This paper provides for the elementary school teacher an introduction to the problem of mathematics readiness. The first part outlines the four developmental stages as seen by Piaget, and the manner in which schemata develop through the process of assimilation and accommodation. The second part consists of seven Piagetian tasks which a teacher may…

A two-process model of infant visual attention is constructed based on research using the modified Berlyne technique with three- to five-month olds. The length of time an infant fixated a pattern was examined along with what caused him to turn to the pattern at all. The study was based both on a re-examination of previous research and on new…

This study investigated two methods for establishing a systematic, selective, attending strategy in a memory task for children. One method was direct training of a specific strategy, employing instructions, fading, modeling, and prompts to direct the child's attention to the relevant features and to organize systematic looking behavior. The second…

Effects of an advance organizer lesson (containing high-order science concepts relating to the law of capillary attraction, and an elementary problem-solving strategy for determining causal relations) were evaluated for a sample of 80 urban 6- and 10-year-old children. Significant sequential transfer effects were established from the lesson.…

The Motoric-Perceptual-Conceptual/Behavioral (MPC/B) model, a developmentally eclectic approach to evaluating and remediating learning disabilities in children, is described. The model is explained to view learners and the learning process on three educational levels (preschool, elementary school, and high school/post school), on three subject…

The Matching Family Figures Test (MFF) is examined in order to show that a wide variety of rational speed-accuracy trade-offs ranging from impulsive to reflective are quite plausible. Ten children (mean age, eight years) took part in the experiment. Five had previously been classified on the basis of the MFF as impulsive, five as reflective. On…

After considering evidence of the importance of television in the lives of children, the background and directions of the visual literacy movement are explored. The effects of television on the child are then considered within a framework based on the work of Piaget, whose studies suggest there must be significant differences in the way television…

Reported are the results of a study of the Piagetian formal thought range of 3600 students, 13 to 15 years old, in seven countries: Denmark, Sweden, Italy, United States, Austria, Germany, and Great Britain. Cognitive measurement was obtained by group administration of two tasks to assess proportional reasoning and control of variables. Overall…

In this study, two rival accounts of the mental operations used to solve Piaget's three-mountain perspective task are tested. One hypothesis is that if children use some form of mental rotation through anticipatory imagery, scores should improve as the angle of separation between the child and the other viewer is decreased. A second hypothesis is…

To determine student readiness in any academic subject, teachers must determine individual levels of cognitive competencies children possess.

Reasons are provided that show the goal-directed study of subject material through the problem-solving approach which results in sounder learning. (Author/ND)

The article describes a kind of intelligence testing which assumes that the potential of a "retarded performer" may be greater than his demonstrated knowledge, and therefore tests him in the process of learning. (CD)