Relational Reasoning in Primary and Secondary School Students: A Developmental Analysis

• In Event: The Malleability of Relational Reasoning: Effects of Direct or Indirect Interventions on Learning Processes and Outcomes

Abstract

Theoretical Framework
Relational reasoning, the ability to discern meaningful patterns within an informational stream (Alexander & the DRLRL), is a core cognitive capacity. However, development of relational reasoning or RR is little understood, and it is unclear how interventions might alter the trajectory of RR development.
Research has identified four forms of RR (i.e., analogy, anomaly, antinomy, and antithesis) in younger and older students. For example, in an in vivo study involving primary and secondary students’ reasoning about familiar and unfamiliar technological objects, transcripts revealed that prevalence and distribution of RR forms varied by familiarity and age (Jablansky, Alexander, Dumas, & Compton, in press). Students in the middle grades recorded the highest frequency of RR. Moreover, young students relied more on analogical and anomalous reasoning, whereas older students used more antinomous and antithetical reasoning. What this study could not address was RR development, which is the focus of the current investigation.

Method
Participants. Participants were 61 New Zealand students (30 male; 49.18%), in grades 1 to 12. Students came from 19 urban and rural schools representing varied socioeconomic levels. Students formed three grade groups: Early (grades 1, 3, and 5); Middle (7 and 9); and Late (11 and 12).
Intervention. The New Zealand Ministry of Education implemented a two-year technological literacy program from 2010 to 2012, aimed at address eight strands of technological literacy (Ministry of Education, 2007).
Semi-structured conversations. To evaluate students’ technological literacy, a researcher met with students individually to ask about the technological properties of two objects; one familiar (i.e., ballpoint pen) and one unfamiliar (i.e., spoon holder that clamps onto a pot).
Procedure and coding. Pre-intervention conversations took place in late 2010 and post-intervention conversations in mid-2012. Conversations were transcribed and separated into idea units (Trickett & Trafton, 2007), which were coded as relational (e.g., antithesis) or non-relational (e.g., task-related).

Results and Implications
Several developmental patterns emerged. First, there was a curvilinear relation between grade and frequency of RR—a pattern that remained stable from pre- to post-intervention. What changed from pre- to post-intervention were the predominant forms of RR. Specifically, there was a predominance of analogies and antinomies for all groups at post-intervention, and anomalies and antitheses were relatively infrequent. These outcomes suggest that altering students’ domain knowledge (i.e., technological literacy) may not change the overall frequency of RR among younger and older students. However, deepening knowledge may play a significant role in the form of RR that proves most advantageous. This finding supports previous research demonstrating a shift in RR due to enhanced domain knowledge and skills (Dumas & Schmidt, 2015).
This is the first study of which we are aware that traces the development of relational reasoning over time and over form. The result is a more nuanced portrait of RR and a more elaborate understanding of how various forms of RR are impacted by deepening domain knowledge.

Authors

• Sophie Jablansky, University of Maryland - College Park

• Vicki Compton