Working in the foundation stage requires careful planning and effective use of new experiences, so that teachers can help children to extend their skills, develop their confidence and build on what they already know. They can also set challenges, as Bruner commented: "Any idea or body of knowledge can be presented in a form simple enough so…

We join other responders in thanking Clahsen and Felser (CF) for pulling together these observations about the development of language processing. We are especially impressed by the generality and inclusiveness of CF's treatment of development in L1 and L2. Because most of their specifics concerned comprehension processes, our contribution will…

The early identification of children with learning disabilities (LD) is difficult but can be accomplished. Observation of key behaviors which are indicators of LD by preschool and kindergarten teachers can assist in this process. This early identification facilitates the use of intervention strategies to provide a positive early experience for…

This article describes a conceptual framework for couple-based assessment strategies grounded in empirical findings linking couple distress to a broad range of both individual and relationship characteristics. These characteristics can contribute to, exacerbate, or result from relationship problems. On the basis of these findings, the authors…

What does it mean to understand education as an art, to conceive inquiry in education aesthetically, or to assess pedagogy artistically? Answers to these queries are often grounded in Deweyan instrumentalism, neo-Marxist critical theory, or postmodern skepticism that tend to fall prey to the paradoxes of radical relativism and extreme…

This article examines issues in developing valid and reliable direct observation of behavior. Suggestions are made to minimize the problems that threaten validity and reliability. The discussion is concluded by an examination of costs and benefits of direct observation and who pays them and who benefits from them. (Contains 5 tables and 2 figures.)

Many recent studies have explored young children's ability to use information from physical representations of space to guide search within the real world. In one commonly used procedure, children are asked to find a hidden toy in a room after observing a smaller toy being hidden in the analogous location in a scale model of the room.…

Background: The imbalance between the sheer size of the developing world and what little is known about the lives and life circumstances of persons with disabilities living there should command our attention. Method: International development initiatives routinely give great priority to the collection of statistical indicators yet even the most…

The article is a "theoretical conversation" that addresses a new perspective on an often omitted or unrecognized process that is related to current issues in teacher education. Identified and explored is a sequence of forms in a teacher's professional, pedagogic life, and it is argued that these forms are synchronous with R. G. Collingwood's…

Adaptive decision making requires that contingencies between decision options and their relative assets be assessed accurately and quickly. The present research addresses the challenging notion that contingencies may be more visible from small than from large samples of observations. An algorithmic account for such a seemingly paradoxical effect…

Tic frequency was assessed and compared across home and clinic as well as three experimentally-manipulated situations in order to assess the phenomenon of tic reactivity. Forty-three youngsters with chronic tic disorder recruited from two geographically-distinct sites were videotaped over three weekly laboratory visits under each of the following…

This article presents information on 2 international educational effectiveness studies, one completed and the other ongoing. The 2nd study is, to a large degree, a reaction to a methodological problem encountered in the 1st study, the lack of an internationally valid instrument measuring teacher effectiveness. This article presents 4 reasons for…

We evaluated the effects of an intervention designed to increase the variety of positions experienced by infants in a child-care setting. Six student teachers were trained, using a multicomponent intervention, to reposition infants according to a chart. The intervention was successful in increasing the mean percentage of correct position changes…

What happens after visual attention is allocated to an object? Although many theories of attention assume that all of its features are selected and processed, there has been little direct evidence that an irrelevant feature dimension of an attended nontarget is processed. In 5 experiments presented here, the authors used a singleton paradigm to…

This study examined the relationship between children's ability to delay gratification and time spent in make-believe play in a sample of 39 three-to five-year-old children. Delay of gratification was determined in an experimental situation (Mischel, 1974). Children's play was assessed using a teacher questionnaire, a mother interview, a child…