Accumulating information and knowledge is a major task of development. A common assumption is that we build our storehouse of world knowledge, our semantic memory, through direct experience. Although direct experience is involved, to explain fully how we know all that we know, we also must consider processes that allow for integration of…

The article examines the relationship between the development of the subculture of childhood and the evolution of out-of-school education. It identifies the historical stages of the influence of the subculture of childhood on the nature of extracurricular learning and development. We analyze the concepts of the "subculture of childhood"…

Examines development of representational thought from the perspective of Jean Mandler's image-schema theory and an action-theoretical approach derived from Piaget's theory. Concludes that empirical findings fail to support hypotheses of early onset, and that representational development is more adequately interpreted within the context of an…

This research attempted to expand Piaget's study of children's thinking to include the content and the development of their concepts of death and the impact of experience on those concepts. One hundred twenty-two, middle-class, native-born boys and girls, aged three through twelve years were interviewed. Concepts were found to be composed of nine…

This is the author's personal document in which he tries to simply see what learning is about. He draws heavily on Fritz Heider for his phenomenological analysis, by which he means an analysis of learning based solidly and integrally on what can be simply seen by all men. The paper distinguishes a learning process found in the developing child,…

Three studies examined three-, five-, and seven-year-old children's understandng of verbal terms ("easy" and "hard") concerning personal competence. Studies focused on developmental change in understanding the terms and were designed to provide information about the order in which understanding of the terms was acquired. (HOD)

Extends William James' classification of phenomenalistic reality (PR) and analyzes PR using empirical data available in developmental psychology; focuses on the relation of PR to a human subject; to rational constructions; and to the idea of truth. Concludes that the development of phenomenalistic reality is qualitatively different from the…

SEQUENCE IN LEARNING IS USEFUL ONLY AS IT CONTRIBUTES TO THE CONTINUITY OF A CHILD'S OVERALL DEVELOPMENT. CHILDREN MAY NOT GO THROUGH THE SAME SEQUENCE TO ARRIVE AT A SIMILAR POINT OF UNDERSTANDING. EDUCATIONAL PROGRESS IS INDICATED BY A CHILD'S GROWTH IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF STRATEGIC CONCEPTS, IN WAYS OF PROCESSING INFORMATION, AND IN WAYS OF…

Based on the papers presented at the 1996 Symposium of the Jean Piaget Society and highlighting the extent to which Piaget's ideas have served to scaffold contemporary thinking about every aspect of conceptual development, this volume examines the nature of conceptual development, its foundations, and the sources of its novelties. The chapters…

Maintains that a major theme in Lev Vygotsky's later research was concept formation or conceptual development in child development. States that Vygotsky argued that the acquisition of mature academic concepts forms the crowning achievement of adolescence. Argues that the view raises a number of criticisms. (CFR)