Describes some of the ways early adolescents respond to reading and thinking tasks and details the development of procedures for observing and analyzing children as they complete such tasks. (FL)

The author seeks to clarify the difficulty and complexity of the things youngsters must do to learn mathematics, and to have teachers question their own views about children in redefining mathematics instruction. (MP)

Spatial ability and Piagetian tasks were administered to 80 schooled/non-schooled Fulanis (primarily nomadic and hunters) and agriculturalists (living a settled life). Results indicated that Fulanis develop spatial skills adapted to the ecological demands of their lives and that schooled students performed better on Piagetian tasks than…

Describes cognitive mapping techniques compatible with the information processing view of human thinking. Student knowledge was assessed by clinical interview and performance on paper-and-pencil tasks. Concept maps and semantic networks were then constructed. Uses that these assessment tasks and representations might have in science education are…

Describes a study using experimental and control classes to test the effect of exercises in creative thinking. The tenth-grade students were able to increase their ability to think creatively. (Author/SA)

A social cognitive developmental model is presented integrating a Piagetian developmental model and Flavell's processing model, to describe three aspects of development. The utility of the model was tested in two studies. The results demonstrate that it is possible to increase children's social cognitive abilities instructionally. (Author/CTM)

Mathematical tasks calling for relational thinking were given to 60 children of Indian, Pakistani, or Bangladeshi origin who had spent their school lives in England, 60 who had arrived within the past 3 years, and 60 British children. Differences in the ability to abstract, hypothesize, and generalize were studied. (KC)

Third-grade children were studied to determine whether (1) children can apply a cognitive strategy learned in language arts to television programs, (2) training improves comprehension of videotaped material, and (3) these skills generalize to other settings. Thirteen references and descriptions of the 10 videotapes and film used are provided. (MER)

Investigated the effects of individual difference variables of field dependence/independence and spatial visualization ability on the performance of college students in three modes. The extent to which four variables account for variability in retention test performance on certain tasks was also viewed. (MP)

Combines studies in cognitive psychology and language acquisition with observations of pedagogical materials and student performance to analyze foreign-language teaching from the perspective of what students and teachers need to understand about language learning and language before meaningful debate over methodology can be undertaken. (Author/MES)

Argues that J. R. Kendall and J. Hood have not clearly demonstrated that contextual strategies play a significant role in the ability of some disabled readers to understand passages, as well as or better than other students, although they read with less word recognition accuracy. (HOD)

Examines characteristics of the mental processes required for writing, compares and contrasts the nature of processing required for other cognitive activities, and reviews recent research on children's writing that reveals the advantages as well as disadvantages of superimposing writing skills over well-developed language skills. (HOD)

Discusses the structure of a problem-based curriculum based on the complexity of the problems that the students must solve, taking into account the level they must attain and their previous experience with problem-based teaching. This approach is compared with the conventional teaching methods. Twenty-two references are listed. (CHC)

The article details the emotional, social, and mental characteristics of gifted children and explains how the classroom teacher can help such children, who are often socially alienated, find their place in the world. (SB)

The use of modified essay questions (MEQs), developed at the University of Newcastle to assess clinical problem-solving, is reported. Reliability estimates as high as 0.91 were reported. The validity of assessment by MEQ was based on one model of medical problem-solving and another of cognitive skill taxonomies. (Author/MLW)