Researchers taught unidimensional classification, unidimensional seriation, and number conversion to kindergartners lagging in cognitive development. The instruction resulted in significant gains on their achievement test scores. The gains seemed to result from mastery of key cognitive operations at a stage shift in cognitive development by…

The movement concept approach to teaching elementary physical education provides challenges that require children to use all their resources to respond, enhancing total development through cognitive, affective, and psychomotor domains. Worksheets can help teachers determine whether movement concepts are being learned and generalized to other…

Eighteen children (mean age 10.2 years) with mild mental retardation were pretested on a variety of measures and then instructed on Piagetian concepts twice per week for 4 months via a learning set technique. When posttested at semester's end, the children had, with few exceptions, mastered the concepts and made significant gains on the Peabody…

Presents descriptions of the most commonly taught thinking skills and information on how to present, model, and practice those skills in class. The guide also includes a quiz designed to help the teacher take advantage of everyday opportunities to promote thinking skills, and 10 critical thinking skills strategies. (GLR)

The author shows some causes of failure in the creation of mathematical concepts. One is the stiffening of concept cores, which prevents identification of atypical exemplars and solution of atypical problems and causes a bifurcation between the natural system of everyday concepts and the formal system of school concepts. (Author/MDH)

Comparison of the comprehension of proverbs of 200 students (50 each in Grades 6, 8, 10, and 12) found growth in proverb comprehension was most pronounced at two transitional points in development: when students move from late childhood into early adolescence, and again when they move from late adolescence into adulthood. Implications for…

Examines how theories of antioppressive education can help educators teach, supervise student teachers, and conduct research in ways that work against repetitions of privileged knowledge and practices. Shows how students may seek knowledge confirming what they already know and challenges educators to disrupt unconscious discourses. (Contains 39…

Although everybody agrees that education reform is needed, there is little agreement on the nature of the problems, and certainly not on the remedies; nevertheless, there is a central focus on curriculum issues. Three principal points are addressed in this paper: (a) new approaches in education are urgently needed, (b) new educational approaches…

To provide the first systematic test of whether young children will spontaneously perceive and imitate hierarchical structure in complex actions, a task was devised in which a set of 16 elements can be modelled through either of two different, hierarchically organized strategies. Three-year-old children showed a strong and significant tendency to…

This study was aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of CAI vs. classroom lecture for computer science at ICS level. The objectives were to compare the learning effects of two groups with classroom lecture and computer-assisted instruction studying the same curriculum and the effects of CAI and CRL in terms of cognitive development. Hypotheses of…

This study examines the relationships among third and fourth grade teacher practices in cognitive development: understanding, application, synthesis, and judgment; emotional/social development; their students' self-reported opportunities for emotional/social development; and academic self-concept. In addition, this study investigates the…

Learning invariably proceeds by relating new facts to the already familiar and present in the conceptual structure. In the context of FL study the familiar is, of course, the student's mother tongue. Drawing on the learner's L[subscript 1] (or another mastered tongue) and showing comparisons and contrasts between the languages mirrors, facilitates…

This symposium examines the science education research enterprise from multiple theoretical perspectives. The first paper, "Contextual Constructivism; The Impact of Culture on the Learning and Teaching of Science (William Cobern), focuses on broad issues of culture and how constructivism is affected by the context of culture. Culturally based…

"High level" questions require analytical, synthesizing, and evaluative responses; "low level" questions require acquisition and comprehension of information. Students responding to high level questions showed greater changes in their social attitudes. (JH) questions

Cortical blindness is defined and its diagnosis is explained. Guidelines and sample activities are presented for use in a cognitive/visual/multi-sensory stimulation program to produce progress in cortically blind infants. The importance of using the eyes from birth through early development in order to form the nerve pathways responsible for…