Order Analysis is a multidimensional scaling (MDS) technique for determining order among items. This paper reviews articles by different authors describing various components of ordering theory. A common nomenclature is constructed to link together the various ideas and is applied to a fairly simple set of data. Topics discussed include a more…

A study examined primary-grade children's ability to construct felicitous, or audience-accommodating, character introductions in their stories. The study was intended to (1) describe the linguistic variation children employed in character introductions; (2) identify cognitive factors other than egocentrism contributing to infelicitous…

A task was developed to differentiate the reasoning of elementary school students in fifth, sixth, and seventh grades. Subjects completed 16 matrices containing two, three, or four dimensions and varying in the embeddedness of the dimensions. They also solved a formal operational task assessing ability to isolate, exclude, and include variables.…

Sample unit outlines, designed for kindergarten through grade six, define the content, activities, and assessment tasks appropriate to specific grade levels. The units have been extracted from the Board-approved curriculum, Health Education: The Curricular Approach to Optimal Health. The instructional guidelines for grade one are: describing a…

This resource curriculum outline for grades 9 through 12 contains a content outline; sample teaching strategies; illustrations for making transparencies and dittoes; print, non-print, and film resources for teaching family life and human development. The activities are adaptable to a variety of classroom situations and teaching styles. The…

The articles in this themed issue focus on the use of real literature in reading instruction. Following a comment from the editor, the titles of the articles and their authors are as follows: (1) "Understanding Poetry: Questions to Consider" (Nancy Wiseman Seminoff); (2) "Experiencing a Novel: The Short and Long of It" (David M. Bishop and…

A study was made to assess the extent to which social interaction is beneficial to cognitive development. A total of 154 boys and girls, 5 through 9 years of age, initially participated individually in a conservation-like pretest requiring prediction of the way a beam would tip when different numbers of weights were placed at differing distances…

An investigation was made of the relationships among teachers' stages of development; their perceptions of school and classroom problems; and their reasons for participating in a collaborative action research project. On the basis of observations, logs, interviews, and introductory questionnaire data, life age/cycle profiles of each of 10 middle…

This literature review concerns the concept of alternative grade configurations at the elementary level, in which elementary schools are subdivided into primary (K-2) and intermediate (3-5) units. Because of the paucity of literature on this concept, the major part of the report focuses on the reorganization of the elementary schools of the South…

If used carefully and with appropriate developmental expectations, primary source materials can assist children as they construct knowledge related to change and continuity. A study demonstrating this conclusion observed, videotaped, and photographed children at different stages of development as they played with specific primary source materials…

Learning related to music is considered a developmental process in this collection of five articles on music education for young learners. The first article considers music in terms of the educational process and the nature of art. The importance of musical concepts and structures to understanding music is emphasized, as is the role of music in…

The purpose of this paper is to discuss ways in which developmental psychology suffers from the lack of an appropriate technology of measurement and statistical analysis. The paper begins by noting that developmental psychology is the study of change; that individuals develop through a succession of "stages" which are separated by…

A study investigated the book handling and print concepts knowledge of 37 preschool children in a college day-care center. Subjects ranged in age from 2 to 5 years. As part of their normal day, the subjects were taken aside and a story was read to them. They were then asked questions about the physical make-up of the book, rules and concepts of…

Each written by a classroom teacher and based on the experience of that teacher working with his or her students, the articles in this collection are an extension of the Bay Area Writing Project assumptions. Many contain samples of writing done by students in response to the writing tasks described. After a preamble that discusses what is already…

The assumptions of stage theory and major theories of child art are reviewed in order to develop an explanation of artistic expression that allows for variable endpoints and accounts for relationships between children's drawings and adult art. Numerous studies indicate strong similarities among children's early drawings, which suggests that…