High school students of various ability levels were presented economics concepts lessons, varied according to their organization or structure. Test questions over concept ranged from simple recall of information to application of economics principles. Students scored generally higher when they were presented highly structured lessons. (LMO)

To assess the teachability of conditional logic structure, the commonly used syllogistic conditional reasoning task was divided into three main components: (1) inductive rule learning; (2) induction of conditional language; and (3) deductive interpretation. When trained on all components, fifth and seventh graders became very competent in dealing…

A longitudinal study of students' developing understanding of decimal notation has been conducted by testing over 3000 students in Grades 4 to 10 up to 7 times. A pencil-and-paper test based on a carefully designed set of decimal comparison items enabled students' responses to be classified into 11 codes and tracked over time. The paper reports on…

Concept maps are visual representations of knowledge structure and thought. Not enough attention has been paid to the measurement and influence of preservice teachers' knowledge structure and its development over time. This study implemented instructional scaffolding interventions in order to determine the effect on preservice teachers' knowledge…

The demise of the behaviorist paradigm and the rise of the social, cognitive, and interactionist models of second language acquisition (SLA) have led to the understanding that constructivist mechanisms are part of the process. Given the variety of empirical findings and understandings research in the field has yielded, this study attempts to offer…

This longitudinal study investigated the relation between mothers' descriptions of mental states portrayed in pictures and 2- to 4-year-old children's theory of mind. Mothers described pictures to children at 3 different times during the year. Findings indicated that mothers' use of mental state utterances at early time points correlated with…

Two experiments investigated kindergarten through fourth-graders' and adults' ability to evaluate the certainty of deductive inferences, inductive inferences, and guesses, and explain the origins of inferential knowledge. Findings indicated that children rated their own deductions as more certain than guesses, but when judging another person's…

Investigates whether distinctions in cognitive structures between formal and concrete operational students effect their ability to produce an accurate cognitive structure, retain geometric content, and retain cognitive structures. Concludes that clear structures can be derived for the students. (Author/YP)

Documents the patterns of coherence and persistence in energy conceptions. Describes the derivation of the Interview Vee technique and the procedure for putting an interview on the Vee. Discusses the production of Vee maps to help understand childrens' learning of concepts. (CW)

Presents the results of three studies examining children's conception of the mind itself as an independent, active entity. Findings revealed a developing ability in children to interpret and produce statements personifying the mind and provided considerable evidence of children's movement toward a conception of the mind as an active agent…

Reviews research on the physiology of learning, suggesting the development of a new educational model consistent with natural brain development. Considers connected learning a physiological imperative. Discusses ways of using the Natural Human Learning Process (NHLP) in the classroom and the development of an NHLP curriculum unit. (27 citations)…

Reviews five books: (1) "Modularity and Constraints in Language and Cognition" (Gunnar and Maratsos); (2) "Beyond Modularity: A Developmental Perspective on Cognitive Science" (Karmiloff-Smith"; (3) "The Self-System: Developmental Changes between and within Self-Concepts" (Oosterwegel and Oppenheimer); (4)…

Verbal and nonverbal classification tasks were administered in Spanish and English to 30 bilingual children, aged 6-7. Results indicate the positive influence of bilingualism on cognitive development and support a model in which bilingual children construct two representational systems--one, nonverbal and universal across languages; and a second,…

Reports a study designed to identify 9 and 11 year olds' ways of drawing nets of solids and to provide opportunities for them to reflect on their models in whole class discussions. Results indicated that children's views of solids' nets progressed from more global and holistic to more quantitative and analytic. (MDH)

Reviews recent research in the area of mathematical understanding and compares and contrasts it with a model formulated for the growth of understanding. Uses the analysis of a transcript from an interview with an eight-year-old boy to illustrate the power of the model to describe and map the growth of his mathematical understanding. (18…