This paper asserts that through the process of observation, documentation, and interpretation of children's goals, strategies, and theories, teachers gain insight into children's thinking. As a result of this process, teachers are better able to engage children in conversations and investigations that have the potential to extend their learning in…

Attempted to clarify the relationship between dependency and imitation using 73 preschool children as subjects. The children's degree of emotional dependency was found to be related to their propensity to imitate the model's irrelevant behavior (i.e. incidential learning). (Author/SDH)

Suggests using dyadic and/or triadic activities in the classroom to exemplify speech theories and propositions. Exercises, discussion formats and evaluation criteria are provided. (MH)

One pathway through which second order effects proceed is "social referencing," a process in which the individual utilizes another's interpretation when appraising a situation. This phenomenon is well identified in adults and older children. While it had not been studied in infancy, there are good indications that the necessary cognitive…

Forty-five children drawn equally from nursery school, kindergarten, and first grade were administered a nonverbal imitation task, a production task, a comprehension task, and a verbal imitation task. The results of the four tasks support the Temporal Complexity Hypothesis, which states that the components of temporality--order among events (O),…

Since vision is the main source of perceptual information, this study attempted to assess the effect of motion information on the ability of ninety-two, first-grade children to analyze and depict spatial relationships. Three groups of children received either motion picture or stationary visual training to compare motion effects with methods more…

In a pilot study designed to determine whether fourth-grade students can acquire a set of behaviors related to performing certain laboratory activities, 22 students were randomly assigned to either a film-mediated modeling treatment or a control. Students in the treatment viewed a videotape model showing peer leaders engaging in the steps of an…

Six studies relevant to the analysis of generalized imitative behavior are described. The first examined the role of verbal instructions in generalized imitation by comparing the use of a "do this" instruction with no such instruction and the use of positive reinforcement with no reinforcement. The tenacity of generalized imitation in this study…

Reassessment of 120 college females' creativity after the subjects observed others of varying creative ability showed both predicted increases and predicted decreases in subjects' component verbal creativity scores. (RL)

Describes 2 experiments in which children ages 5-6 and 9-10 years viewed slides of male and female models performing matched acts which were sex-appropriate, sex-inappropriate, or sex-neutral. Visual attention was assessed by the method of feedback electroencephalography. Recall and preference for the slides were also measured. (Author/JMB)

Observational learning is theoretically conceptualized as a skill that can be developed along a learning hierarchy from acquisition and fluency development to generalization of imitative behavior. This review characterizes these levels of observational learning and details differential teaching strategies that have been attempted at each level…

Provides suggestions for activities that focus on earthworms. Includes observational exercises on earthworms' reactions to light and touch. (ML)