Education plays a central role in preparing young people to engage thoughtfully in civic and community issues and to wrestle with complex dilemmas in the public domain. As a democracy, our system of governance offers multiple pathways through which people living in the country can influence how civic issues and dilemmas are addressed.…

Cultivate a thriving classroom and reignite a love of teaching. Gain effective strategies to understand student behavioral patterns in relation to brain development. With thoughtful suggestions on how to implement and adapt proposed strategies as needed, K-12 teachers will create and manage a classroom environment that maximizes learning and…

The Aspen Institute's National Commission on Social, Emotional, and Academic Development united a broad alliance of leaders to speak with a unified voice about the urgency of integrating social and emotional development into the fabric of K-12 education. The commission convened a group of scientists, researchers, and academics across disparate…

This article describes an initiative undertaken by a coalition of psychologists (Coalition for Psychology in Schools and Education) from the American Psychological Association (APA) to identify the top 20 principles from psychological science relevant to teaching and learning in the classroom. This article identifies these principles and their…

The paper describes the implementation of a 3-year cognitive skills development curriculum, Instrucmental Enrichment (IE), at the North Carolina School for the Deaf in a question/answer format. The following questions are addressed: What are the goals? Who is it for? How is it taught? What is the IE classroom climate like? What is the theory? What…

Four studies are offered from a Piagetian perspective on providing children with an optimal microcomputer environment. Guidelines stress the importance of flexibility, and a hierarchical software environment. (CL)

This paper defines and discusses the term "differentiation" as it is applied in gifted and talented education programs. It begins by describing three components that are most notably associated with differentiation: content (what is being taught); process (how it is being taught); and product (tangible results produced that are based on…

The central aim of this monograph is to stimulate discussion, both of the assumptions that are made about what makes one teacher more effective than another, and of the actions and decisions that are taken as a result of these assumptions. Organizationally, the monograph: (1) presents a brief overview of research on teacher effectiveness; (2)…

Research and theory indicates that successful teaching and learning occur when activities are focused on the individual learner's cognitive and affective needs. However, a strong emphasis toward cognitive development, encouraged by competency based education and back to basics movements, continues to influence classroom procedures. Children should…

Examines research that offers insights from a variety of disciplines and orientations on the importance of social relationships in educational settings. The research indicates that human interaction is a critical factor in the cognitive development and subsequent academic achievement of children. Implications for preservice and inservice teacher…

This paper addresses the problem of how school environments can be restructured to address the key requisites of cognitive development for all children. Following the problem statement, the second section discusses the historic concerns related to restructuring and the research underlying them--the roots of the cognitive revolution, the…

Different research traditions on social cognition are reviewed to determine how they can be used in the study of classroom life. A structural-developmental perspective is more applicable to the study of the social cognitive outcomes of schooling than to the explanation of student behavior in the classroom. The information processing approach…

Discusses the importance of teacher intervention in the use of Logo in elementary and junior high schools, emphasizing a process-oriented approach to teaching. The use of worksheets, questioning techniques, and providing a socially reflective and interactive environment are described, and a checklist to see if criteria are being successfully met…

Educational environments that reduce the likelihood of acting out and promote positive cognitive, social, and emotional development are useful not only to behavior disordered youngsters, but to all students. Forces that facilitate and inhibit the establishment of positive classroom ecologies are outlined, and components of effective instruction…

This study delineates the relationships between social background, classroom experience, and academic abilities. Classroom experience is mainly judged in terms of students' affective dispositions. The objective is to clarify how these dispositions are shaped by the personal and situational factors in a child's social background, and then how they,…