Psychological science has much to contribute to enhancing teaching and learning in the classroom. Teaching and learning are intricately linked to social and behavioral factors of human development, including cognition, motivation, social interaction, and communication. Psychological science can also provide key insights on effective instruction,…

Because math knowledge begins to develop at a young age to varying degrees, it is important to identify foundational cognitive and academic skills that might contribute to its development. The current study focused on two important, but often overlooked skills that recent evidence suggests are important contributors to early math development:…

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…

Although conversations have been identified as an important means to promote young learners' language development, preschool children often have limited opportunities to be involved in complex conversations. This study examined preschool adaptations of Instructional Conversation, a small group discussion between teachers and children in which…

We investigated whether the tendency to imitate or emulate is influenced by the availability of causal information, and the amount of information available in a display. Three and 5-year-old children were shown by either a live or video model how to obtain a reward from either a clear or an opaque puzzle box. Some of the actions in the sequence…

Children?s experiences prior to kindergarten entry are correlated with degree of cognitive development and school readiness as measured by standardized assessments of cognitive and linguistic performance. Children from economically poor and undereducated families are at elevated risk for lack of school readiness due to less knowledge and…

A study examined the interrelationship among print-related skills developed prior to formal reading instruction and social class differences in these skills in 33 middle-class and working-class children attending one of two high quality, reading-oriented kindergarten classes. Two hypotheses were generated: (1) that correlations would emerge among…