Background: Shayer, Ginsburg, and Coe (2007) showed that children leaving primary school in Y6 entered secondary school with much lower levels of understanding of the physical conservations than in 1976. It seemed desirable to investigate cognitive development in the first three years of secondary education. Aims: By using two Piagetian tests of…

This paper focuses on the changes in thinking involved in the transition from school mathematics to formal proof in pure mathematics at university. School mathematics is seen as a combination of visual representations, including geometry and graphs, together with symbolic calculations and manipulations. Pure mathematics in university shifts…

Executive functions have been defined in the neuropsychological literature as those cognitive processes that underlie future-oriented, goal-directed behavior such as planning, working memory, inhibition, and self-monitoring. Piaget's final stage of cognitive development, formal operations, involves a systematic approach to problem solving that…

Considers relationships of dialectical thinking to formal operational thought; general conceptions of cognitive structure to understanding thinking across specific domains; motivational and cognitive competence factors in adult reasoning; and contextualistic and dialectical conceptions of social intelligence. Outlines structural-developmental…

Examined college students' logical reasoning ability using the Test of Logical Thinking (TOLT) as a major predictor of science acheivement. Reports an improvement on each of the subscale scores, and a significant correlation with four science subjects on both pre- and post-TOLT scores. (YP)

Demonstrates that 11-year-old children's scientific thinking in formal operational terms can be significantly developed through training in the cognitive style of field independence determined by the Group Embedded Figures Test. Suggests students could perform formal operationally if they had the skill of identifying the variables to be…

The study of 281 adolescents found no significant differences in creativity subvariables between the developmental stages of concrete and formal operations. Significant relationships were found between age and creativity. Figural flexibility, originality, and elaboration decreased as age increased from 13 to 16 years. (Author/JDD)

This paper is an attempt to clarify the ambiguity surrounding the issue of adult creativeness. The significance and the limitations of the Genetic Epistemological paradigm in the conceptualization of adult inventiveness are discussed. A framework is suggested that provides an alternative for the study of adult creativeness from a…

The goal of this research synthesis is to evaluate the validity of the claim that there are fundamental limitations on the ability of adolescents to engage in critical thinking. Critical thinking is defined as an analytic, focused cognitive activity aimed at understanding phenomena at a root rather than a superficial level; a type of thinking…

An Inventory of Piaget's Developmental Tasks was used to assess attainment of five Piagetian tasks of elementary and secondary-level teacher candidates and of general population college students. Results were compared and are discussed. Recommendations to promote cognitive maturity are presented. (Author/MT)

Proposes a theoretical model of cognitive development and applies this model to the secondary analysis of two large-scale studies which focus on the acquisition of formal operational schemata by adolescents in the United States and Israel. Results support the "unity" hypothesis of cognitive development that the various schemata of formal…

In one of his latest works, Piaget (1980) describes the course of development as alternating between periods of relative equilibrium, in which thinking is deductive and discursive, and periods of equilibration, in which thinking is dialectical and constructive. Progressive change depends on these dialectical periods, during which the construction…

This paper discusses ways to use worked examples in teaching mathematics. It is argued that neither investigative teaching such as discovery learning nor lecturing and starting from the abstract are helpful as they are based on emotive associations with general labels rather than precise details of pedagogic strategies. (KHR)

One of the most challenging daily experiences of teaching young adolescents is helping them transition from Piaget's concrete to the formal operational stage of cognitive development during the middle school years. Students who have reached formal operations can design and test hypotheses, engage in deductive reasoning, use flexible thinking,…

The constructivist hypothesis that the acquisition of domain-specific conceptual knowledge (declarative) requires the use of general procedural knowledge was tested. Students (n=314) were classified as reflective, transitional, or intuitive thinkers and presented with four concept-acquisition tasks. Skill in hypothetico-deductive reasoning…