A review of research on formal reasoning and science teaching

A central purpose of education is to improve students' reasoning abilities. The present review examines research in developmental psychology and science education that has attempted to assess the validity of Piaget's theory of formal thought and its relation to educational practice. Should a central objective of schools be to help students become formal thinkers? To answer this question research has focused on the following subordinate questions: (1) What role does biological maturation play in the development of formal reasoning? (2) Are Piaget's formal tasks reliable and valid? (3) Does formal reasoning constitute a unified and general mode of intellectual functioning? (4) How does the presence or absence of formal reasoning affect school achievement? (5) Can formal reasoning be taught? (6) What is the structural or functional nature of advanced reasoning? The general conclusion drawn is that although Piaget's work and that which has sprung from it leaves a number of unresolved theoretical and methodological problems, it provides an important background from which to make substantial progress toward a most significant educational objective. All our dignity lies in thought. By thought we must elevate ourselves, not by space and time which we can not fill. Let us endeavor then to think well; therein lies the principle of morality. Blaise Pascal 1623-1662.     

Community Building Through Electronic Discussion Boards: Pre-Service Teachers' Reflective Dialogues on Science Teaching

This research study focuses on an electronic forum for building a community of pre-service teachers to reflect upon new directions in science teaching. The thesis of this paper is to model the notion of community building for teacher reflective practice. Through pre-service teachers' WebCT postings on students' theories in science, we provide evidence of how WebCT discussion board served as a forum for community building to carry out reflective practice. We conclude that WebCT discussion board can serve as a viable tool for building a community of reflective teachers. This study implies that WebCT and similar Internet electronic discussion tools may be effectively used for community building to carry out reflective dialogues in teacher education.     

Environmental Education Network within the EEC

Pascual‐Leone (1972) has conducted task analyses in terms of M‐demand (amount of information processing required by the task) and demonstrated that the phenomenon of ‘horizontal decalages’, described by Piaget, can be accounted for by increasing demands of information processing. It has been shown that formal operational reasoning is required to balance even simple, one‐step chemical equations, while formal reasoning and a sufficiently large M‐capacity are required to balance more complex, multi‐step chemical equations. The objective of the present study is to investigate the relation between functional M‐capacity (M_f) and student performance in solving chemistry problems of increasing M‐demand. It was found that student performance decreased as the M‐demand of the problems increased. Similarly, the correlation coefficients between M_f‐ and student performance increased progressively as the M‐demand of the problems increased.     

Mathematical Manipulative Models: In Defense of “Beanbag Biology”

Mathematical manipulative models have had a long history of influence in biological research and in secondary school education, but they are frequently neglected in undergraduate biology education. By linking mathematical manipulative models in a four-step process—1) use of physical manipulatives, 2) interactive exploration of computer simulations, 3) derivation of mathematical relationships from core principles, and 4) analysis of real data sets—we demonstrate a process that we have shared in biological faculty development workshops led by staff from the BioQUEST Curriculum Consortium over the past 24 yr. We built this approach based upon a broad survey of literature in mathematical educational research that has convincingly demonstrated the utility of multiple models that involve physical, kinesthetic learning to actual data and interactive simulations. Two projects that use this approach are introduced: The Biological Excel Simulations and Tools in Exploratory, Experiential Mathematics (ESTEEM) Project (http://bioquest.org/esteem) and Numerical Undergraduate Mathematical Biology Education (NUMB3R5 COUNT; http://bioquest.org/numberscount). Examples here emphasize genetics, ecology, population biology, photosynthesis, cancer, and epidemiology. Mathematical manipulative models help learners break through prior fears to develop an appreciation for how mathematical reasoning informs problem solving, inference, and precise communication in biology and enhance the diversity of quantitative biology education.