Argues that developmental psychology remains parochial in spite of increased cross-cultural developmental research. Reviews research and theories dealing with cognitive development in childhood and adolescence. Contributions outside Piagetian and Vygotskian traditions are outlined along with suggestions for further research on emotional…

Research on moral development from a cognitive-developmental perspective has been undertaken predominantly with Western subjects and most often with males. To investigate variables associated with moral reasoning among Palestinian Arabs, 259 male and female university students between the ages of 18 and 26 completed Rest's Defining Issues Test…

Describes three themes that have informed research on cognitive development in sub-Sahara Africa over the past 10 years: (1) extending the range of generalizability of Western theories; (2) interpreting the uniqueness of the African situation; and (3) deriving implications for social policy. (Author/AS)

Compares the effect of weak, flexible, and rigid family structures on the cognitive development of 61 Scottish and 40 Pakistani school children in Glasgow, Scotland. In a problem-solving test, children from flexible environments outperformed those from either weakly or rigidly structured homes. This difference was reflected in the school…

To investigate similarity judgements in different cultural contexts, the performance of two groups of children on seven similarity tasks and on two tests of metaphor was compared. The 45 Canadian and 45 Canadian-Greek children (ages 5, 8, and 11) had different cultural and linguistic backgrounds but common schooling experiences. The seven tasks…

Study One examined Swedish and American children's understanding of what constitutes fair criteria for the distribution of goods (i.e., distributive justice). Study Two compared children's distributive justice in family and peer contexts, and Study Three attempted a longitudinal assessment of distributive justice reasoning in two different…

Analyzes 500 drawings by 258 Hong Kong Chinese and English children (ages 7-11) in order to assess intellectual, social, and emotional development. Found that, irrespective of race or culture, the drawings were symbolic and that similarities were more apparent than differences. Also found that as development proceeded, symbolism was increasingly…

Examines cognitive processing and semantic influences on the developmental patterning of everyday social explanation in a cross-cultural investigation undertaken among American and Hindu adults and children (ages 8, 11, and 15). (HOD)

This document consists of the two issues of the journal "Visual Arts Research" published in 1995. This journal focuses on the theory and practice of visual arts education from educational, historical, philosophical, and psychological perspectives. Number 1 of this volume includes the following contributions: (1) "Children's Sensitivity to…

Whether or not the spatial cognitive development of students from distinct social-cultural milieus, specifically Anglos from the southwestern part of the United States and Native Turks, would proceed along approximately the same lines was investigated. The overall findings tend to indicate that at times the acquisition of spatial structures may be…

Questions Lawrence Kohlberg's complexity hypothesis that individuals exhibit higher stages of moral judgement in complex socio-political surroundings. Tests the moral judgements of adolescent students from The Netherlands and the former German Democratic Republic. Results of the tests failed to support Kohlberg's hypothesis. (MJP)

Reports on a study of cultural images of people in 5 nations by 24 10- to 13-year-old children of low socioeconomic backgrounds. Finds that 10-year olds focused on the thoughts and feelings of people whereas the 13-year olds included more knowledge abstracted to the country level. (CFR)

The purpose of this project was to find and make clarifications about the uniqueness and similarities on various aspects of science education programs in Japan, the Republic of Korea, the United States, and the Philippines that could provide the basic considerations on curriculum development. Included are: (1) an introduction to the research; (2)…

Scholars, practitioners, and laypeople at one time or another have questioned what learning is and how it can be measured once it is defined. Many use the term interchangeably with growth, change, development, knowledge, education, cognition, or acquisition as it is commonly considered in educational practice. However, most generally assume a…

A study compared the historical awareness of 2,000 East and West German children in the sixth, ninth, and twelfth grades. Because of differing school systems and the general design of the study, researchers analyzed ninth grade data. The study was conducted during the disintegration and reunification of Germany. Students from the two regions…