CLASSROOM OBSERVATIONS OF 38 HEADSTART TEACHERS, TAKEN ON FOUR OCCASIONS BY FOUR DIFFERENT OBSERVERS, WERE SCORED FOR SUCH CONTENT CHARACTERISTICS AS (1) AMOUNT AND KIND OF COMMUNICATION WITH THE CHILDREN, (2) STRESS ON OBEDIENCE OR INTELLECTUAL VALUES, AND (3) PHYSICAL-MOTOR SKILLS. THESE SCORES WERE COMPARED WITH THE CHILDREN'S INTELLECTUAL…

Reported is a study of 1555 students, grades 4-12, regarding understanding the concept of controlling variables. Subjects were examined on a task involving spheres rolling down an incline and striking a target sphere; they were evaluated upon their explanations of answers, not their choice of answers. Findings indicated that the Piagetian stage of…

A model for sequencing intellectual skills through the use of learning hierarchies is provided. Applications of this model to social studies education are included. (DE)

Describes children's reactions to chance and probability in a variety of experimental situations, using four different experiments from Piaget's work, to give a clearer picture of how children approach these ideas. (GA)

It was found, as expected, that the number of subjects giving conservation responses did not reach 50 percent until age 12. Schooling did not seem to be a major factor in accelerating the attainment of concrete operations. Social class and urbanization had an effect on several tasks. (Author/AM)

Examines children's ability to make both logical and pragmatic presuppositional inferences and to discriminate between the two as a function of contextual information. Five- and eight-year-old children served as subjects. (BD)

Teaching active comprehension helps students learn to ask their own questions and guide their own thinking. (MKM)

This study identified factors associated with postcollege changes in the personality functioning of 170 young alumni. Using the Omnibus Personality Inventory and a questionnaire, relationships between individual change and demographic variables were computed. Respondents with high undergraduate GPA's evidenced considerable intellectual remission.…

This study was designed to determine whether infants could perceive action role reversals when the direction of action is ruled out as a cue; whether infants consider inanimate, nonpotent objects to be unlikely agents; and whether both these discriminations could be reliably reflected in the heart rate response. (Author/SB)

A study utilizing deaf children investigating the question, "must a child experience language in order to learn language?" found that the children themselves actually devise their own communications system. There was no evidence that the childrens' language was an imitation of their mother's. (SL)

Efforts to maintain or strengthen the place of history in the curriculum require a solid, theoretical justification of history's utility--a utility whose description has proven elusive. (MJB)

Two studies were conducted to discover possible patterns in question acquisition. For the production study, questions were collected from 22 children aged two to eleven. In the comprehension study, 100 children, aged three to five, were tested. The test controlled syntax and vocabulary and varied specific "wh-" question-words. (Author/RM)

Investigated beliefs about intellectual control and aging in 86 middle-aged and older adults. Perceptions of internal control over intellectual functioning appeared to be relatively stable during middle adulthood and to decline for older adults. Even with effects of education partialled, there was a decline in perceptions of intellectual…

Used confluence model scores computed for 1,063 Youth in Transition study respondents to examine relation between family configuration and family interaction and contribution of both to mental development. Confluence model scores predicted intellectual ability as measured by Quicktest score moderately well; family interaction variables mediated…