The belief that "global connectivity" can bring knowledge to students and teachers is mistaken. The Internet provides only information. Students must learn how to manage, analyze, critique, cross-reference, and transform information into usable knowledge. One approach to teaching these constructivist processes is to think of students as…

This article discusses the interaction of infant social and cognitive development, and presents preliminary findings from a longitudinal study of infants with and without Down syndrome. Evidence suggests that the development of triadic (person-person-world) social interactions may be affected by limited information processing capacities in infants…

Children's magical explanations and beliefs were investigated in two studies. Found that many four-year olds view magic as a plausible mechanism, yet reserve magical explanations for certain real world events that violate their causal expectations. Parents and culture at large may at first actively support magical beliefs whereas peers and schools…

Presents three studies of children's ability to create and detect expressions of emotion in drawings. Compared to younger children, older children used more strategies, experimented with line and color, and were more likely to explore themes of death, aging, and illness. Includes sample drawings and statistical tables. (MJP)

Reports on a study of 120 (60 boys, 60 girls) middle school students in Bophuthatswana on the relation of academic achievement to self-concept and locus of control. Finds that measures of extraversion, neuroticism, and psychoticism are related negatively to school achievement. (CFR)

Relates research findings on the way primary-grade students communicate mathematical ideas through the use of symbols to a framework for students to investigate the part-whole relationship of quantity. Discusses children's problem-solving abilities, linking word problems and symbols, the importance of context for understanding symbols, and the…

An Assimilative Base Model is presented and related to the improvement of instruction in writing for learning-disabled and other children. The model, based on Piagetian theory, involves three interchange processes: automatic skill development; puzzlement leading to reorganization of relationships; and strategy development leading to enrichment of…

Challenged is the traditional model for the transmission of mathematics in the elementary school classroom. An inquiry approach to learning mathematics is proposed and supported with results of a year long research project that exposed second graders to mathematical learning experiences using this approach. (MDH)

Three activities are presented to assess the level of students' geometric understanding according to van Hiele learning model. The activities--Descriptions, Minimum Properties, and Class Inclusion--are applied to the example of classifying quadrilaterals as squares, rectangles, rhombi, or parallelograms. Implications of this assessment are…

Presents a study of metacognitive responses of English school children examining four common metacognitive function measures. Discusses the content of each measure, the search for developmental commonality, and statistical relationships. Concludes that no evidence supported a common metacognitive factor or unified construct, although a common…

The five chapters and epilogue of this special issue present theoretical and empirical contributions on the relevance of attachment theory to cognitive development and education. A literature review is followed by explorations of attachment theory and emotions, cognitive development, literacy, and the communication effectiveness of the mother.…

Children in grade one (n=8) and grade five (n=9) were interviewed to determine the influence of contexts of meaning on their knowledge of earthworms. Four components of contexts of meaning were identified and discussed: episodic knowledge, metaphors, interpretive frameworks, and emotions-values-aesthetics. (Contains 20 references.) (MDH)

This paper describes a framework for researching the Cognition Hypothesis which claims that pedagogic tasks be sequenced for learners on the basis of increases in their cognitive complexity. It distinguishes dimensions of complexity which increase the conceptual and linguistic demands tasks make on communication, so creating the conditions for L2…

This study investigates young children's humourous activity as a form of play and considers the implications on their cognitive development and learning. The study was conducted in an infant room of a university based group child care center and multiple qualitative data collection methods were used. The findings of this study suggest that during…

In the literature, learners' cognitive development is mainly discussed with respect to changes in learners' content-dependent knowledge (conceptual change or growth). Additional dimensions of time and complexity may also be taken into account to describe cognitive processes in at least three dimensions. We discuss these three dimensions of…