Describes higher levels of morality by contrasting Kohlber's Cognitive Developmentalism and Dabrowski's Positive Disintegration. It argues that far from being a gift, high-level morality is a function of the whole person. It is something chosen and striven for, and the result of compassion and some kind of disintegration. (Author/CR)

According to recent research studies, watching television has become the number one leisure activity among both children and adults. The effect of excessive television viewing on the cognitive development of children is reported. Solutions and suggestions for parents and teachers to help children integrate television into their lives in the most…

Examined preschoolers' inductive inferences across biological and non-biological kinds. Found support for gradual-enrichment model of conceptual change. Four-year-olds had a limited, coherent, independent biological theory which may form the basis of mature understanding of biological kinds. Explored results in terms of multiple explanatory…

Three studies examined children's understanding of looking behavior in revealing another's desired goal. Found that 6-year olds and adults, but not 4-year olds, consistently regarded prolonged looking as a more important cue than glancing or inadvertent touching of the protagonist's goal. Results suggest that development is characterized by…

Two studies of adolescents in England and Russia examined the effects of prolonged instruction on students' development of abstract deductive reasoning and understanding of logical necessity in algebraic and verbal reasoning. Results indicated that prolonged instruction emphasizing the metalevel of algebraic deduction contributed to enhanced…

Investigated problem-solving methods used by 3 sixth-graders working on a variety of mathematics problems over the school year. Found that the students used different strategies: one used visual strategies, one a more verbal approach, and the third a combination of the two. Over time, all three moved toward more nonvisual, verbal/analytic forms of…

The parent of a gifted child provides the following recommendations for parents: encourage learning and growth in areas of the child's passion; explain to the child that the way he feels is normal for him; make available resources written for children that explain giftedness; and educate yourself. (Contains 3 references.) (CR)

Trained 1- to 3-year-olds to touch a video screen displaying a unique target and appearing among varying numbers of distracters; correct responses triggered a sound and four animated objects on the screen. Found that children's reaction time patterns resembled those from adults in corresponding search tasks, suggesting that basic perceptual…

Two experiments examined development of the ordinality concept in infants. Found that 11-month-olds successfully discriminated, whereas 9-month-olds failed to discriminate sequences that descended in numerical value from sequences increasing in numerical value. Nine-month-olds could discriminate the ordinal direction of sequences that varied in…

Examined social cognition of socially anxious 6- to 11-year-olds, focusing on ability to understand others' mental states in interpersonal situations. Found evidence that anxious children experienced specific social-cognitive difficulties in understanding links between emotions, intentions, and beliefs in social situations. Such children were…

Two experiments used a formal model of developmental discontinuity derived from catastrophe theory to test whether the transition from Rule I to Rule II on the balance scale task proceeds discontinuously from ages 6 to 10, focusing on five catastrophe flags. Found that bimodality, inaccessible region, hysteresis, and sudden jump were clearly…

Examines how theories of antioppressive education can help educators teach, supervise student teachers, and conduct research in ways that work against repetitions of privileged knowledge and practices. Shows how students may seek knowledge confirming what they already know and challenges educators to disrupt unconscious discourses. (Contains 39…

Examines research in folkbiology (commonsense understandings of plants and animals) to argue that several lines of comparative research are needed to understand the acquisition of folkbiology in particular and conceptual development in general. Asserts that comparisons are needed between children and adults within a given society, between adult…

Reviews evidence that gesture provides access to information children know but do not say. Argues that gesture may contribute cognitive change indirectly, by communicating spoken aspects of the learner's cognitive state to potential change agents; and directly, by offering the learner a simpler way to express and explore ideas that may be…

Focuses on the strategies young children (N=115) use to solve rectangular covering tasks before they have been taught area measurement. Children's solution strategies were classified into five developmental levels. Emphasizes the importance of understanding the relationship between the size of a unit and the dimensions of the rectangle in learning…