Discusses the value of tool-use activities to help toddlers develop emerging skills, experience creative expression, and understand means-end relationships. Provides examples of opportunities for using objects as tools, including language acquisition, self-help activities, dramatic play, sensory experiences, and object manipulation. (DST)

Described is a curriculum development effort in U.S. history--the "Reasoning with Democratic Values" series--aimed at stimulating higher-order thinking. Features of cognitive developmental psychology and of the new social studies materials are used in the lessons that ask students to examine and discuss ethical controversies. (RM)

The causal relationship between metaphonological skills (sound blending and segmentation) and reading/spelling was investigated in two studies of first graders. One tested causal models using data from a longitudinal study of 46 dyslexics and 44 control children. The other studied the effects of metaphonological training versus general language…

Describes a "Talents Unlimited" program, based on the work of Calvin Taylor, that was used successfully in a class of fifth-grade remedial readers. Includes some of the activities devised by members of the class. (FL)

This essay addresses the effect of introducing a foreign language into the formal education of oral-traditional societies. Highlights include the nature of such societies, language in formal education, reading and language acquisition, developing a theory of high retention and recall, and overall implications for national development and…

Examines the use of reference by kindergartners and second graders in told, dictated, and written texts. Explains findings in terms of increasing precision in the use of anaphoric and situational reference by mode. (HOD)

Results of this study confirm discrimination of the intensive time-series design and indicate that it can be used to distinguish differences in learning (comprehension and knowledge) between eighth-grade earth science students (N=95) having formal cognitive tendencies and those having concrete cognitive tendencies. (JN)

Discusses the literature on children's early thinking about written symbols and offers suggestions for teachers seeking to extend that thinking. (FL)

Intelligence is here defined in terms of component processes, and three programs are reviewed that train aspects of intelligence as specified by this theory: Feuerstein's "Instrumental Enrichment," Lipman's "Philosophy for Children," and the "Chicago Mastery Learning" program. Central suggestions are provided for…

Comprehensive assessment in context focuses on the processes and structures involved in subject matter competence as moderated in performance by personal and environmental influences. This article addresses in detail both the nature of developing competence and its measurement in terms of context-dependent task performance. (Author/EGS)

A study comparing the effect of the Distar reading program and the Lippincott Basic Readers on the cognitive and creative development of 136 kindergarten and first grade children. The major difference between these two approaches is degree of teacher control. Only one significant difference was found between the two approaches. (MS)

The problem of how to provide at least one year of preschool education for all Slovene children led to the development of the Slovene "Little School." Positive results, using a School Beginners Test with 118 "Little School" children proved that even short preschool programs were beneficial. (JH)

This study examined participation in preschool and its relationship with the cognitive and social development of language-minority students. Although there is a large body of research that demonstrates the cognitive and social benefits of attending preschool (Barnett, 1995; Gorey, 2001; National Research Council, Committee on Early Childhood…

Students' abstract reasoning abilities can differ from one society to another. Students' profiles play significant roles in these differences. The aim of the study is to determine the relationship between middle school students' cognitive development levels and their profiles (age, gender, and science achievement) using the Science Cognitive…

Violence is increasingly present in Quebec schools. Our position is that we should invest in "primary" prevention of violence by helping preschool children develop cognitive competencies. One of the aspects of cognitive development explored in this text regards children's Social Representations (SR) of violence. Indeed, a number of…