This document cautions against high expectations on the part of educators for rapid cognitive growth during middle school years--and urges a rethinking of curricular structure for those years--based upon neurological data concerning brain growth patterns. Empirical research (case studies, autopsy studies, cadaver research) conducted by Epstein has…

Two developmental stage theories concerned with moral development (Kohlberg) and ego development (Loevinger) were compared. Correlational relationships between the stages of each theory were measured, and a contingency table that visually portrayed the relationships between the stages was included. The study was based on two hypotheses: (1) There…

Samples of 98 fourth graders and 111 sixth graders participated in a study of the relationships between operational thinking and reading comprehension of texts involving operational structures. Tests of operational thinking, reading comprehension, IQ, and vocabulary were administered in class groups. Results from correlational and factor analyses…

Three stories were presented via audiovisual media to each of three classes in grade two, three classes in grade four, and three in grade six. Children were interviewed individually after the presentations and were asked which misdemeanor in the stories was naughtiest, whether the punishment was fair, what punishment would be fair, and why.…

A modified version of Inhelder's and Piaget's bending-rods task was administered twice in succession to 9-, 11-, and 13-year-olds. Subjects were then categorized as spontaneous, latent, or nonusers of the formal operational control-of-variables strategy according to whether they used the strategy on the first, second, or neither administration.…

The relationship was studied between Kohlberg's stages of moral development and the process of decision making utilized by 214 subjects, aged 14 to 63 years, during the resolution of hypothetical moral dilemmas. It was not possible to distinguish moral development stages on the basis of decision making criteria. (Author/BH)

Explores age differences in children's conceptions of play, pretending, and toys. Examines parallel structural changes in other areas of development, such as language acquisition. Subjects for the study were 5-, 7-, 9-, and 11-year-old children. (BD)

Points out that an aspect of Piaget's theory, the concept of stage, is being misrepresented through vague and incorrect use of the idea. (Author/GA)

The technology of behaviorism and the social consciousness of normalization have produced monumental changes for developmentally handicapped children but lack an intrinsic developmental perspective. Piaget's cognitive-developmental theory is proposed as a framework to provide content, direction and structure for educational and habilitative…

The proportion of children in a representative sample of 1200 15- to 16- year-olds showing different Piagetian levels of thinking was measured. No increase in the proportion showing formal operational thinking was found beyond the age of 15. