As the most influential figure in the field of learning science, Piaget's research on children's concepts and consciousness, his concept of 'Piagetian education', his contribution to constructivism have been greatly adopted in education. However, the weaknesses of his work have been criticised by many scholars. This paper illustrates how Piaget's…

There has been a dearth of published research exploring the scientific ideas that young children construct, particularly in prestigious periodicals in the science education genre. The current article discusses the reasons behind this lack of prominence, and suggests ways forward that may link work from the field of developmental psychology with…

In this article, the author, a teacher at Cookridge Primary School in Leeds, West Yorkshire, reflects on the teaching of science from reception across the year groups. To really compare and understand the differences of teaching science in early years, the author looks at its place in the progression of science throughout primary school. The…

The research completed by the authors into the teaching and learning of evolution and inheritance (2014 to 2018) seeks to understand the demands made by the revised National Curriculum in England (DfE, 2015) and to offer support. The commitment of the authors to applied research assumes more useful outcomes are likely when studies are conducted…

In this paper, a learning progression for geometric transformations is developed based on research that demonstrates the importance of viewing transformations as functions of the plane. The 5 levels of the progression reflect a student's evolving understanding of transformations as functions and their evolving understanding of the domain of these…

According to Piaget, 5- or 6-year-old children gradually acquire the concept of time based on events (Piaget, 1969). In his experiment of investigating children's time concepts, Piaget found that children of these ages were able to place pictures based on sequential events with some errors; the younger children made more errors. The National…

Children's thinking follows natural developmental paths in learning math. When teachers understand those paths and offer activities based on children's progress along them, they build developmentally appropriate math environments. The authors explain math learning trajectories and why teaching math using the trajectories approach is effective. A…

J. Kagan (2008) urges contemporary developmentalists to (a) be cautious when attributing conceptual knowledge to infants based on looking-time performance, (b) constrain their interpretation of infant performance with multiple methodologies, and (c) reconsider the possibility that qualitative development may be the path by which perceptual infants…

In this paper we consider the perceptual and conceptual contributions that shape early word learning, using research on the "shape bias" as a case in point. In our view, conceptual, linguistic, social-pragmatic, and perceptual sources of information influence one another powerfully and continuously in the service of word learning throughout…

Reviews the formation of space, time, and measurement concepts in children with respect to Piagetian developmental levels and presents some teaching methods to help promote these concepts. (SK)

Presented is an alternative method for analyzing the van Hiele level of students' geometrical reasoning. The accuracy of students' answers may afford a description of acquisition and/or expertise for each of the van Hiele levels simultaneously rather than the traditional assignment and evaluation of one level at a time. (JJK)

This book is intended to give teachers and student teachers a better understanding of the thinking of adolescent students in science lessons and to indicate the difficulties such students have in understanding the more abstract or formal ideas with which they are presented. It is practical in its orientation as the issues discussed are illustrated…

The author describes a Piaget based curriculum involving three main themes (classification, number measurement/space, and seriation) for young mentally retarded children. Students solve problems by doing something physically and mentally to the data, shuffling the facts about in their minds, so that they will come to a logical solution. Language…

The laboratory of an organic chemistry course for dietetics students is based on the learning cycle approach (exploration, invention-concept introduction, and concept application). The laboratory program is divided into four sections: lab techniques, compound types, reaction types, and reaction characteristics. (SK)

Babies are active participants in their learning and need to explore a variety of objects. Nurturing relationships support these explorations. Objects are more clearly remembered and understood. Thus, one activity this article suggests doing with a 12-month-old to encourage abstract thinking, is talking about how squeezing the bottle of ketchup…