The teaching of critical thinking requires an understanding of the term, defined in this document as the processes of judgement or evaluation. Informal logic teaches students to understand and analyze arguments which are fallacious, to determine what is valid and invalid, and to evaluate non-deductive arguments. John McPeck and Richard Paul…

Many high school and college students seem to dislike mathematics, do poorly in the subject (as evidenced by declining test scores), and avoid scheduling courses in mathematics. Answers to why test scores are declining and why mathematics achievement is low among adults are speculative and as varied as the educators who offer them. However, one…

A study was conducted to test an hypothesis relating semantic structures to cognitive development, specifically that the mean number of associative complexes used by a group of children will be significantly greater than the mean number of associative complexes used by a group of adolescents. The word game "Password" provided a simulation of a…

To assess the relationship between specific neonatal variables and subsequent mental development, a longitudinal study of 41 children from a high-risk neonatal nursery was conducted. For each child, 58 measures of neonatal condition (e.g., head size, various laboratory values, delivery mode) were available, as were developmental assessments up to…

Discussed are results of studies of the cognitive development of 2- and 3-year-old children which suggest that the mind makes gains in the ability to think as gains in language development are made. "Thinking" in this context refers to the judgments children made as they selected objects and maneuvered them into one arrangement or…

The blockbuilding, painting, and oral expressions of young children provide evidence of a natural tendency to symbolize experience and to use the symbolic elements of expressiveness, creativeness, and living form. Up to the present time, educators have not fully grasped the fact that the need to symbolize is at the base of all education. They…

To investigate developmental differences, preschoolers' performance on four tasks frequently used to measure their understanding of causal and temporal relationships was studied. Based on an analysis of cognitive processes involved in recognition, completion, construction/seriation, and verbal explanation tasks, the prediction was made that…

Development and use of a rating scale to code videotaped mother-child interactions involving 1-year-olds with Down's syndrome are described. It is explained that the ratings were developed to describe individual differences in directiveness and sensitivity in mothers and social and cognitive maturity in the children, with a measure of mutuality or…

The relationship between affective responsiveness, synchrony of mother/infant interaction, and developmental status was examined in 32 normal infants (eight infants each at the ages of 4, 8, 12, and 16 weeks). Data were collected in infants' homes and included (1) naturalistic mother/infant play; (2) presentation of auditory, tactile, visual, and…

This paper discusses the interaction of cognition and physiological factors in emotion from the viewpoint of a developmental-interactionist theory of motivation and emotion. Emphasis is given to the role of cognition in the theory of emotion. The nature of cognition is discussed in terms of (1) the "primacy" of emotion versus cognition;…

The Teenage Health Teaching Modules (THTM) program is a health education curriculum for adolescents. Each THTM module frames an adolescent health task emphasizing development of self-assessment, communication, decision making, health advocacy, and self-management. This module presents a discussion on the special physical and mental characteristics…

Described in the context of a computer simulation are highlights of a program of research focusing on the storage of mathematics problem solving information in young children's memory and the development of such knowledge structures in older children. Specifically discussed are the problem size effect, the network nature of the memory…

This paper describes the development and characteristics of structural interview procedures designed to aid researchers in investigating children's understanding of their logical arguments. The procedures comprise a system which assesses verbal expression, understanding of implication, and ability to reason logically; it also assesses…

Adolescents are able to respond correctly to questions about pregnancy risk and contraceptive use, yet still engage in risk-taking behavior. One explanation for this phenomenon may be the existence of a personal fable. To explore the existence of the personal fable in inner-city female adolescents, 22 eighth grade black females in Chicago…

Liberal arts approaches to university education and many theories of counseling share as a goal the development of critical thinking in the individuals served. Such thinking requires the ability to consider the context within which one is working and the context within which the events and ideas under consideration occur. William Perry has…