This study was concerned with student transition from concrete to formal cognitive functioning. Results of training 32 fifth-grade and 32 seventh-grade students indicated that instruction can effect the desired transition of ability to isolate and control variables. (SL)

Explored Morine and Morine's ("Discovery: A Challenge to Teachers") assumptions regarding age and cognitive development of students (N=174) successfully utilizing structured inductive and semi-deductive inquiry strategies. One finding noted is that age has made a significant difference on achievement for both strategies. Implications for…

Elementary school children were interviewed about how gears move on a gearboard and how they work in commonplace machines. Children's reasoning became more general, formal, and mathematical as problem complexity increased, suggesting that mathematical forms of reason may develop when they provide a clear advantage over simple causal…

Children's understanding of Euclidian space was investigated using three Piaget-type tasks to examine the ability of children to quantitatively locate a point in one, two, and three dimensions. Among the findings were that a disagreement exists between Piaget's data and the results of this study. (BT)

A sex-related difference, favoring boys, was found on initial performance of two samples (one British, one American) of 10- and 11-year-old children on tasks involving volume and density. After classroom instruction that included opportunities for interaction with appropriate materials, both sexes performed at higher levels but differences…

Examines the effect of relevant group instruction on various children's developmental stages regarding the conception of space. (Author/GA)

Compares the linguistic performance of the students in three grades exhibiting different levels of performance on five selected Piaget-type tasks, and identifies those tasks which differentiated significantly between the cognitive levels and the linguistic performance of the subjects. (Author/GA)

Investigates the effectiveness of two conflict-producing procedures: (1) Peer interaction and conflict training; and (2) Teacher conflict training in promoting the development of logical thinking of fifth-graders as measured by the acquisition of conservation of area. (HM)

Studied classroom behaviors and conservation ability of elementary school science students taught by either Student-Structured Learning in Science (SSLS) or Teacher-Structured Learning in Science (TSLS). Reports on how behavior of conservers and nonconservers differs in SSLS and TSLS with respect to observing, following directions, and inventing…

Investigates the visual resemblance sorting cognitive abilities of 120 Hawaiian and 100 Malaysian first-grade children using five booklets, each containing seven test drawings. Results revealed that the performance of the two groups was about the same. The difference in scores for four of the five booklets was not significant. (HM)

Examined was the attainment of projective spatial concepts of third-, sixth-, and ninth-grade students. Eight Piagetian-type tasks were developed to provide evidence for Piaget's model of groupings of mental structures dealing with time and space. Task performance among grade levels and gender was examined. (CS)

Examines whether instructing Nigerian primary children in science in their mother tongue (Yoruba) is any more efficacious than instructing them in science in the English language. Also assesses and compares the levels of cognitive development of two groups of Yoruba-speaking children, one instructed in Yoruba and another in English. (CS)

The development of children's causal knowledge is investigated by analyzing changes in the content and form of the explanations they generate across the age span of three to nine years. The balance of incremental versus fundamental change and the forms each takes in children coming to understand the working of gears are examined. Three phases of…

Investigated was the hypothesis that conservation tasks are unifactor by administering eight different conservation tasks to 96 seventh-grade science students and performing a principal component analysis on the data. Results indicated that conservation tasks may measure up to three different components of cognitive thought. (SL)

Investigates the cognitive and social aspects of a mainstreamed setting for deaf children. Twelve mainstreamed deaf subjects, placed with nonhandicapped children in an elementary school, were compared with nine resource deaf subjects. The reactions of nonhandicapped to handicapped children was also assessed. Results of cognitive tests showed no…