A study looked for age differences in the quality of responses to the Life Review Task (LRT), studied the LRT itself as a tool for exploring wisdom and intellectual functioning in adulthood, and considered personality characteristics and life experience as alternative predictors of response quality. Sixty-three West German women of different ages…

To investigate the relationship between the intellectual maturity of college students and evidence of rhetorical maturity in their writing, 70 student essays were evaluated on three independent measures: W. G. Perry's scale of intellectual development, P. G. Diederich's scale of writing competence, and a measure of audience awareness based on the…

This study examined the effect of formal and concrete instruction upon science achievement and intellectual development of sixth grade students. Formal instruction, which emphasized oral and written language, included lecture, discussion, oral quizzes, written assignments, reading assignments, films, film strips, written tests, and quizzes.…

The Perry scheme of student development, as determined by William G. Perry, Jr. and his associates at the Bureau of Study Counsel of Harvard University, is discussed. His nine levels of development include dualism, multiplicity, and commitment. A study by Mary F. Belenky showed that Perry's students were almost exclusively male, and she noted that…

A dangerously simplistic reductionistic movement, with a stress on the teacher as a technician, operating increasingly in a mechanistic way, is evolving in teacher preparation programs. This paper is constructed in light of the distorted consciousness likely to be acquired by prospective teachers as a result of this constraining movement. It has…

This paper examines the gap between the learning potentials that computers provide and the actual impact of computer use on learning and development. It is argued that the computer's unique potential is derived in part from four basic attributes: information, symbol systems, user activities, and relations with the user. It is hypothesized that…

Perry's theory of intellectual and ethical development of college students is briefly reviewed. This theory was based on work with Harvard University students, and addresses dualism, multiplicity, and relativism. In the first stage, a student sees the world in right-wrong, black-white terms, with no room in the thinking process for conditional or…

Recently, a number of studies have reported a high correlation between the supposedly separate traits described as integrated science process skills and formal reasoning ability. The implication has been that these two constructs are different but related. Further implications have been made that a treatment to enhance one "trait" might…

This two-page information review presents a brief review of research literature which reinforces the belief that regular physical education programs included in school curricula produces physical, psychological, and intellectual benefits. Eighteen references are cited. (JD)

Provides some background from the biological and behavioral sciences relevant to the education of young children. The author concludes that experience gained by age 8 (particularly during the years 0 to 5) matters for the rest of an individual's life. (PEB)

Describes a study of the developmental ordering of syllable and phoneme segmentation abilities in preschool, kindergarten and first-grade children. Results indicate that both syllable and phoneme segmentation increased with grade level, but analysis into phonemes is significantly harder and perfected later than analysis into syllables. (Author/SDH)

Differences in language proficiency between social classes and races were studied to determine the effect of familiarity of the testing situation. Results showed no natural setting language differences. (ST)