In 19 (sub)samples from seven countries (United States, Austria, Germany, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Vietnam, Brazil), we analyzed the impact of parental education compared with wealth on the cognitive ability of children (aged 4-22 years, total N = 15,297). The background of their families ranged from poor indigenous remote villagers to academic…

Economic inequality is high and rising in a number of developed countries, including in the United Kingdom and the United States. There are growing concerns that this may have negative implications for equality of opportunity, and the extent to which social disadvantage is transmitted across generations. It is widely believed that providing…

Describes a research project with teen-aged students in Denmark to illustrate the cognitive processes involved in learning computer programing and discusses the difficulties students encounter when learning to program. The use of home computers is briefly examined in the context of the need for human interaction in learning programing. (Author/LRW)

Describes study of elementary school children in Australia which was designed to determine their sequential knowledge of measuring length and to apply recent cognitive theories to predict the sequence of development of knowledge. Recent literature is reviewed, information processing skills are discussed, and skills required for measuring length…

The Piagetian perspective of adult cognitive development and adult education could have implications for how work and formal reasoning can be related to adult education programs and policy. During adolescence and adulthood, many individuals enter the cognitive period of formal operations (the last of three stages in Piaget's conceptual framework…

The major purpose of the research reported was to assess whether developmental changes in performance on standard psychological tests may be more a reflection of educational experience than maturation or traditional socialization practices. The investigation was reported in three phases: 1) description of the general and specific experimental…

Stressing the application of progressive thought as a possible innovation toward development in developing countries, the paper discusses three major educational philosophies: romanticism, cultural transmission, and progressivisim (emphasizing the cognitive-developmental theory). Educational innovation and strategies for reform in the Soviet Union…

Presents a conceptual model of how young children learn about the physical environment, reviewing theories concerning environmental cognition and moral development. Notes that children in developed nations receive much of their information about the environment from the media and are often exposed to conflicting viewpoints about the natural world.…

Describes longitudinal study of the development of understanding of two logical properties of number by 36 children during the first three years of primary school in Glasgow. Piagetian tests and number skills tests were administered to explore the acquisition of number as class and number as order concepts. (Author/LRW)

Down Syndrome children (N=229), aged 1-83 months, from Australia, Canada, and Germany were tested using the Bayley Scales of Infant Development. Test performances on the Bayley's Mental and Motor scales were not dissimilar, leading to the conclusion that young Down Syndrome children from different countries with relatively comparable standards of…

Studies reviewed in this paper analyze the relationship between School Feeding Programme (SFP) participation and cognitive development in both developing and industralized countries. Contents concern: (1) the relationship betweeen diet and cognitive development; (2) limitations of intelligence quotient tests and the need for more adequate…

Compares efforts to support minority languages in the developed, industrialized countries of the north and the developing countries of the southern hemisphere. The article examines whether comparable principles are being applied to minority language planning, and if not, what the underlying reasons for the differences are. (33 references)…

The concept of lifelong learning has become important in recent years as adults increasingly need to adapt and innovate, become more flexible workers, and take more active roles in the education of their children. Most of the discussion of lifelong learning, however, is couched in terms of formal educational institutions. But informal learning may…

This review of research on computer use in education focuses on the development of higher order thinking skills and the effects of programming instruction. Eight hypotheses are proposed to account for the general failure of the research to confirm the expectations, and a new programming language, Prolog, is described. (70 references) (Author/LRW)

Describes a study that compared the expressed objectives of teachers using computer-based information handling packages in the classroom against recorded classroom outcomes. The areas of skill and knowledge acquisition, learning strategies, sociopsychological issues, and life skills are discussed. (9 references) (CLB)