The Relationship of Moral Reasoning Style to Counselor Expression of Empathy

Results in the literature indicate that high levels of moral development are positively correlated with high levels of empathy. However, the issue of moral reasoning style and its relationship to empathy remains unclear. The role that moral reasoning style (care vs. justice orientation) plays in counselors' ability to relate empathically to clients was investigated among a sample of 44 counselors‐in‐training. Results indicate that counselors were able to respond equally to clients with the same moral reasoning style as themselves and to those with a different style. Counselors with a care orientation were no more able than justice‐oriented counselors to respond empathically. Findings contribute information about measures of moral reasoning style and suggest that matching of counselors with college‐aged and young adult clients based on moral reasoning style is not an issue of concern for college counselors.     

University Students’ Knowledge Structures and Informal Reasoning on the Use of Genetically Modified Foods: Multidimensional Analyses

This study aims to provide insights into the role of learners’ knowledge structures about a socio-scientific issue (SSI) in their informal reasoning on the issue. A total of 42 non-science major university students’ knowledge structures and informal reasoning were assessed with multidimensional analyses. With both qualitative and quantitative analyses, this study revealed that those students with more extended and better-organized knowledge structures, as well as those who more frequently used higher-order information processing modes, were more oriented towards achieving a higher-level informal reasoning quality. The regression analyses further showed that the “richness” of the students’ knowledge structures explained 25 % of the variation in their rebuttal construction, an important indicator of reasoning quality, indicating the significance of the role of students’ sophisticated knowledge structure in SSI reasoning. Besides, this study also provides some initial evidence for the significant role of the “core” concept within one’s knowledge structure in one’s SSI reasoning. The findings in this study suggest that, in SSI-based instruction, science instructors should try to identify students’ core concepts within their prior knowledge regarding the SSI, and then they should try to guide students to construct and structure relevant concepts or ideas regarding the SSI based on their core concepts. Thus, students could obtain extended and well-organized knowledge structures, which would then help them achieve better learning transfer in dealing with SSIs.     

Cognitive training for children: Effects on inductive reasoning,deductive reasoning,and mathematics achievement in an Australian school setting

Inductive reasoning is a core cognitive process of fluid intelligence, predicting a variety of educational outcomes. The Cognitive Training for Children (CTC) program is an educational intervention designed to develop children's inductive reasoning skills, with previous investigations finding substantial effects of the program on both inductive reasoning ability and classroom learning. The present study assessed both individual and small‐group CTC training against a no‐treatment control condition to investigate the effects on inductive and deductive reasoning and mathematics achievement in a primary school‐aged Australian cohort. Students who received individual training outperformed those in the control condition on measures of inductive and deductive reasoning, and those in the small‐group condition also outperformed the control condition on a measure of inductive reasoning 3 months following training. However, hypotheses regarding transfer effects to mathematics achievement were not supported. Directions for future research, focusing on extended longitudinal studies and motivational variables, are discussed.     

Exploring high school students' use of theory and evidence in an everyday context: the role of scientific thinking in environmental science decision‐making

This study examined 10th‐grade students' use of theory and evidence in evaluating a socio‐scientific issue: the use of underground water, after students had received a Science, Technology and Society‐oriented instruction. Forty‐five male and 45 female students from two intact, single‐sex, classes participated in this study. A flow‐map method was used to assess the participants' conceptual knowledge. The reasoning mode was assessed using a questionnaire with open‐ended questions. Results showed that, although some weak to moderate associations were found between conceptual organization in memory and reasoning modes, the students' ability to incorporate theory and evidence was in general inadequate. It was also found that students' reasoning modes were consistent with their epistemological perspectives. Moreover, male and female students appear to have different reasoning approaches.     

“扶义而动，推理而行”——引譬、援类再探讨

推类是中国古代推理的主要模式。其结构通常由言事与言道两个部分组成。言事与言道的核心是“喻”。其理论根据是：所言事与道之间共同存在的“义”。找到事与道之间共同的“义”,便可“扶义而动,推理而行”。由“事”理过渡到“道”理。     

"扶义而动,推理而行"——引譬、援类再探讨

推类是中国古代推理的主要模式.其结构通常由言事与言道两个部分组成.言事与言道的核心是"喻".其理论根据是:所言事与道之间共同存在的"义".找到事与道之间共同的"义",便可"扶义而动,推理而行".由"事"理过渡到"道"理.     

