Describes a set of Science Reasoning Tasks which are valid and reliable for assessing the ability of children to use concrete and formal reasoning strategies and can be used by science teachers without professional training in Piagetian studies. Thirty pupils can be tested on each task in about 50 minutes. (Author/DS)

Curriculum theory is a rationale for defining purpose, selecting objectives, and determining content. Two rationales, movement analysis, and developmental stages are discussed and evaluated, in terms of their purposes, objectives, content, and teaching methods. (JN)

Assessed the effect of a one-semester college biology course on the development of students (N=72) ability to reason formally and interactions among intelligence, cognitive style, and cognitive level. Includes implications for science instruction. (SK)

Six studies investigated the use of pictorial material in a group setting to measure the cognitive level of children (age 7 to 11) on eight Piagetian concepts. Children were low to middle socioeconomic status with 60 percent Spanish surnames. Factor analysis and clinical administration supported test validity. (Author/CTM)

A study of the development of high school students' self-social relationships indicated a need for a concentrated program on personal growth and development in tenth grade when individual identities are forming. High school students scored highest on the self-complexity and self-centrality tests. Developmental trends for sex were also indicated.…

A study of adult learners reveals four steps of transformative change in adult life: diffusion, dissonance, differentiation, and coherence. The educational implications of these steps are explored through case studies, and it is argued that these transformative changes affect not only the individual and the nature of adult education, but the…

Focuses upon number and spacing of children as perpetrators of normative stress. Effects are summarized and a typology of normative stress based on level of family impact is offered. Growth-enhancing aspects of stress are suggested in the context of the family as a system of mutual influences. (Author)

Studies children's justification of message choices as characteristics of their reasoning processes. Indicates that interpersonal reasoning increases in sophistication and complexity over the age groups studied and that females reason at a higher level than males. Situational influences on level of interpersonal reasoning were also found. (JMF)

Investigates ego development in 32 lower-class and lower-middle class Black students at the sixth and twelfth grade levels. Ego development was measured by the Washington University Sentence Completion Test (WU-SCT). (Author/SS)

Two tests of cognitive development, the Cartoon Conservation Scales, Levels I and II, were designed to measure Piagetian stage-related constructs for children of different age groups. The tests were factor analyzed within age levels and were also analyzed using scalogram and tabular methods to test sequential hypotheses. (Author/CTM)

Responds to Cipro, Mathur, and Kassam's critical essays (in this issue) on his previous study of literacy and national development. The author offers clarification or further thoughts on several statements with which he disagrees, such as the theory of stages for literacy, work-oriented literacy, and the quality of life and liberation. (MF)

The Springs task, an individually administered measure of ability to criticize and control experiments, is described. The task has characteristics similar to Inhelder and Piaget's Bending Rods task; it yields scores on naming variables, controlling variables, and analyzing experiments. (See also RIE: ED 163 092.) (JKS)

The author reviews and discusses results of current adult education research in the areas of cognitive styles, learning strategies, adult learning, hemispheres of the brain, adult development stages, open learning systems, nontraditional forms of learning, social action, nature of adult participation, and other concepts. (MF)

Examined the pattern of deletion of final "/t/" and "/d/" in word final consonant clusters in 3- and 4-year-old children (n=16) and their degree of mastery of phonological and grammatical constraints. Results indicate that children as young as three had mastered the phonological constraints on (-t, d) deletion and that the…

Ties Native American Medicine Wheel teachings on the cycle of life to Eric Erickson's work on the eight developmental stages: trust, autonomy, initiative, accomplishment, identity, intimacy, generativity, and integrity. To have healthy communities, people need to move successfully through these stages. Knowing about these stages can help a person…