Inference Thinking
Inference is one of five basic categories of thinking in the North Carolina
1992-93 booklet on thinking assessment and later retained in the 1994 revisions.
Sections below cover: definition;
specific
content trigger questions for science, social science, and literature;
key
action words; and examples of general trigger questions.
Source: North Carolina End-of-Grade Testing Program pamphlet.
(1992-93). Testing Section, Division of Accountability Services, North
Carolina Department of Public Instruction.
Inference Thinking
Definition of Inference. (in Bloom's taxonomy:
Application, synthesis)
Both deductive and inductive reasoning fall in this category. In deductive
tasks, students are given a generalization and are required to recognize
or explain the evidence that relates to it. Applications of rules and "if-then"
relationships require inference. In inductive tasks, students are given
the evidence or details and are required to come up with the generalization.
Hypothesizing, predicting, concluding, and synthesizing all require students
to relate and integrate information. Inductive and deductive reasoning
relate to the Bloom levels of application
and synthesis. Application of a rule is one kind of deductive reasoning:
synthesis, putting parts together to form a generalization, occurs in both
inductive and deductive reasoning.
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Examples of Inference questions for Science, Social Science, Literature.
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Draw conclusions; make predictions; pose hypotheses, tests, and explanations.
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Predict, hypthesize,and conclude.
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Infer characters' motivation; infer cause and effect.
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Use these key action words in the work of making inferences.
deduce; anticipate; predict what if; infer; apply; speculate; conclude
Example
If I wanted to make this character more believable, how might
I do it?
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General Examples of Inference Trigger questions.
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Hypothesize what will happen if xxxx .
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Predict what would be true if xxxxx .
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Conclude what the result will be if xxxxxx .
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What if xxxxx had happened instead yyyyyyy?
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