“推类”的构成、本质与作用——三论“引譬、援类”

推类是中国古代推理的主要模式。其结构通常由"言事"与"言道"两个部分组成。"言事"与"言道"的核心是"喻"。其理论根据是:所言事与道之间共同存在的"义"。找到事与道之间共同的"义",便可"扶义而动,推理而行"。由"事"理过渡到"道"理。推类的本质是论证。如果我们较好地掌握了"言事"与"言道"这二者的关系及"引譬"、"援类"的思维方式,对于正确理解中国古代思想家们的思想和丰富我们的思维方式具有重要意义。     

High School Students’ Informal Reasoning on a Socio‐scientific Issue: Qualitative and quantitative analyses

Recently, the significance of learners’ informal reasoning on socio‐scientific issues has received increasing attention among science educators. To gain deeper insights into this important issue, an integrated analytic framework was developed in this study. With this framework, 71 Grade 10 students’ informal reasoning about nuclear energy usage was explored qualitatively and quantitatively. It was found that the students in this study tended to process reasoning from multiple perspectives, and most of them were prone to make evidence‐based decisions. However, less than 40% of the participants were able to construct rebuttals against counter‐arguments. It was also revealed that students’ abundant usage of supportive arguments did not guarantee for their counter‐argument construction as well as rebuttal construction, but their usage of counter‐arguments might act as precursors to their construction of rebuttals. In addition, learners’ usage of multiple reasoning modes might help them propose more arguments and, in particular, generate more counter‐arguments, which may act as precursors to their rebuttal construction. This study also showed evidence that students’ scientific knowledge that might be mainly acquired from school science instruction could be viewed as important foundation for better informal reasoning and decision‐making on socio‐scientific issues.     

High School Students’ Informal Reasoning Regarding a Socio‐scientific Issue,with Relation to Scientific Epistemological Beliefs and Cognitive Structures

This study investigated the relationship among 68 high school students’ scientific epistemological beliefs (SEBs), cognitive structures regarding nuclear power usage, and their informal reasoning regarding this issue. Moreover, the ability of students’ SEBs as well as their cognitive structures for predicting their informal reasoning regarding this issue was also examined. The participants’ SEBs were assessed with a quantitative instrument; their cognitive structures were assessed through tape‐recorded interviews and were further analyzed with the ‘flow map method’; their reasoning regarding nuclear power usage was assessed with an open‐ended questionnaire; and, then, their responses were analyzed both qualitatively and quantitatively. It was revealed that students’ beliefs about the justification of scientific knowledge (an aspect of the beliefs on the nature of knowing science) were significantly correlated with their reasoning quality; the extent and the richness of students’ cognitive structures as well as their usage of the information processing mode, ‘comparing,’ were positively correlated with their reasoning quality. A series of regression analyses further confirmed that students’ use of the information processing mode, ‘comparing,’ was the most significant factor for predicting reasoning quality, while their beliefs regarding the justification of scientific knowledge was the other important predictor.     

Developing Model‐Based Reasoning

Key elements of the structure and function of models in mathematics and science are identified. These elements are used as a basis for discussing the development of model‐based reasoning. A microgenetic study examines the beginnings of model‐based reasoning in a pair of fourth‐ and fifth‐grade children who solved several problems about chance and probability. Results are reported in the form of a cognitive model of children's problem‐solving performance. The cognitive model explains a transition in children's reasoning from tacit reliance on empirical regularity to a form of model‐based reasoning. Several factors fostering change in children's thinking are identified, including the role of notations, peer interaction, and teacher assistance. We suggest that model‐based reasoning is a slowly‐developing capability that emerges only with proper contextual and social support and that future study should be carried out in classrooms, where these forms of assistance can also be part of the object of study.

