Throughout the country, organizations of intellectuals (most of them called Independent Scholars' Roundtables) meet to discuss issues of importance to them. The participants share knowledge, problem-solving methods, and experiences. The groups may be organized around a particular discipline or they may be interdisciplinary. They are typically open…

This special issue is devoted to the cultural-historical school of thought about mental development based on the work of Lev Vygotsky. The research of Vygotsky addressed the sociocultural basis of higher-level cognitive functions, and ascribed an influential role to human speech and other mediational tools in originating changes in cognition and…

In the context of increasing criticism of bilingual education and the use of native language instruction, it must be remembered that they are based on a sound rationale. First, they address the need for continued learning as the child moves from one language to the other. Second, they address the need to diminish the alienation which children feel…

Serving as a preface for a position statement on adolescent literacy by the International Reading Association, this article argues that assigning adolescent literacy a higher priority in the literacy community's value system is an idea whose time has very nearly come. It briefly relates the content of two earlier articles published in "Reading…

Higher education not only contributes to the development of the human resources and intellectual betterment of the nation but is also a major economic enterprise. This research brief reviews and highlights data on the size and growth of higher education and illustrates how higher education institutions are preparing the future labor force. It…

Two influential theories of intellectual development are reviewed and analyzed: the psychometric framework, based on the factorial composition of intelligence, and the Piagetian model, based on assimilation and accomodation through four stages of intellectual development. A third concept is the componential theory of intelligence, based on…

This article describes affirmative development, a concept designed to complement colloquial notions of affirmative action, which emphasizes the creation and enhancement of competence in addition to the more traditional emphasis on the equitable reward of competence. In 1903 and 1958, W.E.B. DuBois examined whether 20th century problems related to…

Part of a series on early childhood demonstration programs designed to improve early parent-child relationships, stimulate positive child development, and prevent later behavior difficulties, the pamphlet describes a program in which the waiting room of a pediatric clinic for low-income families is utilized to teach parents to help their preschool…

Part of a series on early childhood demonstration programs designed to improve early parent-child relationships, stimulate positive child development, and prevent later behavior difficulties, the pamphlet describes the Mother-Child Home Program, in which low-income mothers are educated to become more effective developmental guides for their 2 to 4…

Part of a series on early childhood demonstration programs designed to improve early parent-child relationships, stimulate positive child development, and prevent later behavior difficulties, the pamphlet describes a Toy Library project for low-income families in Washington, D.C., which, in addition to loaning books and toys, offers a wide range…

Four articles on higher education curriculum are presented. In "The Articulate Curriculum" an approach to curriculum description is presented that is designed to have minimal ambiguity concerning the intention, content, and processes of the curriculum and that will lead to questioning several discrete factors in the curriculum planning…

A series of partial studies aimed at understanding how much progress students can make in 1 year of second language study are described. The first concerns Swedish university students in their first year studying Spanish as a third language in higher education. Students were tested and interviewed for their perceptions of their language ability…