This article reasserts the centrality of reasoning as the focus for moral education. Attention to moral cognition must be extended to incorporate sociogenetic processes in moral growth. Moral education is not simply growth within the moral domain, but addresses capacities of students to engage in cross-domain coordination. Development beyond…

Contending that mathematical representation sustains a resemblance to the representational activity preceeding it and that it is this analogical resemblance that makes the developmental sequence of children's representational ability visible as a sequence, this paper explores the application of this notion to an undergraduate class in early…

One of the most challenging daily experiences of teaching young adolescents is helping them transition from Piaget's concrete to the formal operational stage of cognitive development during the middle school years. Students who have reached formal operations can design and test hypotheses, engage in deductive reasoning, use flexible thinking,…

The use of symbols in the play of young children during the preoperational period of cognitive development provides the foundation in representation that will be needed later when using higher abstract forms such as written words. (JN)

Babies are active participants in their learning and need to explore a variety of objects. Nurturing relationships support these explorations. Objects are more clearly remembered and understood. Thus, one activity this article suggests doing with a 12-month-old to encourage abstract thinking, is talking about how squeezing the bottle of ketchup…

Argues that much of current science curricula and instructional strategies do not accommodate the thinking and reasoning capabilities of students. Level of capacity for abstract logical reasoning, whether the capacity can be cultivated/enhanced, consequences of mismatched intellectual levels and instructional modes, and what thinking/reasoning…

The developmental principles as they apply to teachers focus on variations among teachers according to developmental criteria. Orientations to teacher supervision are viewed, and clusters of supervisory behaviors are matched with stages of teacher development. (JN)

A cognitive or internal representation refers to an organized system of information which reflects certain, but not all, of the information about reality being represented. This paper considers various opinions, controversies, and debates about what representation is, how it comes about, and what forms of representation can be distinguished. The…

Illustrates advantages of research on practical factors in reasoning. Discusses role of factual knowledge and diagnosis of specific task-based errors in reasoning, influence of individual aptitudes on reasoning, and effect of educational interventions designed to change reasoning. Presents Piagetian position for each position, discusses evidence…

A sequential-developmental approach to the assessment of individuals from the earliest sensorimotor period through the level of abstract reasoning is discussed. The assessment is hierarchically sequenced and is concerned with how and why individuals process information. The assessment procedures provide practical data on levels of development. (JN)

Human beings must realize the great unknowns in the material makeup and operation of the brain, in the relationship of brain to mind, in the creative imagination, and in the uniqueness of the psyche. The essential feature of the dualist-interaction theory is that mind and body are independent entities which somehow interact. (JN)

Soviet teaching experiments, based on the research of P. Ia. Galperin and of V. V. Davydov, are described, in which children are taught abstract concepts before they are provided with concrete examples. (GDC)

The educational implications of Piaget's concept of intelligence provide a framework for the application of theory to educational practice. The uniqueness of individual learning is compared to stage-based teaching. Social interaction is viewed as one of the major forces in cognitive development. (JN)

Discusses whether formal thought constitutes a structured whole and role of propositional logic in advanced reasoning. Presents aspects of advanced reasoning model, considering hypothesis generation/testing as central processes in intellectual development. Argues that advanced reasoning schemata are linked by these processes and should be…

Defines a generalization as "a descriptive statement of broad application indicating a relationship between two or more concepts." Argues that successful teaching about generalizations can only occur when students understand the relationship between concepts and facts. Discusses four issues and four approaches related to teaching…