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Developing, Using, and Communicating
Complex Reasoning
From Taking Center Stage, Sacramento: California Department of Education, 2001, p. 73.
Middle grades students should have frequent opportunities to develop and demonstrate complex reasoning and to use written and oral communication to convey their thought processes. Content and performance standards in core subjects should reflect curriculum and instruction that prepare students to engage in progressively more demanding cognitive tasks, including those that require them to:
- Participate in oral discussions of solutions to mathematical problems; outcomes of scientific experiments; or the formulation and testing of hypotheses in science, social studies, and other subjects.
- Use knowledge of facts, procedures, and operations to solve problems, arrive at conclusions, or propose novel solutions based on original thinking.
- Prepare papers, essays, or other appropriate written materials which describe the steps followed in conducting research, analyzing data, and using other complex reasoning in studying social, political, economic, and scientific problems and issues. This work should reflect proficient writing skills and appropriate use of numbers, symbols, graphs, photos, charts, and other visual materials. Written work should be shared with other students, who are encouraged to ask questions, offer suggestions, provide alternative problem-solving logic, and otherwise interact creatively.
- Engage in history–social science, mathematics, and science projects that call for a high level of abstractive thought before solutions can be found—sometimes referred to as “power problems.” These projects should require extended reasoning, which takes the student beyond conventional facts and rules. Assignments of this type might be given once a semester and typically require highly focused homework. Parents should be apprised of “power problems” and invited to work with their child, if appropriate; but in all cases their role is to make certain that the assignment is completed.
- Provide detailed descriptions of how answers are determined for selected test items in history–social science, mathematics, and science. Items should require students to process, analyze, compare, contrast, generalize, or use other types of abstract thought. Students’ responses should reflect the application of new knowledge and skills introduced during classroom instruction or learned through related assignments.
- Use graphs, pictographs, charts, and other similar representation of statistical data to communicate complex ideas. Use real or hypothetical data and demonstrate the ability to choose the most appropriate type of graphic representation.
- Use computer software applications, which develop abilities to use spreadsheets and graphing calculators, to process information, or to otherwise perform calculations, solve problems, or analyze data.
- Complete assignments on the Internet to locate data, including original source materials, and to provide web site addresses in bibliographic material.
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