Relational Reasoning and Its Manifestations in the Educational Context: a Systematic Review of the Literature

Relational reasoning, the ability to discern meaningful patterns within otherwise unconnected information, is regarded as central to human learning and cognition and as particularly critical for those functioning in today’s information age. However, the literature on this foundational ability is currently housed within a range of domains of inquiry, where divergent terminology and methodologies are commonplace. This dispersion has made it difficult to harness the power of existing work to inform future research or guide educational practice. In order to address this lack of consolidation, a systematic review of relational reasoning was undertaken. Specifically, 109 empirical studies dealing with relational reasoning in general or one of four manifestations (i.e., analogy, anomaly, antinomy, and antithesis) were analyzed. Resulting data revealed trends across fields of inquiry, including a degree of conceptual ambiguity, conceptual and operational misalignment, and a lack of ecological validity in certain research paradigms. There were also particular forms and measures of relational reasoning that were more commonly investigated, as well as certain domains that were more often studied. Implications for how future research can examine relational reasoning as a multidimensional construct within educational contexts are also discussed.     

Search behavior in cats and dogs: Interspecific differences in working memory and spatial cognition

Cats’ and dogs’ search behavior was compared in different problems where an object was visibly moved behind a screen that was then visibly moved to a new position. In Experiments 1 (cats) and 2 (dogs), one group was tested with identical screens and the other group was tested with dissimilar screens. Results showed that in both species, search behavior was based on processing of spatial information rather than on recognition of the visual features of the target screen. Cats and dogs were unable to find the object by inferring its invisible movement. They reached a high level of success only if there was direct perceptual evidence that the object could not be at its initial position. When the position change was indicated by an indirect cue, cats searched more at the object’s initial than final position, whereas dogs searched equally at both positions. Interspecific similarities and differences are interpreted in terms of the requirements for resetting working memory.     

Rotation sequence to report humerothoracic kinematics during 3D motion involving large horizontal component: application to the tennis forehand drive

The aim of this study was to examine the respective aptitudes of three rotation sequences (Y_tX_f′Y_h′′, Z_tX_f′Y_h′′, and X_tZ_f′Y_h′′) to effectively describe the orientation of the humerus relative to the thorax during a movement involving a large horizontal abduction/adduction component: the tennis forehand drive. An optoelectronic system was used to record the movements of eight elite male players, each performing ten forehand drives. The occurrences of gimbal lock, phase angle discontinuity and incoherency in the time course of the three angles defining humerothoracic rotation were examined for each rotation sequence. Our results demonstrated that no single sequence effectively describes humerothoracic motion without discontinuities throughout the forehand motion. The humerothoracic joint angles can nevertheless be described without singularities when considering the backswing/forward-swing and the follow-through phases separately. Our findings stress that the sequence choice may have implications for the report and interpretation of 3D joint kinematics during large shoulder range of motion. Consequently, the use of Euler/Cardan angles to represent 3D orientation of the humerothoracic joint in sport tasks requires the evaluation of the rotation sequence regarding singularity occurrence before analysing the kinematic data, especially when the task involves a large shoulder range of motion in the horizontal plane.     

Students’ perceptions of parental and teacher academic involvement: Consequences on achievement goals

The present study examined whether students’ perceptions of two major facets of parental and teacher academic involvement (i.e., academic support and academic monitoring), contribute to the process of students’ achievement goals adoption. French junior high-school students completed two questionnaires assessing first their perceptions of parental and teacher academic involvement, and then their achievement goals three months later. Factorial analyses showed that students differentiated parental academic monitoring from parental academic support, while predominantly perceiving their teacher academic involvement as reflecting monitoring. Multilevel modeling analyses indicated that, as expected, students’ perceptions of parental academic support were positively related to mastery goals while unrelated to performance goals. Also as expected, perceived academic monitoring was associated with performance goals, although the findings revealed an equal contribution of perceived parental and teacher involvement. This new insight about the antecedents of students’ achievement goals emphasizes how important is the role of parental and teacher academic socialization.     

Against the Dark: Antiblackness in Education Policy and Discourse

I argue that analyses of racial(ised) discourse and policy processes in education must grapple with cultural disregard for and disgust with blackness. This article explains how a theorization of antiblackness allows one to more precisely identify and respond to racism in education discourse and in the formation and implementation of education policy. I contend that deeply embedded within racialized policy discourses is not merely a concern about disproportionality or inequality, but also a concern with the bodies of Black people, the signification of (their) Blackness, and the threat posed by the Black to the educational well-being of other students. Using school (de)segregation as an example, I demonstrate how policy discourse is informed by antiblackness, and consider what an awareness of antiblackness means for educational policy and practice.     

Preparation programs leading to licensure in broad‐field social studies at state regional colleges and universities

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine the status of preparation programs leading to licensure in broad‐field social studies, grades 7–12, at state regional colleges and universities and the relationship of these programs of study to National Council of Social Studies (NCSS) Standards, state licensure requirements, degree programs of study at state supported major research institutions, and major reports on educational reform. The research found that of the 30 institutions studied only 21 offered degree programs leading to licensure in broad‐field social studies. All 21 institutions exceeded state minimum requirements and although the mean semester hour requirements in general education, professional education, and specialty studies components minimally exceeded the NCSS recommended standards and were similar to those at major research institutions, there was an absence of assurance by institutions that students possessed a depth of understanding in the disciplines within the major. Likewise, degree programs have been minimally affected by the recommendations of the major educational reform reports.     

Development and calibration of the student opportunities for deeper learning instrument

This article describes the development and calibration of the student opportunities for deeper learning instrument (SODLI). The SODLI is designed to measure the amount of learning opportunities intended to support higher‐order thinking that students are exposed to through student self‐report, and is expected to be widely useful in psychological research in schools. Here, the psychometric functioning of the SODLI is investigated in a relatively large sample of U.S. high‐school students (N = 963). Using multidimensional item‐response theory methods, a nine‐factor correlated model is determined to fit the data best, and to produce reliable estimates of SODLI dimensions. The SODLI is also shown to exhibit scalar‐invariant measurement properties across sex, race/ethnicity, and language‐background groups, although latent mean differences on some of the SODLI dimensions across those groups were identified.     

Parental child abuse potential and subsequent coping competence in disadvantaged preschool children: moderating effects of sex and ethnicity

This study evaluated the effects of abuse potential in parents on subsequent coping competence domains in their children, using a model empirically supported in a high-risk community sample by Moreland and Dumas (2007). Data from an ethnically diverse sample of 579 parents enrolled in the PACE (Parenting Our Children to Excellence) program was used to evaluate whether parental child abuse potential assessed at pre-intervention negatively contributed to child affective, achievement, and social coping competence in preschoolers one year later, and whether these associations were moderated by sex or ethnicity. Cross-sectional results indicated that parental child abuse potential was negatively related to child affective and achievement coping competence, after accounting for variance associated with child behavior problems. However, child abuse potential was not predictive of subsequent coping competence in any domain after controlling for previous levels of child coping competence. No moderating effects were found for sex and ethnicity, but results showed main effects of sex and ethnicity in cross-sectional analyses. Clinical implications and future directions are discussed.