The development of relational reasoning in primary and secondary school students: a longitudinal investigation in techno
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The development of relational reasoning in primary and secondary school students: a longitudinal investigation in technology education Sophie Jablansky1 · Patricia A. Alexander1 · Denis Dumas2 · Vicki Compton3 Accepted: 27 May 2019 © Springer Nature B.V. 2019
Abstract For several decades, there has been a push to advance students’ knowledge and abilities in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). One capacity that has been linked positively to STEM achievement is relational reasoning, which involves identifying associations between objects, ideas, and situations. Yet, few studies have examined relational reasoning and its component forms (i.e., analogy, anomaly, antinomy, antithesis) within the domain of technology or how these abilities might change over time. The present study explored the development of primary and secondary school students’ relational reasoning over a period of 2 years as they interacted with technological objects. Participants (n = 59) were a subset of a nationally representative random sample between 5 and 18 years old. Students met with a researcher to discuss the form and function of a familiar and unfamiliar technological object at two time points. Results demonstrated that students of all ages used relational reasoning to identify associations between objects’ functionality and form, but that the types and amounts of relational reasoning varied by grade group, time, and object familiarity. This study has implications for researchers and practitioners interested in the development of relational reasoning and technological literacy, and suggests possible ways of enhancing both. Keywords Relational reasoning · Development · Technological literacy
Introduction Relational reasoning, the ability to discern meaningful patterns within a stream of information (Alexander and The Disciplined Reading and Learning Research Laboratory [DRLRL] 2012), has long been considered a foundational cognitive ability. It is this capacity to detect patterns in one’s environment and one’s mind that William James (1890) believed freed us from a world of isolated stimuli. Importantly, relational reasoning is considered * Sophie Jablansky [email protected] 1
University of Maryland, College Park, USA
2
University of Denver, Denver, USA
3
Ministry for Business, Innovation, and Employment, Wellington, New Zealand
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a meta-strategy (Alexander et al. 2016b), such that it entails conscious and effortful processing directed toward identifying the underlying associations among concepts, objects, or ideas (Alexander and Baggetta 2014). In this way, relational reasoning is critical for learning in any domain (Alexander et al. 2016b). Since James’s time, many researchers have demonstrated the importance of relational reasoning in both academic and nonacademic settings, and particularly in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). For example, this ability has been implicated in the understanding of complex concepts in mathe
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