Developmental differences in relational reasoning among primary and secondary school students.

Abstract

Relational reasoning, the ability to discern meaningful patterns within a stream of information, is considered a critical capacity for students. However, little is known about how this ability is demonstrated by children of different ages in the context of discourse with a more knowledgeable other. Thus, this study sought to investigate the ways in which 4 forms of relational reasoning (i.e., analogy, anomaly, antinomy, and antitheses) manifested in semistructured conversations between a researcher and child about the form and function of more or less familiar objects. Participants were a nationally representative cross-sectional sample of 61 New Zealand primary and secondary students, divided into 3 grade groups: early (Kindergarten through second), middle (fourth through eighth), and late (tenth through eleventh). Results indicated that children as young as 5 years old were capable of using all 4 forms of relational reasoning in discourse. Furthermore, analysis revealed a curvilinear trajectory in the observed versus expected frequencies of relational reasoning among the groups. Finally, in terms of the individual forms of relational reasoning, analogies and anomalies occupied a smaller proportion of relational talk when children were older, whereas antinomies and antitheses occupied a greater proportion. Implications for research and practice are forwarded.

Relational Reasoning in Science, Medicine, and Engineering

“…Because the construct of relational reasoning does bear some definitional similarity to fluid intelligence (Cattell 1987), the issue of malleability is relevant within the domain of relational reasoning research. Consistently, researchers in the field have been in agreement that the ability to discern meaningful patterns within a particular body of information can be improved through strategy instruction (Alexander et al 1989), increased knowledge of the domain (Jablansky et al 2015), or through neurological maturation and growth (Crone et al 2009). Therefore, there is reason to believe that most young learners, who are yet far from the expertise of those scientists, engineers, and medical professionals studied in the literature reviewed here, have the potential to develop a high level of relational reasoning ability.…”

“…Based on the findings of a number of studies, we know that those individuals who know more about a particular topic or domain are more likely to discern meaningful patterns within information arising from that domain (Jablansky et al 2015;Ozkan, and Dogan 2013;Vendetti et al 2015). However, we also know that relational reasoning strategies can be leveraged to help individuals with comparatively low prior knowledge solve domain-specific scientific problems more effectively (Trey and Khan 2008).…”

“…For this reason, educational and psychological researchers interested in relational reasoning typically employ diverse methodologies for measuring relational reasoning ability, including psychometric measures and tasks (e.g., Alexander et al 2015;, naturalistic observations (e.g., Chan and Schunn 2015;Dumas et al 2014), and cognitive interview techniques (Jablansky et al 2015). There may be much still to learn about relational reasoning, and for this line of inquiry, the entire gamut of measurement tools must be used: from selected-response assessments and neuroimaging methods to semi-structured interviews, naturalistic observations, and computer simulations.…”

Individual differences in college‐age learners: The importance of relational reasoning for learning and assessment in higher education

“…Developmentally, there is evidence of relevant changes in relational reasoning over time (Jablansky, Alexander, Dumas, & Compton, ). Jablansky et al .…”

Developmental changes in reasoning about cross-classified individuals.

“…One possibility is Compton, 2015), develops throughout childhood and is fundamental to later abstract thought (Kotovsky & Gentner, 1996;Richland, Morrison, & Holyoak, 2006). Although young children have some ability to perform relational reasoning, this skill improves over the early and later elementary school years (Jablansky et al, 2015). Given that there are improvements in cognitive flexibility and nonverbal reasoning that occur in early childhood, we included measures of these two cognitive competencies to examine whether or not they predict children's cross-classification behaviors.…”