Research involving cognitive modification and using intervention instruction in general prerequisite cognitive processes has shown that significant and long-term results are possible. Use of intervention instruction involving prerequisite data gathering skills with teachers has been successful in improving ability to use probing questions in…

To help students in school develop a flexible understanding of subject matter, teachers need to foster understanding of the relationships within and across disciplines, what specialists in a field do, how knowledge in a discipline is generated, tested, and revised, and how knowledge in the discipline relates to the learners' environment.…

The link between writing and the development of reasoning abilities, and implications for the college curriculum are discussed. The developmental models/theories of Piaget, Kohlberg, Gilligan, and Perry are described. Perry identifies a level of cognitive development called "dualism," which is a tendency to view the world in absolute,…

Seventy-one college general biology students were taught a unit in Mendelian genetics by the traditional lecture method. Emphasis was placed on meiotic formation of gametes, dominance, segregation, and independent assortment. The Punnett square model was used for all practice problems. While using this model, students were asked to: (1) identify…

This paper deals with the primary processes of cognition in fifth- and sixth-grade children; i.e., how children this age interpret what they see and hear, how they remember it, and how they reason and solve problems. Designed to provide background information for the staff of the Skills Essential to Learning Television Project (a multi-level…

This paper examined the growth of religious questioning in children which does not have the presuppositions of any established religious system such as Christianity and noted the need for research into the internalization of the culturally accepted system. (Author/RK)

The hypothesized central role of cognitive development in resolving moral dilemmas was examined in sixth grade and college-age females. Results indicated that sophisticated cognitive operations are a prerequisite to advanced moral judgments. (ST)

Infant reaction to adult speech was studied through frame-by-frame analysis of sound films. Infants' actions were found to be synchronized with the organized speech behavior of the adults in his environment. (ST)

The Stanford-Binet intelligence test was administered by 104 third- and sixth-grade, disadvantaged black children in Negro non-standard dialect and in standard English. Younger children performed better than older children. No significant differences were found between dialect and standard-English test administrations. (ST)

Confirms that perceptual and linguistic differences exist between middle-class and lower-class children, favoring middle-class children, and lends support to the usefulness of the Vane Kindergarten Test as a screening test for determining the intellectual potential of young children. (RB)

This paper stresses the need for sex education in the schools, to complement what may be learned in the home or church. Due to negative community pressure, the youth service field has often hesitated to introduce such programs. Evidence is presented that there may be less opposition to sex education programs for the handicapped. An attempt to…

This discussion uses the topics imagery and elaboration as vehicles for speculating about the psychological character of knowledge, about its relationships with learning and development, and about its implications for education. In brief, the argument presented suggests that elaboration facilitates learning, that such facilitation signifies an…

Using a sample of 77 10th grade boys, the researchers studied the relationships between the mental abilities measured by the Differential Aptitude Tests and cerebral dominance (CD: the extent to which one hemisphere of the brain dominates the other for control of behavior). The surprise finding was that CD was negatively related to spatial…

A defense for the need of teaching the humanities in elementary and secondary schools. (TL)