The recognition that children's cognitive skills are evident in visual as well as verbal conventions has led to the construction of the Silver Test of Cognitive and Creative Skills (STCCS) for the assessment and development of children's cognitive abilities. Research on cognition, the role of language in cognition, and left and right brain…

Some science educators who are interested in conceptual development have considered the phenomenon of student misconceptions and alternative frameworks. Researchers have used a variety of terms to describe the situation in which students' ideas differ from those of a scientist about a particular concept. This digest was produced to briefly…

Cognitive theory and research are relevant to vocational education. Three theoretical perspectives underlie cognitive theory-based curriculum and instruction: information processing, knowledge structure, and social history. A review of these perspectives in vocational curriculum and instruction suggests that instruction supporting higher-level…

This digest addresses cognitive learning with respect to outside-the-classroom instruction at the elementary school level. It notes that affective, not cognitive, learning has traditionally been the primary objective of field instruction at all K-12 levels. Therefore, most educational research in field instruction has been mainly non-cognitive in…

Cognitive learning related to the environment has typically been subsumed as a part of instruction in the more traditional areas of the secondary school curriculum, in particular in science and/or social studies classes. This digest contains a review of a number of studies dealing with cognitive learning in the environment, investigating the…

Four presentations from the 1985 Annual Michigan School Testing Conference on "Assessing Higher Order Skills" are offered in this paper, and the chairman of the First General Session provides an introductory section. The papers individually and collectively address the problem of defining higher order thinking skills. A second major…

A review of Piaget's theory and research on children's cognitive development is presented, including a discussion of the psychological structures of intelligence, developmental constructivism, and the evolution of knowledge as a subject-object relation. Piaget's assessment techniques are summarized, including moral development, number…

A form of group learning, cohorts, has become increasingly attractive to administrators, instructors, and participants in adult education. Basic academic skills cohort learning supports three types of knowing: instrumental, socializing, and self-authoring; whereas, in higher and adult education cohort learning, the development of critical…