Kappan's editor talks with Tracey Tokuhama-Espinosa, a leader in the international movement to translate findings from neuroscience into usable knowledge for educators. Topics include neuromyths (common, but erroneous, beliefs about how the brain works), the current scientific consensus about how people learn, and the contributions that the…

In this rejoinder, I comment on how going through the activity of participating in this forum and of engaging in dialogue with my commentators makes sense at several levels--most importantly, at the personal and the conceptual--and how these two levels are intricately connected. The link between the personal and conceptual (cognition and…

I deconstruct the myth of development that presupposes a chronology from immaturity to maturity. More generally, I suggest this imagined march of progress serves as a foundational wish for any education that is at once defined as the movement from ignorance to knowledge and serves to defend against the problem of regression, hatred, and not…

In his 1979 "Human Development" article reprinted in this anniversary issue, James Wertsch presented an approach to genetic analysis of the shifting regulation of problem-solving behavior in early childhood. In my reflections on Wertsch's seminal contribution, I discuss ways that subsequent inquiry built upon ideas he elaborated in the…

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.

Assumes the need for adult educators to implement programs designed to help individuals in the sphere of personal religious development. Concentrates on one feature of individual religious development, that which occurs in the cognitive domain. (JOW)

Discusses various views of domain-specificity. Argues that it is time to move beyond an acknowledgment that constraints on the way knowledge is represented influence the way in which new learning proceeds. Directions for future research are pointed out. (RH)

In this paper I propose a contrast between learning as the acquisition of theories and learning as the development of insight. I then suggest that, in a great many cases, the cognitive achievement by which we come to organise behaviour rationally is the development of insight, where this is independent of the acquisition of knowledge regimented in…

Communication scholars have only recently begun to consider internal processes of thought as essential components of interpersonal communication. In 1964 a reorientation of thinking to include intrapersonal processes as integral to the communication process was first urged. The "hidden other" refers to the wellspring of the mind and its…

Discusses situational sequencing, a concept of teaching writing that places writers within specific rhetorical contexts and asks them to produce a series of writings that develop from and relate to one another. Provides examples of such assignments. (FL)

A developmental model of mental activity is proposed, describing central processing skills that are metaphorical in nature. This metaphorical thinking, in which semantic fields and knowledge domains are juxtaposed to enable individuals to perceive similarities between prior knowledge and unfamiliar situations, enables individuals to develop toward…

Comments on van Geert's mathematical model of Vygotsky's zone of proximal development, in this issue. Supports van Geert's use of a nonlinear model, noting that linear statistical models overlook variability in psychological phenomena. Discusses the time asymmetry in van Geert's model, which does not account for a subject's "developmental…

Outlines themes from L.S. Vygotsky's writings. His claims about the social origins of individual mental functioning have implications for the definitions of cognition and memory and for the pursuit of research on mental processes. His understanding of culture is derivative of his account of the mediation of mental functioning. (BC)

Explains the place of learning in human development from the perspective developmental contextualism, where development involves changing relations between the developing person and his or her changing context. Demonstrates that learning is no more nor less important than other focal functions at a given level; any impact is through being part of…

Notes contemporary models of human development have expanded to address a wider set of issues underlying personal change. Discusses the social cognitive model of self-regulatory development. Emphasizes the crucial development of self-regulatory competence: the point at which the processes of development become fully and reciprocally interactive…