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Descriptors:
Educational Change; Student Personnel Services; Theory Practice Relationship; Student Personnel Workers; Use Studies; Best Practices; Change Strategies; Logical Thinking; Models

Abstract:
When making decisions that impact student learning, college educators often consider previous experiences, precedent, common sense, and advice from colleagues. But how often do they consider theory? At a recent state-level educators' meeting, the authors of this article asked 50 student affairs educators about the use of theory in their practice. Less than 10 percent said they draw on theory to make decisions. The authors' view is that is not enough. Used in everyday problem solving and decision making, theory can help educators ask better questions, find better solutions, and make a lasting contribution to the lives of individual students and to education in general. In this article, the authors make their point by offering an analogy that demystifies theory for daily use. While their process may not be completely new, they believe it elevates practical applications of theory to a level that is not yet fully appreciated. (Contains 1 figure.) Note:The following two links are not-applicable for text-based browsers or screen-reading software. Show Hide Full Abstract

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Descriptors:
Mathematical Logic; Validity; Majors (Students); Undergraduate Students; Algebra; Geometry; Number Concepts; College Mathematics; Logical Thinking; Preservice Teachers; Secondary School Mathematics

Abstract:
Validating proofs and counterexamples across content domains is considered vital practices for undergraduate students to advance their mathematical reasoning and knowledge. To date, not enough is known about the ways mathematics majors determine the validity of arguments in the domains of algebra, analysis, geometry, and number theory--the domains that are central to many mathematics courses. This study reported how 16 mathematics majors, including eight specializing in secondary mathematics education, who had completed more proof-based courses than transition-to-proof classes evaluated various arguments. The results suggest that the students use one of the following strategies in proof and counterexample validation: (1) examination of the argument's structure and (2) line-by-line checking with informal deductive reasoning, example-based reasoning, experience-based reasoning, and informal deductive and example-based reasoning. Most students tended to examine all steps of the argument with informal deductive reasoning across various tasks, suggesting that this approach might be problem dependent. Even though all participating students had taken more proof-related mathematics courses, it is surprising that many of them did not recognize global-structure or line-by-line content-based flaws presented in the argument. (Contains 6 tables.) Note:The following two links are not-applicable for text-based browsers or screen-reading software. Show Hide Full Abstract

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Descriptors:
Logical Thinking; Student Evaluation; Inferences; Trust (Psychology); Foreign Countries; Grading; Tests; Interrater Reliability; Evaluators; Teachers; Research Methodology; Rating Scales; Comparative Analysis

Abstract:
In the Swedish educational system, teachers have the dual responsibility of assigning final grades and marking their own students' national tests. The Government has mandated the Swedish Schools Inspectorate to remark samples of the national tests to see if teacher marking can be trusted. Reports from this project have concluded that intermarker consistency is low and that teachers' markings are generous as compared to those of the external markers. These findings have been heavily publicized, leading to distrust in teachers' assessments. In the article, we analyze and discuss the remarking studies from methodological as well as substantive angles. We conclude that the design applied in the reanalysis does not allow inferences about bias in marking across schools or teachers. We also conclude that there are several alternative explanations for the observation that teacher marks are higher than the external marks: The external markers did not form a representative sample, they read copies with sometimes marginal legibility, and they used a different scale for marking than the teachers had used. The results are thus not as clearcut as suggested by the reports and media releases, which is because a school inspections logic rather than a research logic was applied in designing, conducting, and reporting the studies. Note:The following two links are not-applicable for text-based browsers or screen-reading software. Show Hide Full Abstract

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Descriptors:
Logical Thinking; Syntax; Brain; Learning Strategies; Language Acquisition; Computational Linguistics; Grammar; Language Universals; Linguistic Theory; Children; Child Language; Linguistic Input; Language Research; Language Processing

