The availability of several effective teaching models that allow the teaching of thinking skills and subject matter simultaneously proves that intellectual processes and content are not incompatible subjects for instruction. These models differ significantly from traditional models, and adequate training in them will require a thorough commitment…

Effective teaching practices identified through research stress the search for meaning and can therefore serve as a foundation for teaching thinking, despite grade-level and subject matter differences in content, teacher role, engagement time, and outcomes sought. Effective teaching is structured, interactive, and conducted in a positive learning…

Social and cognitive values of different play materials for 21 normal and 21 handicapped preschool children were examined. Analyses showed that handicapped preschoolers exhibited comparable amounts of symbolic play but lower quality of symbolic play than that shown by nonhandicapped preschoolers. Symbolic play by handicapped children depended much…

Six adolescents with learning disabilities participated in an eight-step cognitive strategy designed to enable students to read, understand, carry out, and check verbal math problems encountered in the general math secondary curriculum. Visual analysis of the data indicated the strategy was an effective intervention for Ss with deficits in verbal…

Discusses results of a study of good and poor third-grade readers that indicates that difficulties with phonetic representation could underlie the inferior sentence comprehension of poor beginning readers. In addition, the finding that these children place greater reliance on immature processing strategies raised further possibility that tempo of…

An important goal of teacher education is that teachers should attain a good understanding of the theories and methods that have evolved in the study of human development. The Berkeley Developmental Teacher Education Program is described both as a vehicle of teacher education and as a vehicle of research. (MT)

Comparision of longitudinal mental test scores for 54 educationally treated disadvantaged preschoolers at high-risk for nonbiologically-based mild retardation and 53 control children revealed that educationally treated children significantly outscored controls on mental tests. Treated children consistently scored at the national average whereas…

Studies three- and four-year-olds' answers to "before,""after," and "when"questions referring to pictured event sequences having invariant or arbitary real-world temporal orders. Results indicated the development of the ability to coordinate lexical knowledge with cognitive demands associated with responding to…

Argues that knowledge from studies of individuals with sex chromosome abnormalities can further understanding of aspects of normal human development. Studies of XO girls, XXY boys, XXX girls, and males with a fragile X chromosome are summarized to demonstrate how results contribute to knowledge about normal cognitive development and about…

Strategies young children used to correct errors in nesting seriated cups changed substantially with age, becoming increasingly more flexible and involving more extensive restructuring of the relationships among the cups. The same trend toward increasing flexibility of thought and action also appeared in procedures children used to combine the…

The relationship between hearing disorder and performance on intelligence tests among 28 children and young adults with Down Syndrome was investigated. Performance on intelligence tests by individuals with abnormal tympanograms was inferior to that of individuals with normal tympanograms. Hearing sensitivity measures were uncorrelated to…

An ongoing, structured, low-intensity exercise program designed to foster physical, social, and cognitive functioning was evaluated in 128 seniors ranging in age from 55 to 101 years. The program appeared to be providing an opportunity for social interaction among participants, and the exercises appeared to be mentally stimulating. (Author/CT)

R. S. Peters's paper, "Reason and Habit: The Paradox of Moral Education," is used as a medium through which to explore the paradox of education. An argument against the theory of just one developmental paradox of education is presented. Four paradoxes, consisting of the basic, stultification, conceptual change, and authority and autonomy are…

Developmental spelling, the pattern resulting from different strategies that children use at various stages of cognitive development, is explained and five instructional activities supported by developmental spelling research are offered, including the importance of an environment emphasizing functional use of language and of opportunities for…

Profoundly retarded 3-10 year olds (N=24) were divided into three groups: two cognitive training programs--object permanence or means-end--and language only. Results of pre- and posttests revealed that the cognitive training approaches were successful in enabling the majority of Ss to learn to use speech. (CL)