INFERENCE PATH

I respectfully disgree with the recent statement from the General Manager of Austhink: “US Government policy also dictates that spending should be directed to assisting the most disadvantaged children. ‘Our product is much more high-end and is aimed at the thinking skills of upper-level students,’ Dr Wraith says“.

Rationale™ is, in my opinion, appropriate for disadvantaged children as well. And the need may even be greater than for advantaged students.

Rationale™ makes reasoning easier for everyone. As Dr. van Gelder points out, it provides a way to “bypass or make up for the deficiencies or limitations of our innate capacities, while on the other, taking advantage of their distinctive strengths.”

One way to make the transition easier to Rationale™ for students is to begin with pencil and paper using worksheet templates. (e.g. DivShare File – transitivity_template.pdf available for download) While the illustration that follows uses a more mature example, the principles remain the same. When using a transitive inference pattern, the reasoning never gets more complex. The path may only get longer. (The template metaphorically represents a path of stepping stones over a stream. And the assumptions are underground supports that hold up the stepping stones.)

The teacher can begin by providing worksheets that are completely filled-out. As the students begin to understand the transitive pattern, the teacher can provide samples with just one stepping stone empty. As understanding increases, more stepping stones can be left empty. (Note that only two stepping stones are required to reach the main contention.)