This study tracked the influence of explicit reflective instructional methods on cultural values, ethical and intellectual development, and the relationship of these with preservice teachers' views of nature of science (NOS). The researchers used the Views of Nature of Science Form B (VNOS B) to describe NOS views, the Learning Context…

This paper explores the interaction between religious faith and academic study. It presents findings from a small-scale qualitative study of how first year theology undergraduates at Oxford experienced the relationship between academic study and their faith stance. The findings suggest varied developments in the extent to which students adapted to…

Using data from a U.S. longitudinal investigation of psychological effects of occupational conditions (a project of the National Institute of Mental Health's unit on Socioenvironmental Studies), we examined the relationship between the complexity of household work and 2 psychological variables: intellectual flexibility and self-esteem.…

In this ethnographic study of summer undergraduate research (UR) experiences at four liberal arts colleges, where faculty and students work collaboratively on a project of mutual interest in an apprenticeship of authentic science research work, analysis of the accounts of faculty and student participants yields comparative insights into the…

The author describes four capacities--interpretation, instrumentation, interaction, and inner direction--that are as important as traditional academic subjects in preparing young adults for college and career success. He suggests how high schools should address each of these capacities. For example, to develop students' capacity for inner…

Student learning and student development are part of a unified framework rather than separate interests to be pursued independently.

By investigating undergraduates' epistemological orientations and processes in academic and personal contexts, this study examined whether and how epistemological development in one context is related to development in another context. The focus of this particular study was on tension regarding the contextuality of epistemological development. The…

Contemporary education theory (and official South African policy) underwrites learner-centredness. I analyse learner-centredness as a possible piece of the puzzle about why it is proving so difficult to improve academic achievement. Learner-centred ideas are grounded in the belief that cognitive abilities develop spontaneously in accordance with a…

Describes some sources and conditions of curiosity and examines these in light of their implications for human values. (ED)

The paper critically analyzes the research and promotional literature on J. Guilford's Structure of Intellect (SOI) model as it relates to the cognitive functioning of gifted students and evaluates the implications of this analysis for the counselor's role in the identification and programming of gifted students. The review is written from…

The paper describes ways in which tools, or aids, can promote the interaction of mentally retarded persons with their environment. A classification of these aids is proposed according to psychological characteristics (such as senses, intelligence, knowledge, decision making, and action) as well as types of interaction (such as comprehension,…

Analyzed are the processes of classification and seriation which form the child's ability to reason, based upon the results of eight years of experimental work with over 2000 children. The authors have found that there is a very close relation between the development of logical actions and that of sub-logical operations and actions. The fact that…

The purposes of this study were to investigate adolescent intellectual decline, and to attempt to determine some of the sexual differences possibly inherent in the phenomenon. It was hypothesized that (1) girls would decline in greater numbers and to a greater degree than boys; and (2) areas and amounts of sex differences of the decliners would…

The study investigated preferences shown by 25 preschool children regarding the handier toy, the smaller toy, the more probable toy, the animate noun, and the first-mentioned noun as agent in interpreting semantically reversible sentences prior to adult performance. (Author/SBH)