Children's application of simultaneous and successive processing in inductive and deductive reasoning problems: Implications for developing scientific reasoning skills

The research reported in this article was undertaken to obtain a better understanding of problem solving and scientific reasoning in 10-year-old children. The study involved measuring children's competence at syllogistic reasoning and in solving a series of problems requiring inductive reasoning. Children were also categorized on the basis of levels of simultaneous and successive synthesis. Simultaneous and successive synthesis represent two dimensions of information processing identified by Luria in a program of neuropsychological research. Simultaneous synthesis involves integration of information in a holistic or spatial fashion, whereas successive synthesis involves processing information sequentially with temporal links between stimuli. Analysis of the data generated in the study indicated that syllogistic reasoning and inductive reasoning were significantly correlated with both simultaneous and successive synthesis. However, the strongest correlation was found between simultaneous synthesis and inductive reasoning. These findings provide a basis for understanding the roles of spatial and verbal-logical ability as defined by Luria's neuropsychological theory in scientific problem solving. The results also highlight the need for teachers to provide experiences which are compatible with individual students' information processing styles.     

Talk about texts at the computer: using ICT to develop children's oral and literate abilities

This article describes the outcomes of recent research on children's talk while engaged in joint literacy activities in primary school (Year 5). The research is based on a conception of talk as a tool for ‘thinking together’, with computer software being treated as a resource for organising and focusing children's involvement in collaborative activities. The results are used to discuss the value of classroom talk and computer‐based activities for promoting children's literacy development.     

Fluency Transfer: Differential Gains in Reading Speed and Accuracy Following Isolated Word and Context Training

While fluent reading is recognized as a primary goal of educational instruction, the methods that best promote the development of fluency remain unclear. Two experiments are reported that examined increases in reading fluency of a novel passage following two types of training. In the context training condition, children learned to read a set of target words in a story context, while in the isolated word training condition, fluency with a target word set was gained from a computerized word naming game. Transfer of fluency to reading these words in a new context was then measured by gains in reading speed, accuracy, and comprehension of a novel story. Results indicated that young readers showed speed benefits on transfer stories following both context and isolated word training, but the increases were larger following context training.     

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.     

The Use of Verbal Self‐instruction Training (VSIT) to Enhance Learning in the Mentally Retarded: a study of techniques for improving acquisition,maintenance and generalisation outcomes

Abstract Verbal self‐instruction training (VSIT) was seen as one possible solution to the problem of obtaining more efficient procedures for the teaching of the retarded. Thus, VSIT was compared to the more commonly used modelling and imitation (MODIM) procedures with a moderately‐severely mentally retarded sample of 48 adult men from an institution in a rural setting. Feedback regarding performance was also added to these conditions to investigate its effect on generalisation outcomes, thus giving four training packages: VSIT; VSIT with feedback MODIM; and MODIM with feedback.

Six independent living tasks were trained (two sandwich making, two vacuuming and two collating): three being used for initial training and three as related or ‘near generalisation’ tasks.

The four instructional packages were investigated in order to ascertain their relative efficiency in terms of (trainer) effort required to train to criterion on the six tasks and the achievement of generalisation and maintenance outcomes.

It was found that VSIT was an efficient alternative to MODIM for enhancing acquisition on five out of the six trained tasks (the exception being initial acquisition of the sandwich making task). Moreover, as indicated by reduction in training effort required for the generalisation tasks, the VSIT groups achieved greater savings on the sandwich making and vacuuming tasks. VSIT was also found to generate significantly better short and long‐term maintenance of skills on all three initial training tasks.

A differential task effect was noted with the feedback conditions (VSIT with feedback, and MODIM with feedback), whereby the performances of VSIT subjects on both the training and generalisation sandwich making tasks, and performances of MODIM subjects on the sandwich making generalisation task, were benefited by the addition of this condition; although feedback was found to exert no consistent influence on performances of subjects in either VSIT or MODIM groups on the vacuuming and collating tasks.

The data are discussed with reference to other studies in this area, it being concluded that VSIT is a promising method of instruction for MR populations.