The paper reviews definitions of differentiated curricula for gifted students and considers approaches for differentiation. Curriculum content can be modified by making it more abstract, more complex, more varied, and organized differently from the regular curriculum. Process modification can be accomplished through higher level thinking,…

The article reviews the theories of R. Feuerstein and his instrumental enrichment curriculum designed to furnish tools for thinking and considers implications for students with learning difficulties. (CL)

Inservice approaches to curriculum development for teachers of gifted students should emphasize the approach. Teachers should understand thinking skills so that they can help pupils think efficiently and then express those thoughts. (CL)

Presents a detailed conceptual model for developing a thinking skills currriculum. Discusses whether it should be done through separate courses or integrated into subject matter courses. Includes four figures (MD)

Familiarizes educators and researchers with a method to develop curriculum according to the individual cognitive styles of individual students. (Author)

The paper reviews cognitive development during the sensorimotor period (approximately the first two years of life) and considers approaches to assessing multihandicapped, deaf-blind, or severely/profoundly retarded students functioning at this level. Evaluation and training of basic sensorimotor schemes (visual fixation and tracking, sucking, and…

The paper addresses the assessment of sensorimotor and communication skills in profoundly/multiply handicapped children. The problems inherent in assessing this population are described, including lack of validity of developmental norms established on children with intact sensory systems. Factors affecting sensory organization are reviewed,…

Identifies issues connected with effective encouragement of dance in elementary education. (RJC)

Jean Piaget's theories of development are reviewed and implications for instruction of mildly and moderately retarded children are drawn. Piagetian research with the retarded is traced, particularly the work of Barbel Inhelder. The research cited concludes that the cognitive development of retarded children follows the same pattern as normal…

Notes that the ways in which spelling has been conceptualized have evolved dramatically over the last few decades. Explores the evolution of this reconceptualization through a discussion of spelling as a system, as a subject of instruction, and as a psychological and linguistic process in writing and reading. Explains how instructional…

Discusses the contribution of language-based activities to training for thinking skills in a cognitively oriented curriculum. Focuses on the thinking and language dyad, which serves as the framework for a teaching model and the criterion for selection of content. (RJC)

Contained in this monograph is a review and synthesis of developmental psychology and learning theory, with major emphasis upon applications of the developmental perspective to environmental education curriculum and instruction. Based upon a summary of the work of Piaget and his followers, a learning readiness axis is proposed. Also examined are…

A brief description is presented of a curriculum offered in one school system that applies much of the available research on how children learn. Materials used, goals for instruction, concepts emphasized, and intellectual processes engaged in each of grades kindergarten through third are noted. (MP)

This is the second in a series of six units for administrators and teachers to serve the Environmental Goal, one of Pennsylvania's Twelve Goals of Quality Education. The environmental goal states that quality education should help every student acquire the knowledge and attitudes necessary to maintain the quality of life in a balanced environment.…

Suggestions are offered to teachers with deaf-blind children in their classrooms. Guidelines touch upon general curriculum development principles and approaches for improving communication skills, cognitive development, social and emotional development, motor and self care skills, and sensory development. (CL)