This booklet is intended to help teachers and prospective teachers of mentally retarded students to understand the ways in which intellect affects the understanding of reality. Its recommendations are based on G. Kylen's theory of the intellect and J. Piaget's theory of intellectual development. The initial section describes the function and…

Jean Piaget's theories about the development of intelligence and their implications for educational practice are explored. Before Piaget began studying the intellectual processes of children, researchers regarded them as "little adults." He derived his early fame from his theory of the "cognitive stages" of childhood. He…

THE CONTRIBUTION MADE BY PIAGET TO KNOWLEDGE OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF CHILDREN IS SUMMARIZED. PIAGET'S INFLUENCE ON BERLYNE AND OTHER PSYCHOLOGISTS, THE RESEARCH METHODS USED BY PIAGET, AND THE CONCEPTS HE FORMULATED ARE BRIEFLY DESCRIBED. THE GOAL OF HIS RESEARCH CONDUCTED AT GENEVA IS IDENTIFIED AS THE DISCOVERY OF THE SUCCESSIVE STAGES IN THE…

This paper was presented at the Biennial Meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development, Santa Monica, California, March 25-29, 1969. (DR)

This article considers the problem of power and sample size calculations for normal outcomes within the framework of multivariate linear models. The emphasis is placed on the practical situation that not only the values of response variables for each subject are just available after the observations are made, but also the levels of explanatory…

Contemporary education theory (and official South African policy) underwrites learner-centredness. I analyse learner-centredness as a possible piece of the puzzle about why it is proving so difficult to improve academic achievement. Learner-centred ideas are grounded in the belief that cognitive abilities develop spontaneously in accordance with a…

The author credits Piaget for giving an operational definition of deduction and for his descriptions of child behavior. But he states that the latter apply only to white, middle-class urban youths in Switzerland in the first half of the 20th century and cannot support Piaget's claims about invariant stages of intellectual development for all…

Transescence is marked not only by disrupting acceleration in physical development and physiological change, but also by emotional and social pressures resulting from the transfer of authority from the family to the peer group. At no time in the schooling of our children do we find greater differences in the physical, social, emotional, and…

In an attempt to make Vygotsky's theories more accessible, Wertsch in "Vygotsky and the Social Formation of Mind" takes significant liberties with the original works. That leads to serious errors and moves the focus away from the author's own psychological theories. (PS)

Examined cognitive-developmental functioning across a series of developmental domains among 8- to 10-year-old children. Results supported the sequential nature of stage development from less complex to more complex levels of functioning. There does not seem to be support for synchronicity of development across the three domains. (BL)

A noted writer of fiction explores the role of imagination in the intellectual development of children and the need for imagination in various facets of daily lives and suggests ways of stimulating its use by children. (RBW)