typically developing control children when provided with external memory hints (referred to as external memories). Moreover, in the most complex levels of the test, they did not spend more time than control children in solving the analogies.     

performance improvement

The Board of Directors of the International Society for Performance Improvement has identified top managers and executives as one of the population groups that are or should be represented in ISPI membership. In an effort to research these professionals, Performance Improvement is introducing a new feature — Executive Summaries. These are synopses of the feature articles in each issue. They will appear together on pages that can be copied and distributed to members of your organization who might not have time to read PI, but may benefit from the content of its articles. We encourage you to share summaries with managers and executives, as well as clients, team members, students, and other performance improvement professionals. Also — look for the summaries to appear on ISPI's Web Site soon.     

试论英语类比构词

这里从语体、形态、语义以及伯角度分析了类比构词。类比法构词是指通过仿照原有的同类词创造出与之对应或近似词的构词方式。类比涉及到人们对不同事物的相似之处的心理联想。类比构词显示出人们在创造新词过程中的想象力和创造力。通过类比构成的词主要特点是生动、形象、易懂、易记。类比构词法已成为有效、活跃的构词手段。