This document provides preschool teachers with activities intended to help children better understand the world around them. The introductory section of this book includes papers focusing on the cognitive development of the preschooler, encouraging the integration of science into the early childhood curriculum, promoting multisensory science…

The revised Iowa Developed Energy Activity Sampler (IDEAS) was compiled using the original IDEAS program and the Energy Conservation Activity Packets (ECAPS). This document is one of a series of revised IDEAS booklets, and provides learning activities for teachers to use with students in industrial arts/technology education. Each of the 17…

Describes mechanisms of thought associated with making predictions. Concludes that successful predictors had high initial knowledge of the subject matter and were formally operational. Unsuccessful predictors had low initial knowledge and were concretely operational. Systematic manipulation, note taking, and higher-level thinking skills were…

Describes a study of the mental processes college students use in thinking about speed. Piagetian-type tasks dealing with speed, time, and distance were used in an individual interview format. Males outperformed females on tasks relating to speed, but not on the other tasks. (TW)

Describes a study which was designed to determine the effect of a 25-hour introductory qualitative analysis course on high school students' understanding of formal concepts related to electrolytes. Suggests that introductory concrete experiences better prepare students to deal with more formal abstract concepts. (TW)

This longitudinal study investigated the influence of social class and family socialization on the development of cognitive competence, educational performance, and academic attainment; the interdependencies between the development of cognitive competence and educational performance; and the impact of social class, family socialization, cognitive…

Efforts to introduce children to essential experiences of science inquiry must begin at an early age. This paper describes the development of fundamental concepts and skills used from infancy through the primary years and presents strategies for helping students to acquire those fundamental concepts and skills needed for inquiry learning. The…

Proposes three principles for a new progressivism. These establish the nature of individualism in education, the need to empower individuals through education, and the economy of means by which this can be achieved through progressivist methodology. Assumes a constructivist rather than a social-constructivist model of human development. (MJP)

Examines the growth of understanding of citizenship in young children, particularly children's grasp of rules of school life. Explores development of citizenship by studying children's representations of school life and adult-child relationships in pretend play. Touches upon Dewey's, Piaget's, and Vygotsky's theories of child development. (BGC)

Examines and defines the world of play for children and considers what lessons and applications this might have for adults and their spirituality. Particularly notes that the "what-if" and "as-if" dimensions of play can be used as energizing and liberating aspects of a more active adult spirituality. (MJP)

Maintains that a major theme in Lev Vygotsky's later research was concept formation or conceptual development in child development. States that Vygotsky argued that the acquisition of mature academic concepts forms the crowning achievement of adolescence. Argues that the view raises a number of criticisms. (CFR)

Discusses the idea of narrative being central to all human experience. Asserts that Piagetian theory and other developmental approaches limit the place of art in early childhood education. Recommends exposing young children to folk art and music that represent significant cultural traits. (CFR)

Whether or not the spatial cognitive development of students from distinct social-cultural milieus, specifically Anglos from the southwestern part of the United States and Native Turks, would proceed along approximately the same lines was investigated. The overall findings tend to indicate that at times the acquisition of spatial structures may be…

Attempts to express a group of children's understanding of inversion, retrograde, and retrograde-inversion as it applies to musical composition and color schemes. The children, ages six to nine, displayed idiosyncratic approaches to the problems. Discusses the possible implications for symbolic language and cognitive development. (MJP)

In this article, Kieran Egan contests the scientific foundations of Piaget's developmental theories and the scientific basis of much educational research. In so doing, he pushes researchers and practitioners alike to rethink the centrality of Piaget's tenets to teaching and learning. Egan traces the history of the developmental literature that…