This paper addresses two distinctive issues concerning animistic and anthropomorphic thought in the context of constructivist science education. The first concerns the extent of such ways of thinking, both within science itself and within school science. The second concerns the implications of this for theories of instruction in science education.…

Though rooted in neo-Piagetian research, constructivism is an avenue of research that departed from the neo-Piagetian mainstream 20 years ago and has continued on a distinct path of development. For constructivists, learning is not knowledge written on, or transplanted to, a person's mind as if the mind were a blank slate waiting to be written on…

Stability of the Early Screening Profiles (ESP), developed by P. Harrison, was examined with a sample of 23 non-handicapped preschool children (14 females and 9 males) ranging in age from 3 years 0 months to 6 years 0 months at the time of initial testing. The sample was drawn from a rural/suburban community in the midwest with a predominantly…

To determine whether or not cognitive tempo influences visual cue preferences in early readers, 65 kindergarten, first-grade, and second-grade children were tested on the Matching Familiar Figures (MFF) test and a cue selection nonsense trigram test. It was hypothesized that significant differences would be found in cue selection strategies of…

An examination of student papers from three universities on the same tasks revealed that expository writing tasks were less demanding cognitively than argumentative writing tasks and that argumentative writing tasks were less demanding than speculative tasks. Another finding was that when students were able to translate a generalized task into…

Intended for the preschool teacher wishing to implement a cognitively oriented curriculum, this instructional guide focuses on the problem-solving approach (as opposed to the teacher-directed approach) to student learning. Each chapter provides space for teachers to plan, implement, and evaluate lessons. Activities in the guide are participatory,…

Fourteen papers are presented from a conference on severe behavior disorders of children and youth. The following titles are included: "Beyond the Classroom: The Teacher of Behaviorally Disordered Pupils in a Social System" (C. Nelson); "Correctional Education and Special Education--An Emerging Partnership; or 'Born to Lose'" (B. Wolford);…

An experiment examined whether children of different developmental stages expressed different levels of fear while viewing episodes of the television program, "The Incredible Hulk." Preoperational (3 to 5 years old) and concrete operational (9 to 11 years old) children were shown short videotaped segments taken from the program. Using…

One of a series of activity guides designed to aid teachers in developing the thinking skills of primary grade students, this publication offers a variety of learning activities and resource materials. The activities and resources include: a calendar which lists important days and birthdays in May; poems; a flannelboard story; word puzzles and…

This report describes a study on the development of children's conceptualizations of written language, that is, their graphic sense. The study investigated three issues: (1) whether acquisition of literacy is a developmental process common to all normal children, (2) whether the levels of graphic sense tend to be associated with particular…

The Perry scheme of intellectual and ethical development has become widely used in a range of academic disciplines and such areas as career training and faculty consultation. However, current measurement techniques for the scheme, whether interview format or paper and pencil measures, do not adequately address issues related to assessing cognitive…

The history and goals of a mathematics teachers' center in Carbondale, Illinois are discussed. (SD)

The focus of this study was to portray the ideas that students with four years experience in learning physics developed in regard to the second law of thermodynamics. Data were obtained through 34 clinical interviews with grade 10 students. An analysis of student arguments revealed deeply rooted difficulties in using concepts that were learned in…

The paper provides an analysis and synthesis of studies with hearing impaired and other populations concerning the cognitive development of the principle of liquid horizontality--the idea that still water remains invariantly level regardless of the angle of the container. Three major questions focused the investigation: (1) What are the effects of…

This paper discusses and review the ideas of Hoyt L. Sherman who taught art and visual perception at the Ohio State University. It explores some of the psychological sources for his work and ideas about the teaching of drawing by seeing which relates to the work and ideas of Adelbert Ames, Jr. The article traces the influences of both Ames and…