A total of 41 preschool children, either 2 or 3 years of age, and their mothers were randomly assigned to two treatment groups: a microworld computer experience designed to teach the concept of inside/outside and an alphabet computer experience designed to drill ABC's. Videotapes of mother/child dyads were coded and scored using a revision of the…

To provide a context for a discussion of parental modernity and child development, this paper explores concepts of societal and individual modernity and examines historical evidence of increasing levels of intellectual competence and an active orientation in the conduct of life. Specific attention is given to sociological theories of Bell (1973)…

The relationships and possible effects of various personal home and school variables on the acquisition of functional biological, chemical, and physical scientific knowledge by tenth grade Israeli students (n=544) was investigated. Biology was the only subject in which functional knowledge was significantly related to nonformal science activities.…

This book presents five papers that address a variety of issues confronting those who work directly with young children and their teachers. The first three articles present ways of thinking about what constitutes professionalism in working with children and parents. Specifically, "Contemporary Perspectives on the Roles of Mothers and…

A diversity of themes are addressed in the papers presented in this document; they include new topic areas as well as concerns that have been cited in previous issues. The papers focus on such topics as: (1) problem solving; (2) cognition; (3) the learning environment; (4) energy education; (5) the use of diagrams; (6) scientific methodology; (7)…