Wertsch's clarification of Vygotsky's claims about the role of social interaction in the development of children's thinking made an important contribution to educational research. Revisiting that clarification, I suggest that "talk" instead of "speech" best describes Vygotsky's concern with the functional dynamics of dialogue rather than the…

What capabilities are required for an organism to evince an "explicit" understanding of gaze as a mentalistic phenomenon? One possibility is that mentalistic interpretations of gaze, like concepts of unseen, supernatural beings, are culturally-specific concepts, acquired through cultural learning. These abstract concepts may either require a…

Visual learning enhances cognitive understanding of abstract concepts. Perception of such ideas as causality is enriched by visual examples. Perceiving should not be separated from thinking. (SK)

Viewing language acquisition as the product of a biased learner who takes advantage of the information available from a variety of sources in his or her environment, this book provides a new way of thinking about the process of language comprehension. The analysis in the book borrows insights from theories about the development of mental models,…

Suggests that there are no sharp distinctions among children's linguistic comprehension, production, and knowledge. Instead, all performance and understanding are embedded in a fluctuating, interrelated thought system. (PD)

Reviews Gibson's contributions to the domain of perceptual learning, including her classic experiment concerning the perception of scribbles. Discusses Gibson's research on differentiation and the links between perception and learning, the status of her research and ideas, and her experimental approach. (BG)

Suggests children's literature that can aid in the development of various types of comprehension skills in preschool/kindergarten children. Provides annotated examples of books that emphasize the story elements of characterization, real or make-believe situations, sequencing, cause-and-effect, main ideas, and various language skills. Coded…

Presents evidence that the supposed paradox in which infants find abstract patterns in speech-like stimuli whereas even some preschoolers struggle to find abstract syntactic patterns within meaningful language is no paradox. Asserts that all research evidence shows that young children's syntactic constructions become abstract in a piecemeal…

Asserts that the posited paradox between infancy and toddlerhood language was not eliminated by Tomasello and Akhtar's appeal to infants' robust statistical learning abilities. Maintains that scrutiny of their studies supports the resolution that abstracting linguistic form is easy for infants and that toddlers find it difficult to integrate…

Assesses the hazards of models of cognitive development and the positivist views of language that support them. Considers how alternative views of language and learning can help develop a method of teaching that views reading and writing as interpretation and the making of meaning. (RBW)

This discussion centers around the dangers in making too precise a particular concept in educational psychology that distinguishes between two types of understanding, instrumental and relational. (MP)

Examines two prominent positions in the epistemological foundations of psychology--Piaget's causal explanatory claims and Vygotsky's interpretive understanding; contends that they need to be placed in their wider philosophical contexts. Argues that the danger of causally explaining cultural practices through which human beings construct and…

Graphical representations of geometrical objects from high school textbooks are categorized according to the implicit conventions underlying their display. The fact that specific illustrations can lead to students' misconceptions about geometric objects is analyzed in relationship to the principle of parallel projection with implications for the…

Research evidence currently indicates that young children's communication skills for both the speaker and the listener roles are often ineffective. The accuracy of children's communication improves gradually over the elementary school years. Current thinking in the area of metacognition may be very useful in understanding the development of…

Included in this booklet is an account of children's concepts of death at various ages. Specifically, the discussion examines the "average" or "normal" reaction of children from birth through 2 years; 3 through 5 years; 5 through 8 years; 9 through 10 years; and at 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, and 16 years. Children's reactions to the death of a pet and…