This paper explores the relevance of theories in developmental psychology, cognitive development, acquisition of verbal skills, studies of fantasy, and in personality for research in composition. The basis of this essay is that composing is a dynamic process central to normal human functioning rather than a simple product of expression. (Author/RK)

Educational psychology undergraduates were taught in alternating instructional sequences; one sequence was a conceptually oriented lecture followed by a factually oriented self-study, the other sequence was a factual self-study followed by a conceptual lecture. Results more closely supported the predictions derived from the educational set…

Considers the school counselor's role in helping culturally disadvantaged adolescents cope with the problems of merging into the dominant culture. Discusses adolescent's characteristics and how he is set apart from the mainstream of American life. (Author/RK)

Cognitive preference as used in this research refers to a conscious decision which the subjects were forced to make, thus suggesting a relative rather than an absolute preference as with cognitive style. It was predicted that the scores derived from the cognitive preference scale would serve as good indicators for the mode of instruction from…

The relationship between cognitive style and hypothesis-testing behavior was studied in 46 third grade children. It was found that field independent children process information more efficiently and according to a perfect focusing model. Efforts to enhance the information processing of field dependent children were described. (GDC)

The intention in this research was to collect instances of study skill in different situations, and to relate study activity to levels of understanding and academic performance. Also reanalyzes data described by Marton and Saljo (1976a) which led to the concepts of deep-level processing and surface processing as explanations of qualitative…

This study examines the claim that cognitive preferences in science are no more than expressions of levels of cognitive operation as described by Bloom's Taxonomy. 667 twelfth grade students of chemistry and 989 twelfth grade biology students took a cognitive preference and an achievement test in their respective disciplines. The limitations of…

There seems to be much justified scepticism about the value of learning theories and educational research when applied to the complexities of student learning. Discusses some insights provided by educational and psychological research and its practical value for lecturers and students in higher education. (Author/RK)

Presents a study of the effects of interaction between a child and his mother or an older sibling on the child's object sorting behavior. Other factors studied included sex of sibling and family size. Subjects were 120 first grade children. (BD)

When poor and normal reading second and sixth grade students received treatment in one of three methods of teaching word identification, the whole-word/meaning-based method fostered a global processing strategy, while the phonics method fostered an analytic strategy. A combination of both methods fostered the use of both strategies and generally…

Comparison of the free recall of learning-disabled (N=24) and non-disabled (N=24) eight- and ten-year-old readers during directive and nondirective encoding conditions found that both groups recalled more semantically- than nonsemantically-organized items. Learning-disabled readers preferred to encode categorically-organized items nonsemantically…

This checklist, designed to help elementary school teachers assess why a student is unable to complete a classroom assignment, lists criteria grouped under physical, academic, perceptual, behavioral, and motor factors. Compensatory actions such as adapting the classroom environment or referring the student for further evaluation are suggested. (CB)

A fable illustrates the characteristics of four types of learners who are differentiated by a specific learning need (obligation, stimulation, competence, or personalization) and points out the need for teachers to recognize individual differences among students and treat them according to their individual style. (CB)

Examined whether a more theoretically consistent version of the Cognitive Differentiation Grid (CDG) would yield results different from the currently used CDG. Found that college students (N=84) using their own constructs evidenced greater vocational differentiation than did those using the CDG and that males evidenced greater vocational…