Enhancing academic performance by strengthening class-inclusion reasoning.
Class inclusion is an early form of abstract thought that requires logical rather than perceptually based inferences plus an appreciation of part-whole relationships (B. Inhelder and J. Piaget, 1959/1964). The authors randomly assigned 2 groups of first graders who were having academic difficulties to be instructed on either class inclusion or phonics. Results showed a significant linear relation between individual children's mastery of class inclusion and their scores on the Cognitive Abilities Test Form 6 (D. F. Lohman and E. P. Hagen, 2001) verbal and quantitative measures of reasoning. The authors also found a significant linear relation between mastery of class inclusion and improvement in report card marks issued by teachers who were blind to the children's group assignment.
Pasnak
Robert
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George Mason University, Fairfax, VA 22030, USA. rpasnak@gmu.edu
Cooke
Willa D
WD
Hendricks
Charlene
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D000124:Achievement; D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011340:Problem Solving