Describes a program that is teaching reading and communication arts in English to students in the Philippines. The program is based on the premise that thinking is the only genuine foundation for learning and that rote memorization is not learning. Emphasizes the need to foster conceptual development. (CR)

Investigates ways of prompting middle school science students to reflection. Contrasts two types of reflection prompts, generic prompts and directed prompts. Discusses the relationship between reflection types and student understanding of a science project. Describes the role of reflection in prompting multiple, complementary knowledge integration…

Examines preschool children's understanding of the mathematical significance of unit size through problems that involve making judgments about the number of larger objects versus the number of smaller objects. Elicits children's judgments about the effects of object size both before and after the presentation of a series of demonstration trials.…

Recent research has established closer links between language, cognition, and social life than Piaget or Vygotsky imagined. Connections have been established between object permanence development and acquisition of disappearance words and the quantity and quality of child-adult joint attentional social interactions and children's early word…

This article discusses the potential significance of name-writing skills in addressing important questions about early literacy skill development. Questions raised include whether name-writing skill development mirrors the development of other important cognitive skills, the potential of name- writing skills to offer insight into literacy concept…

Reports the results of an investigation into factors associated with variations in students' ability to achieve conceptual learning gains in a physics course that employs interactive-engagement methods. Explores the correlation between students' normalized learning gains and their initial level of physics concept knowledge, pre-instruction…

The apparently limited classroom application of theories of learning has led to an emphasis on detailed observational studies of teachers in action. This emphasis has produced data concerning management and teaching techniques that is of obvious use to practicing teachers. (CB)

Twenty-four 12- to 19-month-old children were studied to examine the cognitive basis for the emergence of verbs. Substantial increases in verb comprehension across contexts, abstract cognition, and the ability to engage in symbolic action were observed, suggesting a relationship between underlying cognitive development and increased verb…

Discussed is the teaching of physics with an emphasis on the learning of concepts before problem solving. Examples of this approach are provided. (CW)

The development of suicidal thoughts in children was studied, using life history data from 364 undergraduates. Results suggest that: many children and adolescents contemplate suicide, and those at increased risk of suicidal thought are also at increased risk of suicide. Examining suicidal ideation in non-clinical samples is discussed. (SLD)

Explains the differences between successful and unsuccessful problem solvers' exploration of a problem, translation of information into different forms, approach to devising and executing a plan, and rechecking work. (RT)

Recent research in science education examines learning from four foci: (1) concept learning; (2) developmental; (3) differential; and (4) problem-solving. These perspectives provide a framework for identifying mechanisms of change in knowledge/thinking processes. In-depth coverage of several science topics may benefit students more than fleeting…

Four experiments investigated children's ability to notice and remember events in which the acquisition of factual information occurs. Results indicated that children tend to report they have known newly learned information for a long time, suggesting that children have some understanding of knowledge acquisition, but not at the level of adults.…

Examined the nature of perceptual classification in children and young adults. Found that most children attend selectively to one stimulus dimension when making perceptual classification judgments. Suggests that this developmental trend does not appear to be a holistic-to-analytic shift but rather a trend toward greater consistency in following a…

Two experiments investigated perceptual primacy of dimensional and similarity relations in stimulus classification of mentally retarded children. Results support a distinction between separable and integral stimulus structures, but do not support an integral-to-separable shift in perceptual development. Results suggest implications for…