This study examined the transition from concrete to formal operations in very bright children in an effort to determine whether high ability in concrete operations would carry over into formal operational ability, and also to investigate precocity in regard to formal operations. Subjects were 38 white middle-class children ranging in age from…

Because technological explosion has led to an intellectualization of vocational education, the author develops criteria for integrating the necessary concepts of advanced science and mathematics into general technical coursework. Examples are presented from current reforms in technical training programs in the USSR. (Author/SJL)

Investigates the attainment of abstract and concrete concepts and the use of pseudoexamples to move concrete thinkers to abstract levels in secondary school chemistry classes. Findings reveal abstract students achieve significantly higher means on both concrete and abstract concept attainment and that pseudo examples have no effect on the ability…

Seventh-grade students enrolled in two average classes were pretested, randomly assigned to two training groups--an active group in which physical materials were employed and a verbal group in which standard textbook procedures were employed--immediately posttested and posttested one month later. The active group showed greater achievement and…

The author reviews pertinent studies conducted between 1917 and 1973 in which the introspective-retrospective technique of data gathering was employed in determining the mental processes of children in arithmetical reasoning and the difficulties encountered. (MN)

To detect the underlying structural relationship or chain among certain memorized pairs, two groups of undergraduates verbally reordered previously memorized pairs of either concrete or abstract nouns. The superior performance of the concrete word subjects was attributed to the differential effect of imaginal versus verbal encoding. (Author/CP)

Utilizing Peel's and Hutson's instrumentations, the levels of abstraction of forty-one adult basic education students were assessed and then related to reading comprehension. The seven major findings indicated that there is a relationship between level of abstraction and reading comprehension. (EM)

Teachers' comments to children can positively affect children's understanding of their reading skills. (MKM)

Defines five levels between concrete and formal operation in the development of the concept of controlling variables. The sample, methodology and research on which the work is based is described in SE 519 500. (CP)

Describes a study of fifth grade students' ability to process information from a play, and compares the results to related information from television research. (JC)

Thirteen learning disabled and 15 remedial high school students were taught reasoning skills using computer-assisted instruction and were given basic or elaborated corrections. Criterion-referenced test scores were significantly higher for the elaborated-corrections treatment on the post- and maintenance tests and on a transfer test assessing…

The use of the microcomputer shapes the student's way of thinking, it is argued, thereby reinforcing the patterns of social interaction, the legitimacy of what constitutes knowledge, and the ideology of the educational experience. The computer mediates the cultural transmission process. The role of the teacher as amplifier and clarifier becomes…

This study evaluated the diagnostic validity of a task measuring abstract categorization ability in learning disabled (LD) and non-LD children. Data showed that the component of abstract category knowledge that best disciminates LD children from non-LD, is the knowledge of how members of abstract categories differ from each other. (Author/JAZ)

Examines the early learning experiences of great men and women mathematicians to determine whether their lives were stimulated in symbol modes that generated semiautonomous cognitive systems of acquiring, processing, and originating vast complexities of abstract mathematical concepts. (HOD)

This article describes 6 of the 17 school computer projects awarded $600,000 in microcomputer equipment and software in the "Wheels for the Mind" program established by Apple Education Affairs. Apple would provide advanced courses for rural schools, set up an intercultural network, develop reasoning skills, train teachers, and create…