Aside from being fun to do, singing songs, saying poems and rhymes, and doing finger plays with children helps them develop early literacy skills. The 700 selections in this compilation of songs and rhymes will help children ages 3 to 6 build a strong foundation in skills and concepts such as listening; colors, shapes, and counting; vocabulary;…

While other developmental theories, on a smaller scale, share center stage with Piagetian theory, Jean Piaget will likely be remembered as one of the world's leading psychologists of the twentieth century. This book, with a first version published nearly 20 years ago, attempts to make Piaget's concepts more "user friendly" for those…

The ability to express one's mathematical thoughts in writing and computational proficiency can be viewed as reflecting different aspects of an individual's understanding of mathematics. Computational proficiency is the primary means used by educators to assess students' understanding of mathematics and thus in the mathematics classroom, cognitive…

Argues that concepts of literacy develop gradually and that in a natural language environment, saturated with good stories, meaningful conversation, and abundant writing materials, the process can begin even before a child goes to school. (FL)

Describes and discusses the rule-assessment approach, a new research strategy for studying developmental sequences in children's acquisition of knowledge. Four experiments were conducted to illustrate the utility of this approach across a variety of concepts and a wide range of ages (three-year-olds to college students). (Author/CM)

The investigation's purpose was to revise E. Hill's test for assessing the development of spatial concepts among visually impaired children, "Concepts Involved in Body Position and Space;" establish the test's validity and reliability; and collect normative data. (Author)

Presents a stage-structure analysis of reading applicable to any method of reading a teacher might choose to use. (Author/MP)

Phenomena are examined to support the conception that cognitive structures continue to reflect the numerous ways of apprehending the world that blend to some degree into each other. (AMH)

Considers the role of evolution and natural selection in the functioning of the modern human brain. Natural selection equipped humans with a mental toolbox of intuitive theories about the world which were used to master rocks, tools, plants, animals, and one another. The same toolbox is used today to master the intellectual challenges of modern…

This article describes the modifications that 12 early childhood educators in Japan made to the Sorry! board game to encourage kindergartners' logico-mathematical thinking. Logico-mathematical knowledge is described as including classification, seriation, numerical relationships, spatial relationships, and temporal relationships. Examples of seven…

Uses example of racism to compare Vygotsky's and Piaget's perspectives on the development of mind within the framework of questions regarding the mutual influence of societies and individuals. Notes that Vygotsky emphasizes knowledge transmission from older to younger, whereas Piaget emphasizes construction of new knowledge with potential for…

The development of conceptions of academic ability was examined by comparing peer assessments made by preschoolers and children in grades 1-4. Findings from a team selection task showed that by fourth grade, children have acquired a clear conception of ability. Findings from a free classification task showed that academic skills did not factor…

Children with mental retardation are particularly prone to failure on relational tasks such as oddity and match-to-sample, suggesting a differential sensitivity to relational information. This paper reports on several studies in which characteristics of stimulus arrays were enhanced. Results demonstrated the theoretical and practical significance…

The author defines and discusses the cognitive theory of constructivism as it relates to teaching mathematics. It is suggested that the philosophical and theoretical view of knowledge and learning embodied in constructivism offers hope that educational processes will be discovered enabling students to acquire deep understanding rather than…