Although we can support Heyes' call for more research on mechanisms, we disagree that the problem has been ignored as Heyes suggests. We also doubt that basic learning mechanisms are alone sufficient to account for the broad range of findings in the selective social learning literature. Although phylogenetically shared learning mechanisms must…

There's no doubt that research bearing directly on classroom practice is crucial. In this article Daniel Willingham maintains that it's useful for educators also to know the basic science around children's cognition, emotion, and motivation, because beliefs about what children are like inevitably influence teaching practice. The purpose of…

Ambridge argues that there is widespread agreement among child language researchers that learners store linguistic abstractions. In this commentary the authors first argue that this assumption is incorrect; anti-representationalist/exemplar views are pervasive in theories of child language. Next, the authors outline what has been learned from this…

This interview highlights and extends Dr. Barbara Rogoff's keynote address at the 2019 annual convention. Specifically, in the interview, Dr. Rogoff discusses her framework for learning, Learning by Observing and Pitching In, as well as other aspects of learning, including notions of childhood, age-based social ordering, and conflict as an aspect…

A flood of contradictory publications claim widely different methods to be "evidence-based." What then are the key principles for success with challenging youth? Amidst all the confusion, how do we identify powerful universal truths? The answer lies in a "consilience," which involves drawing information from multiple fields of knowledge.…

Theories of number concepts often suppose that the natural numbers are acquired as children learn to count and as they draw an induction based on their interpretation of the first few count words. In a bold critique of this general approach, Rips, Asmuth, Bloomfield [Rips, L., Asmuth, J. & Bloomfield, A. (2006). Giving the boot to the bootstrap:…

We are pleased with the commentators' thoughtful reactions to our study, as they make it clear that the study met its major goal--identifying age differences that suggest developmental changes in the learning process and the strengthening of executive processes in the second decade of life.

This dialog between Alan Rogers and Knud Illeris debates arguments Rogers made in a previous article about the differences between adult and child learning. Rogers emphasizes differences in teacher-learner relationships. Illeris believes the differences result from different motivations for learning. (SK)

Defining moral imagining as the ability to universalize and to understand a situation from another person's perspective, the author discusses the conditions of learning to be imaginative, as well as the relations of moral imagining to sympathy, compassion, and concern. (Author/SJL)

In her book on Wittgenstein's "Philosophical Investigations", Beth Savickey points out that few critics pay explicit attention to Wittgenstein's references to the child and childhood, particularly in his later work. She argues (paraphrasing Wittgenstein) that "the figure of the child is the figure that draws together the concepts of teaching and…

Because the spelling of many words in the English language (and in many other languages as well) depends on their morphemic structure, children have to have some knowledge about morphemes in order to learn to read and write. This raises the possibility that children gain much of their explicit knowledge about morphemes as a direct result of…

Seymour Papert, the inventor of the computer language LOGO, claims even small children can learn to program computers. Children must think through what they want the computer to do and thereby develop a deeper understanding of the material. (Author/MLF)

Pedagogy assumes that the education of children and adults is essentially the same. Andragogy takes the view that adults and children learn in different ways. In lieu of these polarized concepts, educators need to approach human learning as a matter of degree, not kind, recognizing the similarities as well as the differences between learning…

Asserts that several of the assumptions underlying Noam Chomsky's and W. V. O. Quine's theories of language acquisition and development are misleading or false. It is argued, among other things, that children do not "acquire" language, but rather learn how to participate in the linguistic community surrounding them. (99 references) (MDM)

This paper discusses links among the process of creativity, symbolization, and learning. The importance of symbolization in thinking, in school learning, in child development, and in the behavior of creative learners is stressed. (DB)