Reported is a study based on the summary findings of a series of studies which indicated that many children who receive organized instruction designed around the few major concepts of science do, in fact, use scientific models to explain their observations of natural phenomena. The instruction that children in the study received was delivered by…

This document describes a program which attempts to comply with the New York State Regents' plan requiring that all programs leading to teacher certification be reorganized in a competency-based, field-centered format. Part one of the document is a note to the student. Part two is a description of the program, including (a) a position statement;…

This annotated bibliography, prepared by the ERIC Counseling and Personnel Services Center, is intended to alert the user to a body of literature on a topic of current interest to counselors. It identifies research reports and programs that have been cited in the ERIC publications Research in Education and Current Index to Journals in Education,…

Humanistic psychologists now embrace many of the same principles which served as the basis for Piaget's theory. These same theories were described earlier by John Locke and Immanuel Kant, and were the basis of the new "Humanism" movement in Germany in the 18th century. If one considers humanistic psychology as a kind of culmination of…

This summary of a program of research in children's learning describes the effects of pictures and visual imagery on children's cognitive performance. The role of individual differences is highlighted throughout the paper, as are variables which potentially limit the effects discussed. Some of the conclusions were that in a large number of…

Fifty-two institutionalized mentally handicapped children (average CA of 12 years) were engaged in a study attempting to determine whether there are ordinal dependencies in various scales of developmental milestones or supra-structural behaviors in language, and if so, the degree to which hierarchical levels within given categories serve as…

This paper outlines an evaluation system for elementary education based on cognitive and social development research. Piaget has defined certain core mental structures that develop in all humans in the same order. Both Piaget and Kohlberg have done work on the process of developmental change and the conditions necessary for optimal growth of the…

Four interim progress reports describe various aspects of the Aural Study Systems for the Visually Handicapped research project, designed to explore processes involved in aural learning by the blind and to develop an entire system of study using recorded texts. Prior to development of hardware and specifications for software for such a system, a…

Because the author believes that one learns more through sight than through language and learns it more quickly and comprehensively, he feels that television is the most likely medium to revolutionize the process of education. He explores the possibilities of creating a visual culture via television, basing his proposals on an examination of the…

Students watching instructional television become visually oriented to the material presented, learning it by visual rather than verbal association. Yet most tests given to determine student comprehension are verbal. To resolve this inconsistency, the author proposes visual testing, a procedure which he explains and whose usefulness he illustrates…

Man's phylogenetic development has resulted in a potential for environmental interaction in a symbolic and conceptual manner. There are ontogenetic requirements to develop such potential. The process by which man learns is sequential and involves perceptual-motor-cognitive abilities. There is an optimum respectivity period at each developmental…

The purpose of this study was to investigate both the relationship between verbalization and shift-learning and the possible prepotent stimulus dimensions of the eighty-four 7-year-olds used as subjects. Four pairs of two-dimensional stimuli were presented to the children, for the discrimination learning task, in the following order: large black,…

One of the essential differences between teaching a first and a second language is that the former is merely learned whereas the latter must usually be taught. This difference, while not absolute, still has enormous consequences. Although the "natural method" of second-language teaching is often championed, there is no way whereby the…

In this report of a project on curriculum planning, a new language is developed for analyzing and describing "the curricular-instructional subsystem." Some of the data come from the author's experiences in planning and directing the Experimental Freshman-Year Program (EFP) at San Francisco State College, but most were collected at the…

Models for planned changes in schools are presented in this document and are aimed at increasing student achievement and satisfaction. Following a brief introduction which highlights a challenge for effective change and some suggested procedures for implementing the models, each model is presented in detail. The four models are: (1) The School…