THE NATURE OF COMPREHENSION IS DEFINED AND CLARIFIED. THE LITERATURE IS SURVEYED TO SHOW THAT THE DEVELOPMENT OF CONCEPTS IS IMPORTANT IN INTELLECTUAL ACTIVITIES. IT IS POINTED OUT THAT CONCEPTS ARE BUILT FROM PERCEPTS, IMAGES, SENSATION, AND MEMORIES, AND THAT THE STEPS WHICH ARE EMPLOYED AS CONCEPTS ARE BUILT AND REFINED AND INCLUDE PERCEIVING,…

Suggests that students who reason with only concrete thinking patterns may become formal thinkers through the use of the following instructional pattern: (1) the introduction of an undifferentiated whole, (2) differentiation of the whole through concrete experiences, (3) invention of symbolic notation, (4) application of concepts which lead to…

Tested was the hypothesis that science instruction based on task analysis will lead to the acquisition of the ability to perform certain Piaget volume tasks which have been characterized as requiring formal operations for their solutions. A Test on Formal Operations and a Learning Hierarchies Test were given to fourth- and sixth-grade students in…

This article (1) discusses the progression of children's thought from realism to objectivity, to reciprocity, and to realitivity; and (2) describes seventeen types of explanations children give to explain the causality of physical occurrences in the world. (SB)

Presents a study which assessed preschool children's understanding of "front,""back," and "side" through a variety of tasks. A developmental sequence is defined. (ED)

American thought has contained a strong metaphysical bias favoring a realist interpretation of the world, and this has led to the assumption that facts possess ontological status, however, facts are segments of human experience and students must acquire conceptual tools for extracting factual data from experience. (JD)

This paper reports on a portion of a 14-year study of the mathematical thinking of a cohort group of students that was based on an identifiable perspective on how mathematical ideas are built. Three videotape episodes are presented so that groups of students working together can be viewed at three points in time: as fourth graders (ages 9-10) and…

"More" and "less" were analyzed into two meaning dimensions, "occurence" and "quantity", which were hypothesized to be developmentally related to acts of addition and subtraction. (SBT)

Summarizes recent research which attempted to discover what children of different ages know about the appearance-reality distinction and related phenomena. Findings show that what helps children grasp the distinction is an increased cognizance of the fact that people are sentient subjects who have mental representations of objects and events. (PS)

This document reports the results of two studies performed to determine the effectiveness of special lessons in facilitating the attainment by children of the basic concept "tree." The first study, which utilized 103 fifth-grade students, also investigated the effects of pretesting. Results showed no significant effects of pretesting and…

Reports research which reveals the difficulty children have in understanding (1) the real purpose of written language and (2) the abstract, technical vocabulary of language study and reading. (SW)

In earlier research the writer was constrained by the variables which were continuously appearing in both experimental class teaching experiences and various psychological experiments to distinguish four levels of cognitive sophistication in so far as mathematical material was concerned between the ages of 7 years and 17 years. In current research…

A method for reading Piaget is presented in this guide, written for practicing teachers who want better understanding of Piaget's writings. An account of a Piagetian experiment is given, followed by a discussion of its theoretical and practical implications. Eight topics are explored: number, measurement, knots, perspectives, coordinates, floating…