Eight severely retarded subjects (ages 9-22), four with functional language and four without, performed identity and nonidentity matching tasks employing objects, photographs, and line drawings. As representational complexity increased, greater difficulty in matching stimuli was observed in the nonfunctional language group, with line drawings…

Discusses a study which explored the possible value of the history of science to understanding student misconceptions. Focused on photosynthesis and examined relationships between students' conceptual difficulties and the transformation of concepts through time. Student responses suggest that the history of science can be used to anticipate…

Discusses a study which examined the last factor of Piaget's model of intelligence-functioning. Sought to determine if empirical evidence could be formed to support the existence of assimilation, disequilibrium, accommodation, and organization in the learning of physics. Naturalistic data provided support for the Piagetian functioning model of…

Suggests criteria to be used in selecting problem-solving activities and criteria to be considered in choosing media, exercises, and problems for the development of problem-solving skills. Provides perspectives on developing creativity and includes a chart on how thinking and attitude components relate. Also lists related reference materials. (ML)

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)

A modified replication of a study by R. C. Anderson and J. W. Pichert indicates that, even though the retrieval framework can operate selectively in making certain information more accessible for output, it is ultimately constrained by the accessibility of information as determined by the encoding framework. (JD)

Claims that literacy and literature become interrelated in classrooms where there are many opportunities to engage in the narrative mode of thought. Discusses how the potential of literacy/literature experiences is enriched when students draw from the narrative reservoirs of the community and school. (JD)

Maintains that young children can develop creative problem-solving skills through such music activities as finger plays and action songs, music games, writing words for songs, and composing melodies. Also suggests ways that teachers can establish and maintain an environment that enables children to solve problems creatively through music. (BB)

Illustrates the ways children from a first-grade classroom are encouraged to communicate their mental images of movement, spatial concepts, and imagination through drawings and writing. (BB)

This review of the research on mathematical problem solving is focused on learning disabled students. Categories discussed include characteristics of learning disabled problem solvers, strategies they use, instruction facilitating strategy learning, cognitive strategies, and problem solving strategies. Implications for instruction and research are…

An information-processing model of the rating process was proposed and tested by asking 18 teachers to rate 16 hypothetical student profiles formed by systematically varying information along six different dimensions. Findings revealed possible biases in teacher's ratings and indicated the importance of a theoretical model of the rating process.…

Institutionalized moderately and severely retarded men (N=48) and 20 non-institutionalized moderately retarded men and women were provided training in either the cognitive strategy of verbal self instruction or modelling/imitation. For both groups of subjects the verbal self-instruction training resulted in significantly greater improvement in the…

Examines modality differences in preschoolers' ability to recognize or recall temporally related events and extends Ward and Wackman's model by evaluating whether the assumed "visual viewing style" applies to preschoolers' processing of temporal relations. Results demonstrated that temporally related events were remembered more…

In 1984, Community College of Philadelphia received a $250,000 Ford Foundation grant to design and implement a transfer curriculum for predominantly poor, minority students. This paper describes the humanities faculty's team efforts to model a vital intellectual community for students by revamping curriculum approaches, value frameworks, and…

Examines the use of the repertory grid technique to describe student responses to the poem "Frost at Midnight" by Coleridge. (HOD)