Model‐based reasoning is a significant intellectual milestone because it bridges the worlds of personal, intuitive knowledge, on the one hand, and mathematical‐scientific theory, on the other. However, across disciplines, consensus is still forming about what model‐based reasoning comprises, and there is little knowledge about its ontogenetic origins or how it develops. We consider analogy as the core of modeling, because in model‐based reasoning a system in one domain is used to understand a system in another. To understand how models come to play a role in reasoning, it is important to initiate study of their origins. Accordingly, we report a microgenetic study examining the beginnings of model‐based reasoning in a pair of young children solving problems about chance and probability. In this study we are engaged in the enterprise of modeling the development of modeling. That is, we report our results in the form of a cognitive model of children's problem‐solving performance that explains a transition in reasoning from a tacit reliance on empirical regularity to a form of model‐based reasoning. It is important to note the two distinct meanings for the term model used in this article. The first describes how children come to understand and appropriate a system of reasoning exemplified in practices of modeling. The second describes a research tool, a model of human reasoning—specifically, how children in this study began to use models of probability to reason about uncertain events. In this report, we use the terms model or model‐based reasoning to refer to the former interpretation, whereas references to a cognitive model denote the simulation of children's thinking—in this case, implemented as a computer program.

Before describing the empirical work, we first identify some key elements of the structure and function of models. Next, these elements of modeling are used as the basis for generating some conjectures about the development of model‐based reasoning. We describe a task that we used as a window to understanding progression in student reasoning toward reliance on models as tools for thought. We present our rationale for developing cognitive models of student performance and explain some choices concerning the implementation of the cognitive model reported here. Finally, we turn to the children's performance on chance and probability tasks and explain how that performance illuminates both what children do not understand about models and the kinds of relevant knowledge that they are acquiring.     

Chinese Malaysian Adolescents' Social‐Cognitive Reasoning Regarding Filial Piety Dilemmas

This study examined the social‐cognitive reasoning of 52 Chinese Malaysian preadolescents (9–12 years old; M = 11.02, SD = 0.94) and 68 adolescents (13–18 years old; M = 14.76, SD = 1.39) in resolving filial dilemmas within the personal and moral domain. Preadolescents deferred to parental authority, whereas adolescents endorsed filial obligation reasoning to justify compliance in the personal domain. Both appealed to filial obligation, pragmatic, or welfare and safety reasoning to justify compliance but fairness or rights reasoning to justify their noncompliance, for the moral issue. Distinctions between authoritarian and reciprocal filial piety reasoning were revealed. Findings demonstrated complex decision‐making and cognitive reasoning processes among Chinese Malaysian adolescents as they negotiate their filial obligations and autonomy development.     

Is heat generated from a crematorium an appropriate source for district heating? Student teachers' reasoning about a complex environmental issue

This paper reports on a longitudinal study on how science student teachers' reasoning about a complex environmental issue developed through a teacher education programme in mathematics and science for grades 1–7 (ages 7–13). Of special interest was to follow the ways in which student teachers used scientific knowledge in their reasoning. The issue was taken from a newspaper article discussing the use of surplus heat from a crematorium for district heating. A group of 14 student teachers were followed through 2½ years of a teacher education programme, during which they were interviewed three times. The results showed that the student teachers drew upon scientific knowledge only to a limited degree when they were asked to clarify the situation in the article, quickly taking standpoints based upon emotional arguments. Several student teachers experienced a contradiction between science and their emotions. It was also shown that there was a conceptual problem, which could be important for how the student teachers understood the issue, and thereby influenced their decision‐making.     

处在师生关系中的教学推论

推论(推理)是皮尔士“探究方法”的核心,教学推论是推论与教学的独特结合,其教学意义必须存在于教师与学生群体的关系中,其核心在于教学中教师如何处理学生推论的条件,即原因、规则和结果。推论有两种处理方式:(1)教师直接明确推论条件———教师对学生推论控制程度取决于明确的条件种类数;(2)教师间接控制推论条件,包括对原因、对规则和对结果三种控制行为。教学推论本质上是在技术兴趣指导下的工具性活动。     

Book Reviews

The aim of this study was to investigate relationships between care and justice reasoning, dispositional empathy variables and meta‐ethical thinking among 128 students from a university of applied sciences. The measures were Skoe’s Ethic of Care Interview, the Defining Issues Test, Davis’s Interpersonal Reactivity Index and Meta‐Ethical Questionnaire. The results showed that levels of care reasoning were positively related to the post‐conventional schema and negatively related to the personal interest schema in justice reasoning. Age, meta‐ethical thinking, the post‐conventional schema and perspective taking predicted care reasoning. Sympathy was positively related to both modes of moral reasoning among men and predicted their care reasoning. The results point out common elements for care and justice reasoning, underscore the importance of perspective taking for moral reasoning and indicate that the relationship between affective‐based empathy and moral reasoning is gender‐specific and far more complex than previous theories suggest.     