Abstract:
The induction problems facing language learners have played a central role in debates about the types of learning biases that exist in the human brain. Many linguists have argued that some of the learning biases necessary to solve these language induction problems must be both innate and language-specific (i.e., the Universal Grammar (UG) hypothesis). Though there have been several recent high-profile investigations of the necessary learning bias types for different linguistic phenomena, the UG hypothesis is still the dominant assumption for a large segment of linguists due to the lack of studies addressing central phenomena in generative linguistics. To address this, we focus on how to learn constraints on long-distance dependencies, also known as syntactic island constraints. We use formal acceptability judgment data to identify the target state of learning for syntactic island constraints and conduct a corpus analysis of child-directed data to affirm that there does appear to be an induction problem when learning these constraints. We then create a computational learning model that implements a learning strategy capable of successfully learning the pattern of acceptability judgments observed in formal experiments, based on realistic input. Importantly, this model does not explicitly encode syntactic constraints. We discuss learning biases required by this model in detail as they highlight the potential problems posed by syntactic island effects for any theory of syntactic acquisition. We find that, although the proposed learning strategy requires fewer complex and domain-specific components than previous theories of syntactic island learning, it still raises difficult questions about how the specific biases required by syntactic islands arise in the learner. We discuss the consequences of these results for theories of acquisition and theories of syntax. (Contains 5 tables, 6 figures, and 14 footnotes.) Note:The following two links are not-applicable for text-based browsers or screen-reading software. Show Hide Full Abstract

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Descriptors:
Logical Thinking; Geometric Concepts; Foreign Countries; War; Feedback (Response); Empathy; Conflict Resolution; Decision Making; Models; International Relations; College Students

Abstract:
Two classroom simulations--"Superpower Confrontation" and "Multipolar Asian Simulation"--are used to teach and test various aspects of the Borden versus Brodie debate on the Schelling versus Lanchester approach to nuclear conflict modeling and resolution. The author applies a Schelling test to segregate high from low empathic students, and assigns them to "hard case" positions in three simulations to test whether high empathy students can engage in tactic bargaining and whether low empathetic students are necessarily as escalation prone. He has a bipolar nuclear simulation that is an easy case for the Brodie set of assumptions about nuclear war, avoidance, and Schelling-esque tacit bargaining. He expects the system structure and high empathy leader selection to contain escalation, despite the temptation of relying on accelerated Single Integrated Operational Plan solutions and the counterincentive of diminished tacit bargaining through decapitation attacks. The second simulation is a multipolar nuclear simulation set in the near future of Asia, and emulates the Borden-esque logic of nuclear war as artillery exchanges, with a Lanchester square law logic encouraging rapid escalation, coupled with a selection for the most autistic leadership. The author expects rapid nuclear escalation under these structural and decision-making conditions. His conclusions are anecdotal, but seem to indicate, from student feedback during class discussions, that the failure to model fear may be a factor in undermining successful tacit bargaining by players, suggesting that Borden rather than Brodie better conceptualized nuclear conflict. Therefore, peace is about restraining war initiation, as there are great pressures for escalation once war is initiated. (Contains 6 tables and 2 notes.) Note:The following two links are not-applicable for text-based browsers or screen-reading software. Show Hide Full Abstract

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Descriptors:
Grantsmanship; Proposal Writing; Course Content; Course Descriptions; Classification; Content Analysis; Online Surveys; Graduate Study; Textbooks; Decision Making; Grants; Logical Thinking; Models; Budgeting

Abstract:
Little information exists about the structure and content of grant writing courses offered in the United States. To fill this gap, we used multiple data sources, including a content analysis of syllabi from 93 graduate-level grant writing courses in the United States, and an online survey that sought insight into (a) the ways in which textbooks for graduate-level grant writing courses are selected and, (b) the specific features that instructors value in grant writing textbooks. Syllabi data included course department, structure, description, requirements, and objectives, as well as required and recommended readings. The themes derived from the data attested to an applied focus on proposal writing, budgeting, and the identification of funding sources. The survey data suggested that instructors valued the inclusion of example proposals and would like to see logic models as they apply to writing grant proposals in course textbooks. (Contains 2 tables, 1 figure, and 2 footnotes.) Note:The following two links are not-applicable for text-based browsers or screen-reading software. Show Hide Full Abstract

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Descriptors:
Logical Thinking; Preschool Children; Inferences; Classification; Cognitive Processes; Concept Formation; Adults; Role; Theories

Abstract:
One important function of categories is to permit rich inductive inferences. Prior work shows that children use category labels to guide their inductive inferences. However, there are competing theories to explain this phenomenon, differing in the roles attributed to conceptual information vs. perceptual similarity. Seven experiments with 4- to 5-year-old children and adults (N=344) test these theories by teaching categories for which category membership and perceptual similarity are in conflict, and varying the conceptual basis of the novel categories. Results indicate that for non-natural kind categories that have little conceptual coherence, children make inferences based on perceptual similarity, whereas adults make inferences based on category membership. In contrast, for basic- and ontological-level categories that have a principled conceptual basis, children and adults alike make use of category membership more than perceptual similarity as the basis of their inferences. These findings provide evidence in favor of the role of conceptual information in preschoolers' inferences, and further demonstrate that labeled categories are not all equivalent; they differ in their inductive potential. (Contains 2 figures and 4 tables.) Note:The following two links are not-applicable for text-based browsers or screen-reading software. Show Hide Full Abstract

