Our minds are shaped by youthful learning opportunities. Different forms of cultural representation (art, poetry, or mathematics) influence the processes and products of thinking, develop different cognitive skills, influence perceptions, can be combined to provide enriching experiences, and call on different skills and forms of thinking.…

An interview with Robert Garmston, California State University professor, details the cognitive coaching model for supervision or peer coaching of principals, department heads, and teachers. The model is based on the principles that all people can change and therefore develop intellectually, and that teacher performance is based on decision-making…

Reports on misconceptions held by intermediate grade students concerning chemistry textbook concepts, on the relation of reasoning ability to those misconceptions, and on the extent that textbooks encourage misconceptions. Concludes that the level of understanding displayed for the selected concepts, in combination with the nature of students'…

The purpose of this paper is to provide an operational definition of college readiness that differs from current representations of this concept primarily in its scope. The paper suggests that, while much has been learned about this phenomenon, particularly during the past 20 years, few systematic attempts have been made to integrate the various…

This study investigated the relative freshman-year cognitive impacts of 2 historically black and 16 predominantly white colleges on black students. Of these institutions, 5 were 2-year institutions and the rest were 4-year colleges. The data were taken from a pool of 2,416 freshmen students who participated in the National Study of Student…

This report describes the "Differential Coursework Patterns (DCP) Project," which developed the Cluster Analytic Model (CAM) to look at effects of different patterns of college coursework on the general learned abilities of students as determined by such measures as the Graduate Record Examination (GRE) General Test. The model looks for…

Reviews evidence showing the view of pervasive decrement in later life is being challenged. Evidence is accumulated that the intellectual performance of the older adult responds favorably to a variety of ecological, training, and motivational conditions, and that intellectual development in later life is characterized by plasticity not universal…

In 1981 and 1982, pre- and postnatal medical, financial, demographic, and maternal social support data were collected from 220 lower socioeconomic status (SES), "high risk" mothers and their newborn infants. An analysis of data on the oldest 100 children in the sample found that 14 families had been referred to a children's protective services…

A philosophical orientation to teacher education would be a critical orientation, laying stress on the clarification of terminology, on the understanding of the logic of subject matter, and on a consideration of "what the known demands," or action deemed necessary from content knowledge. Fragmentation would be overcome, and a synthesis would be…

Children's early utterances were studied to determine whether there are developmental changes in the content, context, frequency, and form of their speech and the degree to which the changes correspond to changes in Piagetian cognitive stage. Twenty children were studied; six were 10 or 11 months old, and the remaining 14 were distributed evenly…

THE CHILD'S CAPACITY FOR SELF-ACTUATED INTELLECTUAL GROWTH AND THE POSSIBILITY OF SPEEDING UP INTELLECTUAL GROWTH THROUGH IMPROVED OPPORTUNITIES AND INCREASED STIMULATION WERE STUDIED. SIX EXPLORATORY STUDIES CARRIED OUT DURING THE FIRST TWO YEARS OF THIS PROJECT WERE REPORTED. THE THREE MAIN AREAS OF LEARNING WHICH WERE INVESTIGATED WITH THE IDEA…

The intellectual model of Jean Piaget asserts that individuals pass through a series of various intellectual stages as they mature. Human development is categorized into four basic stages: (1) sensory motor stage, which lasts from birth to about eighteen months; (2) preoperational stage, lasting from eighteen months to about seven years; (3)…

Follow-up comparisons were made of the intellectual, cognitive, academic and social performances of three groups of low-income children in kindergarten through fifth grade who differed in the amount of preschool education they had experienced. Children in Groups A and B had been enrolled in the University of Western Ontario Laboratory Preschool…

This study examined the specific effects of picture and object stimuli on two types of language performance: comprehension and performance. Subjects were 48 4- and 5-year-olds who were randomly assigned to one of four groups. Groups were matched for SES, sex, and age and tested individually with one of the four measures: language comprehension…

This report was compiled to serve as a partial knowledge base for the Southeastern Educational Laboratory and the Harlem Research Center in their effort to plan a research program in early education. Educational programs designed for 3-, 4-, and 5-year-old children which emphasize either cognitive-intellectual development or language development…