In this commentary, the author reconceives Vygotsky's zone of proximal development (ZPD), particularly its conflation with the notion of instructional scaffolding. The author reviews Vygotsky's description of the ZPD and how it has come to be misinterpreted; summarizes Wood, Bruner, and Ross's introduction of the scaffolding metaphor and how it…

In this commentary, I reflect from a neurocognitive perspective on the four chapters on natural number development included in this section. These chapters show that the development of seemingly basic number processing is much more complex than is often portrayed in neurocognitive research. The chapters collectively illustrate that children's…

In 1997, I argued that with the loss of Piaget's theory as an overarching guide, cognitive development had become disjointed and a new metatheory was needed to unify the field. I suggested developmental biology, particularly evolutionary theory, as a candidate. Here, I examine the increasing emphasis of biology in cognitive development research…

This commentary reviews and summarises the strides which neuroscience has made in our present understanding of the development of literacy and numeracy in children. Specifically, it draws attention to key insights from studies which have elucidated the possible neural mechanisms that may account for difficulties in the development of these…

From the time of Likert (1932) on, attitudes of expediency regarding both theory and methodology became apparent with reference to survey construction and validation practices. In place of theory and more--theoretically minded methods, such as those found in the early work of Thurstone (1928) and Coombs (1964), statistical models and…

This commentary serves as an introduction to multiple scholarly fields about the value of digital media for providing contexts for and provoking learning. The author proposes that rather than considering a dichotomy between reading physical books and reading digital media, as encouraged by Cavanaugh et al. (2015), instead consider a scale of sorts…

The author of this thought-provoking article joins an impressive cohort of current commentators and scholars united in their concern over the state of the art of reading. Mostly, they are concerned with the sustained, silent, generally solitary process of reading in which the reader is deeply focused on and immersed in the text. Their fear is that…

This article reviews the relationship between executive skills and academic performance as well as concerns about the current status of the field with respect to executive skills and future considerations. It summarizes what the author sees as the most positive aspects of the current state of understanding with respect to executive skills and…

Immordino-Yang and Gotlieb provide an elegant and helpful framework that integrates neuroscientific and education research on social affective development in their article, "Embodied Brains, Social Minds, Cultural Meaning: Integrating Neuroscientific and Educational Research on Social-Affective Development." Based on previous research,…

The articles in this special issue of the "Journal of Cognition and Development" examine the cognitive development of children who are following typical and atypical developmental pathways. The articles offer a mixture of theory-based considerations, reviews of the literature, and new empirical data addressing fundamental aspects of…

Though there is extensive research on the health outcomes of individuals who have experienced adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), society at large has not embraced this ground-breaking research and many still believe that the use of harsh punishment for students provides the same intended result as a discipline approach that teaches coping…

In the half century since the 1966 Coleman Report, scholars have yet to develop a consensus regarding the relationship between schools and inequality. The Coleman Report suggested that schools play little role in generating achievement gaps, but social scientists have identified many ways in which schools provide better learning environments to…

The promotion of social, emotional, and academic learning is not a shifting educational fad; it is the substance of education itself. It is not a distraction from the "real work" of math and English instruction; it is how instruction can succeed. And it is not another reason for political polarization. It brings together a traditionally…

Studies investigating the development of memory processes and their neural substrates have flourished over the past two decades. The review by Jabès and Nelson (2015) adds an important piece to our understanding of the maturation of different elements and circuits within the hippocampal system and their association with the progressive development…

Suor et al. (2017) present a compelling new evolutionary framework that offers an alternative interpretation of the well-established findings of cognitive deficits in children raised in harsh early environments. They argue that such findings do not convey a complete picture of those children's cognitive development, because children's cognition…