This study examined the hypothesis that age-related increases in reasoning ability are associated with the ability to represent relations of increasing complexity, defined as the number of entities related. The study's purpose was to determine the extent to which this ability to process relations with three entities increased between ages 4 and 8…

This paper describes a study of whether and how collaborative learning at the computer fosters conceptual change. A suite of computer simulation programs developed to confront students' alternative conceptions in mechanics was integrated into a grade 10 science class in a high school in Melbourne, Australia. A Conceptual Test was administered as a…

This book, designed for grades 2-8, teaches students the creative problem-solving (CPS) method. Each step in the process is outlined in detail and is illustrated with 30 reproducible classroom activities. The levels of the problem-solving approach addressed in the book include: (1) "Sensing Problems and Challenges"; (2) "Fact Finding"; (3)…

The role of performance assessments in making cognitive activity apparent to teachers and students was studied through descriptions of the cognitive activity of 31 fifth-grade students. Differences while carrying out a science performance assessment reveal critical differences between those who think and reason well with their knowledge of…

This paper speaks to the challenges, risks, and rewards of teaching about linear functions in a technology-rich environment from a constructivist perspective by describing a Foundations of Algebra class, which was designed and taught to junior high school students in such an environment in the summer of 1991. The design and implementation of the…

Pressure on universities to reexamine their educational administration preparation programs has prompted reconsideration of reflective methods. The application of cognitive science to administrative problems as well as philosophical debates found in the literature have also led to this reconsideration. John Dewey's views on reflective methods have…

Critical thinking has been identified as essential to development of the professional nursing role. A process, "cognitive reengineering," has been created to facilitate critical thinking skill development in RNs. The process is derived from adult learning principles, techniques of consciousness-raising, and transformational theory. Its basic…

Students begin their college studies with a set of epistemological beliefs about what they think knowledge is and how they think it is learned; for most students, the experience of college alters these beliefs in fundamental, transformative ways. This study explores the relation between epistemological beliefs, motivation, and cognition in two…

The time has come to seriously consider thinking as a major goal for teaching and learning at all levels of education. This calls for educational restructuring in which higher order cognitive processes are defined, and a better understanding for how to develop them in all youngsters and adults is built. Youngsters need to become constructors of…

An approach is described that reveals the hierarchical test structure (HTS) based on the cognitive demands of the test items, and conducts a linear trait modeling by using the HST elements as item difficulty components. This approach, referred to as the Hierarchical Latent Trait Approach (HLTA), employs an algorithm that allows all test items to…

The four issues of this journal published in 1991 contain the following articles: "Suggestology in the USSR"; "Integrated Short-term Intensive Course Structure; "Teaching Teachers to Teach"; "Sociopsychological Aspects of Intensive Teaching"; "The Method of Intensive Learning in the Context of Modern…

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether differences in the level of visual complexity in motion visuals have an effect on cognitive learning of students in different grade levels. The instructional content was a 14-minute video lesson concerning the motion of objects in the universe. A 3 (levels of visual complexity) x 2 (grade…

The theory of multiple intelligence (MI) propounded by Gardner and Hatch suggests that human beings have seven distinct units of intellectual functioning, and that these units are actually separate intelligences with their own observable and measurable abilities. These intelligences were identified as logical-mathematical, linguistic, musical,…

This study examined the effects of episodic-mapping, traditional notetaking, and rereading on eighth-grade students' recall of historical text. Episodic-maps are a kind of notetaking procedure that requires students to represent ideas from a text in the form of a graphic diagram. As predicted, both episodic-mapping and traditional notetaking…

This annual report presents six research articles on child development. The articles and their authors are: (1) "Beyond Psychological Limits: Applying Human Development in Education" (John Kirkland); (2) "Beyond Reductionism: Directions toward Understanding Children" (Frank Self); (3) "A Psychometric Examination of the…