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Descriptors:
Thinking Skills; Logical Thinking; Spatial Ability; Science Teachers; Standards; Science Education; Scientific Concepts; Correlation; Middle School Students; High School Students; Regression (Statistics); Visual Perception; Science Instruction; Concept Formation

Abstract:
The "National Science Education Standards" emphasize teaching unifying concepts and processes such as basic functions of living organisms, the living environment, and scale (NRC 2011). Scale includes understanding that different characteristics, properties, or relationships within a system might change as its dimensions are increased or decreased (NRC 2011). One such relationship involves surface area to volume which is a pervasive concept that can be found throughout different sciences. This concept is important for students to not only understand the association of the two, but to also be able to apply this relationship in science contexts. The purpose of this study is to investigate the factors that influence the understanding surface area to volume relationships. This study examined middle school students', high school students', and science teachers' logical thinking skills (including proportional reasoning), visual-spatial skills, and understandings of surface area to volume relationships. Regression results indicated that participants' reasoning abilities and components of visual-spatial skills could be possible predictors for one's ability to understand surface area to volume relationships. Implications for teaching scale concepts such as surface area to volume relationships in the science classroom are discussed. Note:The following two links are not-applicable for text-based browsers or screen-reading software. Show Hide Full Abstract

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Descriptors:
Academic Achievement; Achievement Tests; Spatial Ability; Chemistry; Cooperative Learning; Teaching Methods; Animation; Control Groups; Higher Education; College Students; Science Education; College Freshmen; Statistical Analysis; Logical Thinking; Visualization; Thinking Skills

Abstract:
The aim of this study was to determine the effect of jigsaw cooperative learning and computer animation techniques on academic achievements of first year university students attending classes in which the unit of chemical bonding is taught within the general chemistry course and these students' learning of the particulate nature of matter of this unit. The sample of this study consisted of 115 first-year science education students who attended the classes in which the unit of chemical bonding was taught in a university faculty of education during the 2009-2010 academic year. The data collection instruments used were the Test of Scientific Reasoning, the Purdue Spatial Visualization Test: Rotations, the Chemical Bonding Academic Achievement Test, and the Particulate Nature of Matter Test in Chemical Bonding (CbPNMT). The study was carried out in three different groups. One of the groups was randomly assigned to the jigsaw group, the second was assigned to the animation group (AG), and the third was assigned to the control group, in which the traditional teaching method was applied. The data obtained with the instruments were evaluated using descriptive statistics, one-way ANOVA, and MANCOVA. The results indicate that the teaching of chemical bonding via the animation and jigsaw techniques was more effective than the traditional teaching method in increasing academic achievement. In addition, according to findings from the CbPNMT, the students from the AG were more successful in terms of correct understanding of the particulate nature of matter. Note:The following two links are not-applicable for text-based browsers or screen-reading software. Show Hide Full Abstract

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Descriptors:
Language Processing; Logical Thinking; Semitic Languages; Statistical Analysis; Phonology; Computational Linguistics; Linguistic Input; Networks; Phonemes; Classification; Psycholinguistics; Grammar

Abstract:
A significant problem in computational language learning is that of inferring the content of well-formedness constraints from input data. In this article, we approach the constraint induction problem as the gradual adjustment of subsymbolic constraints in a connectionist network. In particular, we develop a multi-layer feed-forward network that learns the constraints that underlie restrictions against homorganic consonants, or "OCP-Place constraints", in Arabic roots. The network is trained using standard learning procedures in connection science with a representative sample of Arabic roots. The trained network is shown to classify actual and novel Arabic roots in ways that are qualitatively parallel to a psycholinguistic study of Arabic. Statistical analysis of network behavior also shows that activations of nodes in the hidden layer correspond well with violations of symbolic well-formedness constraints familiar from generative phonology. In sum, it is shown that at least some constraints operative in phonotactic grammar can be learned from data and do not have to be stipulated in advance of learning. (Contains 5 tables and 4 figures.) Note:The following two links are not-applicable for text-based browsers or screen-reading software. Show Hide Full Abstract

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