Model based learning as a key research area for science education

A framework is presented for thinking about cognitive factors involved in model construction in the classroom that can help us organize the research problems in this area and the articles in this issue. The framework connects concepts such as: expert consensus model, target model, intermediate models, preconceptions, learning processes, and natural reasoning skills. By connecting and elaborating on these major areas, the articles in this issue have succeeded in moving us another step toward having a theory of conceptual change that can provide guidance to teachers in the form of instructional principles. Taken together, the articles remind us that individual cognition, while not the only factor in learning, is a central determining feature of learning. However, we must work to further develop the present partial theory of conceptual change to fill in the missing cognitive core of the present shell.     

Self‐efficacy,reasoning ability,and achievement in college biology

This study compared the relationships of self‐efficacy and reasoning ability to achievement in introductory college biology. Based on the hypothesis that developing formal and postformal reasoning ability is a primary factor influencing self‐efficacy, a significant positive correlation was predicted between reasoning ability and degree of self‐efficacy to complete biological tasks. Further, reasoning ability was predicted to be more highly correlated with course achievement than self‐efficacy. The study involved pre‐ and posttesting 459 introductory biology students. Both self‐efficacy and reasoning ability increased during the semester. As predicted, self‐efficacy and reasoning ability were positively correlated. Depending on the nature of the achievement measure, reasoning ability accounted for some 15 to 30 times more variance in achievement than self‐efficacy. Also, as predicted, reasoning ability was a strong predictor of self‐efficacy, but self‐efficacy was not a strong predictor of reasoning ability. Self‐efficacy estimates and achievement were higher for the concrete tasks than for the formal tasks and higher for the formal tasks than for the postformal tasks. In general, students tended to overestimate their abilities to carry out the concrete, formal, and postformal tasks. Results support the study's working hypothesis that intellectual development continues for some students during the college years, that a postformal level of intellectual development exists, and that reasoning ability is a primary factor influencing both self‐efficacy and achievement. Student overestimation of their abilities may contribute to complacency, lack of effort, and to less than optimal achievement. Consequently, it may be advantageous early in the semester to provide students with particularly challenging tasks that “shock” them out of their complacency and perhaps increase their effort, their reasoning skills, and their achievement. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 44: 706–724, 2007     

Student Difficulties in Socio‐scientific Argumentation and Decision‐making Research Findings: Crossing the borders of two research lines

Students' poor argumentation in the context of socio‐scientific issues has become a concern in science education. Identified problems associated with student argumentation in socio‐scientific issues are misevaluation of evidence, naïve nature of science conceptualizations, and inappropriate use of value‐based reasoning. In this theoretical paper, the authors propose that incorporation of decision‐making research findings to argumentation research may help students overcome these problematic areas. For this aim, decision‐making research findings about value‐focused decision‐making framework and common heuristics have been discussed. Specifically, the authors propose that explicit teaching of argumentation research should provide students a decision‐making framework in which students can consider their values about a socio‐scientific issue and assess different alternatives as well as incorporate teaching about common heuristics. The authors believe that this incorporation is necessary for a quality student argumentation in socio‐scientific issues.     

Anatomical Sciences Education Vol. 6, Issue 5, 2013 Cover Image

ON THE COVER: Anatomy students studying the head and neck region in a virtual dissection class at the Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Israel . The students learn the detailed anatomical structures of each region utilizing living individuals' CTscans, assisted by working‐sheets, osteology specimens and anatomy atlases. In this issue of ASE, May and her colleagues present their new CT‐based anatomy curriculum. This paper describes motivations and reasoning for development of the new curriculum, the CT‐based learning system itself with practical examples of virtual dissections and students' assessments of the new anatomy program.     

核心素养背景下学生数学推理能力培养研究

数学教学改革要求数学教师要站在核心素养的高度,将学生数学推理能力培养贯穿于整个数学过程,由此引导学生数学核心素养的逐步养成和数学思维的增强。教师可从以下几个方面提升学生的推理能力:立足实践问题,开展合情推理;关注实验推理,提升数学兴趣;做好知识衔接,形成知识体系。