Provides a theoretical description of attitude acquisition, an overview of the nature of attitude (including factors influencing attitude development), and suggestions for addressing attitude in designing reading instruction. Describes several informal assessments. Suggests teacher behaviors for developing and maintaining positive attitudes. (PRA)

Comments on Thelen and Ulrich's monograph in this issue. Examines theoretical and empirical sections and findings, concluding that the authors have taken a major step forward by introducing the dynamic systems perspective to the study of behavioral coordination in infants, thus opening the way for experimental investigation of phenomena that could…

Focuses on three habits associated with personal values and attitudes, and one habit associated with social skills of doing science. Illustrates four habits of mind, first through a story of modern scientific investigation, then as the basis of school laboratory science experience. Discusses implications related to integration of these four habits…

Examines the perception that, first, one can distinguish among different types of reasons for help avoidance in the classroom and, second, that attribution of help avoidance will be associated with qualitatively different help-seeking behaviors when pupils encounter difficulty on an academic task. Results of two studies show that help seeking was…

Presents the first investigation of the effects of experience with a particular program series on children's subsequent television viewing behavior and comprehension. Notes three- to five-year-old regular, experienced viewers of "Blue's Clues" were compared to new, inexperienced viewers. Suggests that a television series can teach children a style…

Culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) students with and at risk for disabilities evidence the greatest need for quality instructional programs of all students in our schools because of disproportionate academic underachievement, special education referrals, and disciplinary actions. Authorities on culturally responsive instruction…

This study represents a quasi-experimental test of the role of early social-emotional experience and adult-child relationships in the development of typically developing children and those with disabilities birth to 4 years of age living in orphanages in St. Petersburg, Russian Federation. The three orphanages in the current study were selected…

This paper is in memory of Esther Thelen, who passed away while President of the Society for Research in Child Development. A survey of Esther Thelen's career reveals a trajectory from early work on simple movements like stepping, to the study of goal-directed reaching, to work on the embodiment of cognition, and, ultimately, to a grand theory of…

There are 11 behavioral dimensions which parents and preschool teachers can use in assessing the development of preschool children. These dimensions are: (1) sleeping; (2) eating; (3) toilet habits; (4) range of affect or emotion; (5) variations in play; (6) curiosity; (7) acceptance of authority; (8) initiative; (9) interest; (10) spontaneous…

An attempt was made to increase the competency skills of 44 male students in grades 7 to 9 through the Socratic teaching of the theory of security and independence, the behavioral practice of coping skills, or both. (Editor)

The present findings fit commonsense expectations that self-control, responsibility, and cognitive caution should go along with subjectively locating past and future close to the present. Performance on a simple time line may reflect some of the intimate relationships between temporal experience and personality. (Author)

The purpose of this study was to longitudinally examine the development of anticipatory visual search and to find out the effects of preceding experiences upon the search during the second year of life. The sample consisted of 18 Japanese firstborn nonretarded children from middle-class families who were individually tested at 11, 12, 14, 16, 22,…

Young children usually prefer to classify objects on the basis of shape rather than color. The present study explored this phenomenon with a stimulus matching test and a component selection test. (ST)

The author presents an overview of Pascual-Leone's Theory of Constructive Operators, a process-structural theory based upon Piagetian constructs which has evolved to both explain and predict the temporal unfolding of behavior. An application is made of the theory to the demands of a discrete motor task and prediction of (a) the minimal age…