The research findings of Siegel, Wohlwill, Goodman, and others suggest that reading is a thinking skill which may be facilitated by the instruction of transferable problem-solving skills. In order to maximize learning in young children, it is important to provide opportunities which allow the exchange of information and concepts from one activity…

The effects of modeling and corrective feedback on conceptual rule acquisition and retention were studied with a total of 48 3- and 4-year-old children. Equal numbers of children from each age group were randomly assigned to one of four training groups: modeling, corrective feedback, modeling and corrective feedback, and a no modeling/no…

The effects of live and symbolic modeling on the conservation of equalities and inequalities were studied with items spanning three stimulus dimensions (length, number, and two dimensional space). A total of 48 kindergarten children, who had failed to conserve on any equality items in baseline measures, were randomly assigned, in equal groups, to…

Writing samples representing argumentation, exposition, narration, and description were gathered from 52 fourth-grade pupils. Significant differences were found among the four modes of writing and among high, medium, and low ability groups, for T-unit length and clauses per T-unit; lesser differences also were found for clause length.…

The instructional program of the Demonstration and Research Center for Early Education (Darcee) preschool is discussed in terms of the skill development objectives of the curriculum and the role which content plays in the instructional program. The primary purpose of the program is to implement research activities through a curriculum sequentially…

The arguments for and against the teaching of foreign languages from primary school level onwards are discussed. Young children, if suitably taught, can make good progress with the learning of a foreign language, and whether they are better at language learning than older beginners is to some extent irrelevant. However, there is no convincing…

This paper attempts to specify the ways in which bilingualism might affect cognitive functioning. Two general ways, the "linguistic" and the "non-linguistic," are distinguished. Linguistic explanations explain the effects of bilingualism on cognition as a direct result of the fact that the bilingual has access to two verbal…

This paper consists of a critique of a paper by James Cummins which appeared in issue number 1 of the Working Papers on Bilingualism, entitled "A Theoretical Perspective on the Relationship between Bilingualism and Thought." Cummins' paper gives the impression that nearly all of the recent studies exploring the effects of bilingualism…

With the pervasiveness of television, especially for children, visual literacy is a growing concern. Television should be regarded as part of a potential solution to the country's need for improved education. "Sesame Street" has proved that children do learn from television, that active interaction is not always necessary for learning,…

This paper presents a cross-sectional investigation of adolescents' and young adults' reflective epistemological development. Three groups of 8 subjects (4 male and female) ages 10, 14, and 18 were given Piagetian tasks, the Kohlberg moral judgment questionnaire, and an epistemology interview covering such concepts as knowledge, thought, feeling,…

Examined longitudinally were the rate and proportion by grade level of the cognitive development of 202 13- to 16-year-old educable mentally handicapped students. A 20-item written test composed of eight problem solving and 12 cognitive development items representing the concrete I, concrete II, and formal I operations levels of Piagetian theory,…

This paper discusses bilingualism from the point of view of language universals, including Fillmore's case grammar, McCawley's "anywhere rules" for lexical insertions and Slobin's operating principles in first language acquisition. It is assumed that first and second language learning is essentially the same, regardless of age. Whereas…

An attempt is made in the present paper to resolve inconsistencies between the results of recent studies which have reported that bilingualism is associated with positive cognitive consequences and earlier studies which suggested that bilingualism might adversely affect cognitive and scholastic progress. Because recent studies involved balanced…

Previous studies have reported that disadvantaged children tend to loose the skills and abilities they had acquired in special and/or intervention programs when they are placed in education settings which do not support their needs. Since the 1970 census data tended to indicate that the pupil composition of the schools had changed, it became…

This study tested certain implied predictions regarding conceptual learning at each of four sequential levels of development: concrete level, identity level, classificatory level, and formal level. For this purpose, scaled batteries to assess the level of conceptual development of children, kindergarten through high school, were constructed and a…