Intellectual engagement (IE) refers to enjoyment of intellectual activities and is proposed as causal for knowledge acquisition. The role of IE for cognitive development was examined utilizing 2-year longitudinal data from 112 ninth graders (average baseline age: 14.7 years). Higher baseline IE predicted higher baseline crystallized ability but…

The ability to coherently assess content knowledge throughout an entire undergraduate career represents a significant advantage for programmatic assessment strategies. Chemistry, as a discipline, has an unusual tool in this regard because of the nationally standardized exams from the ACS Exams Institute. These exams are norm-referenced and allow…

This study explored the effects of high-stakes testing and accountability on the fundamental practices associated with middle school philosophy. Participants were middle school educators, including administrators and teachers, from Pennsylvania middle schools. An online survey was used to collect data for this study. The survey addressed the…

Standardized testing is a reality with which all educators must contend. Although the laws enforcing such assessments do so under the premise that students will thereby be assured an equal opportunity for academic success, they overlook a critical point--students are human beings with needs that reach beyond what is measured on a test. In this…

Although No Child Left Behind (NCLB) might have left an impression that only standardized tests and adequate yearly progress (AYP) mattered on the general public, the frustration over the narrow curricular focus also has created an opportunity in the education-policy realm, sparking conversations on what it takes to educate the whole child. This…

Background: "Volume & Heaviness" was one of three Piagetian tests used in the CSMS survey in 1975/76. However unlike psychometric tests showing the Flynn effect--that is with students showing steady improvements year by year requiring tests to be restandardized--it appeared that the performance of Y7 students has recently been…

Seeing intelligence as neither strongly hereditary nor necessarily stable over time, and accepting the notion that it is a significant determinant of future occupational status, liberal psychologists and educators rely on the intervention of social institutions, primarily the school. The liberal view toward testing and intelligence is discussed.…

Ten metalinguistic tasks of intellectual development were studied in five- and six-year-old children using factor analysis. Results suggested that metalinguistic awareness can be viewed as developing in association with other intellectual activities, and that it can be conceived as a unitary construct. (55 references) (Author/CFM)

Two years after the end of a two-year intervention program set within the context of science learning intended to promote formal operational thinking, achievement of students (n=234) was tested by their results on British National examinations taken at age 16. Male experimental subjects achieved an average of 40 percent more grades of C or above…

Argues that reliance on the outcome of quantitative standardized tests to assess student performance is misplaced quest for certainty in an uncertain world. Reviews and lauds Canadian teacher-devised qualitative diagnostic tool, "Profiles of Student Behaviors," composed of 20 behavioral patterns in student knowledge, attitude, and skill.…

Egalitarianism in public education must mean students have not only equal opportunity to attend school but also equal intellectual opportunities. Some solutions include a redefined mission for public education, new techniques for teaching rigorous academic subjects to non-elite students, improved school environments, and a national testing system…

Howard Gardner reflects on how students who learn in different ways might grapple with deep epistemological questions. Gardner advocates teaching disciplines that present our culture's image of what is true, beautiful, and ethical. His understanding pathway should appeal to children possessing a strong existential intelligence. (MLH)

This study of 28 girls (ages 2-19) with Rett Syndrome found profound handicaps in the intellectual and adaptive areas, according to standardized tests. Subjects seemed capable of learning some self-help skills at a basic level. The Cattell Mental Age was significantly negatively correlated with chronological age. (JDD)

Multiage settings are alternative educational groupings that promote complexity in young children's thinking. Grouping children across ages and grades encourages interconnectedness in social and intellectual development. This study compared the academic achievement of one group of multiage students to national norms on standardized achievement…