This article examines how children and adolescents learn language and literacy, arguing that the crux of learning occurs through social interaction in which content is being discussed and negotiated. It also reviewed emerging issues related to the improvement of English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) instruction in elementary and secondary schools.…

Examines educational film and video as an affective or cognitive learning tool. Suggestions are given on how to select a film for a particular lesson; how to prepare students for viewing; how to structure a lesson including the language arts; and how students can be led to improved visual literacy though analysis of form and structure. (Author/KRN)

Examines effectiveness of a school-based, cognitive stress management intervention program. Participating secondary school students showed significant improvement on a variety of emotional arousal measures. Cognitive restructuring training resulted in improvements on self-report measures of trait anxiety, self-esteem, depression, and trait anger.…

Examines how one teacher's way of knowing mathematics was reflected in language used in teaching concepts of rate to one student. The teacher's conceptualizations of rate were encapsulated in the language of numbers and operations which undermined his effort to help the student understand rates conceptually. (Contains 27 references.) (Author/MKR)

Examined the impact of 2 environmental factors--social class and family risk levels--and 2 biological factors--intraventricular hemorrhage (IVH) and medical risk--on the cognitive and motor development of 175 preterm infants. Family risk, early medical risk, and the interaction of family risk and IVH were found to be significant predictors of…

Challenged is the traditional model for the transmission of mathematics in the elementary school classroom. An inquiry approach to learning mathematics is proposed and supported with results of a year long research project that exposed second graders to mathematical learning experiences using this approach. (MDH)

This analysis of work interactions emphasizes concepts and principles adults bring to work interactions. It also explores the processes involved in teaching and learning situations, and the questions these processes raise for certain current social accounts of children's cognitive development. (BB)

The reasoning abilities to be expected of the concrete operational and formal operational student, the percentage of secondary science students that are capable of each type of reasoning pattern, and effective strategies to teach science to concrete reasoners are described. Implications for curriculum development are discussed. (KR)

Three activities are presented to assess the level of students' geometric understanding according to van Hiele learning model. The activities--Descriptions, Minimum Properties, and Class Inclusion--are applied to the example of classifying quadrilaterals as squares, rectangles, rhombi, or parallelograms. Implications of this assessment are…

Spanish-speaking preschoolers learning English in a bilingual preschool program were videotaped while working independently on tasks to examine their spontaneous private speech. Results show that the private speech of bilingual preschoolers appears to develop normally. Positive effects of second-language learning in a bilingual program on the…

In the coming century school psychologists must concentrate on proactive strategies for developing a prosocial orientation in children. A "perestroika" (restructuring of priorities) must enable school psychologists to promote an orientation focusing on prosocial behavior and related cognitive and affective aspects. (SLD)

Feminism has helped shape developmental psychology, and feminist scholarship has made its primary contributions to the study of child development in the following major areas: (1) weakening the "male as norm" concept; (2) changing "mother blaming" for children's problems; and (3) theory and research on sex role socialization.…

Presents results of a study focusing on a program of dilemma discussion methods for an experimental group of female prisoners and their guards. Concludes that for both the prisoners and staff test scores reflect an increase in moral judgment and ego development. Urges consideration of prison reform from educational and developmental perspectives.…

Presents a study of metacognitive responses of English school children examining four common metacognitive function measures. Discusses the content of each measure, the search for developmental commonality, and statistical relationships. Concludes that no evidence supported a common metacognitive factor or unified construct, although a common…

In the context of an increasingly interdependent world society, discusses the benefits of early acquisition of a second language for American children. Benefits cited include the ease of learning a second language at an early age, improved abilities in concept formation, greater cognitive flexibility, and appreciation of cultural diversity. Second…