ABSTRACT
A major obstacle in teaching plausible reasoning skills is the confusion among the terms generalization, induction, and conjecturing. First, generalization is a label for both a process and the products of this process: The process of generalization creates a generalization. This confusion is compounded by the custom of labeling the product of induction as a generalization as well. Conjectures can be developed through both induction and generalization. Second, the words generalization (in its process meaning) and induction are often used interchangeably. For example, “A further simplification can be accomplished by replacing a term in the formula by a variable, thus generalizing the formula and allowing an induction on the new variable’s position in the formula” (Cohen & Feigenbaum, 1982, p. 108). Third, induction is sometimes thought of as the opposite of deduction. Any reasoning process that does not proceed by deduction is thus considered to proceed by induction. In this chapter I seek a sharper, more concise definition, beginning with a discussion of commonalities and differences between the processes of generalization and induction.
