Concrete operational students can identify some variables that interact with an object or system, but do not use a systematic process to identify them, usually resulting with an insufficient list of variables, and do not consistently plan and hold variables constant that are not manipulated or responding variables.
Knows the difference of observation
and inference and can make inferences from observations, but considers a limited amount of possible inferences for an observation.
May apply a related, but inaccurate procedure or algorithm as a solution to a problem.
Apply a process without applying his or her own validation of the application of the process against the data, conclusions, or whatever information the situation provides for checking and validating a particular method.
Sixth Grade - Eighth Grade (Formal Operational)
- The characteristics of formal operational thought is not abstract reasoning. It is formal operational thinking and the two are different. Remember abstract thought was a characteristic of the preoperational child. Abstraction is the ability to use symbols or other representations to think and reason. Formal operations requires abstract though, but it is more than just thinking with abstractions. It is being able to understand a mental operation or procedure that can be performed on information in an efficient systematical way. Operations and procedures that can be indicative of formal operational thought include isolation and controlling of variables, hypothesis, combinations, probability, correlation, proportion, and formal logical reasoning. (formal operational information)
Dr. Robert Sweetland's notes
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