Presents ideas from the book, "Developmental Continuity: From Preschool through Primary Grades." Developmental continuity is a way of providing instruction that permits children to progress according to their rate and style of learning. Curriculum approaches, classroom organization, and ways to begin are discussed. (LB)

Suggests that experimental studies are valuable in analyzing children's language development. Criticizes the scarcity of experimental and naturalistic investigation into preschool language development. Calls for long-term study of continuity and discontinuity in children's school and home learning and between different school stages. Observes that…

Sees learning as a component of development. Explains how cognitive growth can result from dialectical interactions among modes of learning and attentional mental capacity, and that these modes and components of attention relate to contextual function areas which, being neuropsychological units, can be clarified as to function by connectionist…

Two experiments used a formal model of developmental discontinuity derived from catastrophe theory to test whether the transition from Rule I to Rule II on the balance scale task proceeds discontinuously from ages 6 to 10, focusing on five catastrophe flags. Found that bimodality, inaccessible region, hysteresis, and sudden jump were clearly…

Fuzzy trace theory posits that during development the use of verbatim information for solving transitive relationships shifts to the use of gist information. In cognitive developmental research that uses a cross-sectional design, the binomial mixture model is often used to identify such shifts. Because the binomial mixture model assumes equal task…

This article provides a brief historical context and analysis of current middle school reform efforts to promote student engagement by facilitating social relationships. International comparisons of perceived social climate are presented to assess whether sense of belonging and support are lacking in American schools. Research documenting…

This study examined the relationship between adult physical activity levels and patterns of activity that were established during childhood. A random digit telephone survey was conducted of noninstitutionalized residents in a medium sized California city. Subjects ages 18 and over who volunteered to participate were questioned about their…

The focus of this document is upon zetetics, the science of research and artistic activity, and its role: to study the origin, growth, and transitions of human knowledge as a whole. The choice and allocation of subject matter within the curriculum is one of the central domains of expertise required of the general curriculum specialist. No matter…

This article attempts to apply mastery learning theory to research on full- and half-day kindergarten. It is proposed that the application of mastery learning theory would greatly aid in the understanding of relationships between important program variations and predicted outcomes, and demonstrably enhance research efforts to identify differences…

Presents results of a survey of 355 Israeli teachers' attitudes and activities in the field of career education, paying particular attention to differences among groups of teachers. Encourages teachers to understand and internalize holistic and developmental perspectives. (Author/ABB)

Discusses difficulties encountered by elementary students and teachers in classrooms where many students enroll, withdraw, or both during the school year. Patterns and effects of mobility are discussed. Recommends specific aids for teachers of students who change residence unpredictably. (GH)

In their quest to upgrade technologies, improve training techniques, and pursue innovations, counselor educators may be ignoring the power of traditions. This article illustrates how five rites and rituals enrich the training experience, strengthen the sense of continuity and community, support diversity, and offer affirmation of growth. (Author)

This occasional paper presents Bank Street's approach as represented in a set of five interrelated principles. It begins by briefly describing the origins and rationale of teacher education at Bank Street. From this description are generated principles that emerge from Bank Street's history and practice, linking each principle to classroom images…

The present study investigates whether the Early Development Instrument (Offord & Janus, 1999) measures school readiness similarly across different groups of children. We employ ordinal logistic regression to investigate differential item functioning, a method of examining measurement bias. For 40,000 children, our analysis compares groups…

This paper reports the findings of a longitudinal study of the literacy teaching of two teachers who were involved in a large-scale government initiative to change the way literacy is taught. These two teachers were identified at the outset of the study as being very different in ways in which they thought about the teaching of reading and…