An examination of student papers from three universities on the same tasks revealed that expository writing tasks were less demanding cognitively than argumentative writing tasks and that argumentative writing tasks were less demanding than speculative tasks. Another finding was that when students were able to translate a generalized task into…

Intended for the preschool teacher wishing to implement a cognitively oriented curriculum, this instructional guide focuses on the problem-solving approach (as opposed to the teacher-directed approach) to student learning. Each chapter provides space for teachers to plan, implement, and evaluate lessons. Activities in the guide are participatory,…

Fourteen papers are presented from a conference on severe behavior disorders of children and youth. The following titles are included: "Beyond the Classroom: The Teacher of Behaviorally Disordered Pupils in a Social System" (C. Nelson); "Correctional Education and Special Education--An Emerging Partnership; or 'Born to Lose'" (B. Wolford);…

An experiment examined whether children of different developmental stages expressed different levels of fear while viewing episodes of the television program, "The Incredible Hulk." Preoperational (3 to 5 years old) and concrete operational (9 to 11 years old) children were shown short videotaped segments taken from the program. Using…

One of a series of activity guides designed to aid teachers in developing the thinking skills of primary grade students, this publication offers a variety of learning activities and resource materials. The activities and resources include: a calendar which lists important days and birthdays in May; poems; a flannelboard story; word puzzles and…

This report describes a study on the development of children's conceptualizations of written language, that is, their graphic sense. The study investigated three issues: (1) whether acquisition of literacy is a developmental process common to all normal children, (2) whether the levels of graphic sense tend to be associated with particular…

The Perry scheme of intellectual and ethical development has become widely used in a range of academic disciplines and such areas as career training and faculty consultation. However, current measurement techniques for the scheme, whether interview format or paper and pencil measures, do not adequately address issues related to assessing cognitive…

The history and goals of a mathematics teachers' center in Carbondale, Illinois are discussed. (SD)

The focus of this study was to portray the ideas that students with four years experience in learning physics developed in regard to the second law of thermodynamics. Data were obtained through 34 clinical interviews with grade 10 students. An analysis of student arguments revealed deeply rooted difficulties in using concepts that were learned in…

The paper provides an analysis and synthesis of studies with hearing impaired and other populations concerning the cognitive development of the principle of liquid horizontality--the idea that still water remains invariantly level regardless of the angle of the container. Three major questions focused the investigation: (1) What are the effects of…

This paper discusses and review the ideas of Hoyt L. Sherman who taught art and visual perception at the Ohio State University. It explores some of the psychological sources for his work and ideas about the teaching of drawing by seeing which relates to the work and ideas of Adelbert Ames, Jr. The article traces the influences of both Ames and…

The kinds of life events that may affect cognitive development were explored for 777 students, mostly freshmen, enrolled in introductory social science courses at Western Washington University Bellingham (Washington). Cognitive functioning was assessed using the Measure of Epistemological Reflection (MER) of M. B. Taylor (1983). Students also…

This report reviews and evaluates the tradition of assessing early literacy with formal tests. It begins with a historical account of the readiness movement, focusing on the development of formal measures of early literacy and tracing the development of the movement into the 1980s. Next, the paper analyzes in depth tests that are currently…

This study compared the performances of college mathematics students on mathematics problems stated in three different contexts: in arithmetical form, in the form of algebraic expressions to be simplified, and in the form of practical situations stated in words. Both single-step and multi-step problems were used. For all three contexts, there were…

There has been considerable interest in mathematical understanding. Both those attempting to build, and those questioning the possibility of building intelligent artificial tutoring systems, struggle with the notions of mathematical understanding. The purpose of this essay is to show a transcendently recursive theory of mathematical understanding…