Examines Astington and Olson's proposal under the context of von Wright's and Hempel's theories of explanation and understanding. Suggests that for taking children's meaning making seriously, researchers should find a principled way to acknowledge the role of interpretation in scientific thinking even in the making of explanation itself. (AA)

Examines the relationship between causal-explanatory and interpretive-hermeneutic approaches to how we understand our own and others' minds. Suggests that the two approaches discussed by Astington and Olson are mutually enlightening but, contrary to the proposed position, are irreducible to each other. (AA)

Points out agreement that the concepts a child acquires are variants of those exemplified by the cultures in which they grow up. Suggests, however, that learners interpret these cultural practices in terms of models causally determined by their cognitive or representational capacities and by the stock of concepts currently available. (AA)

Notes that "Loveys," or transitional comfort objects, are an important prop in some children's emotional and intellectual development. Provides developmental information, and describes types of children who typically use loveys, challenges to child care programs when the object comes to school, and how children give up their attachments.…

Examines an Advanced Placement U.S. history classroom as a miniature common school to assess students' abilities to develop historically-grounded perspectives and engage in a moral debate. Finds that (1) students with little historical-grounding lacked an inclination toward a collective, ethical critique; and (2) exchange of historically-grounded…

The Project-Based Learning (PBL) approach enables the student to construct knowledge in his/her own way. Piaget, the founder of constructivism, saw the development of intelligence as a process involving the relationship between brain maturity and individual experience. The technology PBL (TPBL) approach confronts the student with a personal…

This study utilized a national longitudinal data set of college students to examine the educational relevance of cross-racial interaction and how campuses can best structure such opportunities. The general pattern of findings suggests that cross-racial interaction has positive effects on students' intellectual, social, and civic development. The…

The research described in this article addressed the question of why siblings commonly have different developmental outcomes despite their common beginnings. The studies analyzed behavioral development, especially through examination of deviant behaviors and intellectual development, by tracing siblings' different life histories. The work is based…

In this paper, an educational technologist describes his critical approach to using computers in instruction. He discusses his development from high school English teacher to educational technology instructor in a university setting, focusing on people, literature, and films that have shaped his view of technology as well as on his disappointment…

When colleges were first organized in what would later become the United States, they were far different from those in existence today. Students matriculated, enrolled, and graduated in lock step through a prescribed 4-year curriculum. Colleges functioned not so much to encourage intellectual development as to foster moral piety. Topics and sides…

This study examined the specific words that college faculty in different disciplines use to convey goals for students using data from 1986-87 interviews with 62 faculty members teaching introductory colleges and a 1988-89 survey of 2105 faculty which established a listing of over 6000 goal statements. Goal statements were examined in order to…

This document consists of three papers presented at a symposium on expertise in organizations moderated by Ross Azevedo at the 1996 conference of the Academy of Human Resource Development (AHRD). "How Individual Expertise May Be Socially Constructed: A Literature Review" (Abney V. Gleespen) looks at the research to determine the…

This book argues that the best solution to higher education's conflicts over culture and "political correctness" is to teach the conflicts themselves. The book suggests making intellectual conflict part of the universities' object of study and thereby more successfully engaging students in the world of ideas and learning. The book argues…

Education should help students with their intellectual as well as emotional growth. The counseling center at Harvard University, called the Bureau of Study Counsel, assumes that students' dilemmas are not simply academic. Generally, there are three kinds of services at the Harvard Bureau of Study Counsel: didactic-cognitive techniques; group…

The paper describes four major patterns that emerge in studies of college student intellectual development. Quotations from students' writing about their epistemological beliefs and quotations from professors' writing concerning their courses and students are related to the four patterns. Characteristics of student writing associated with each…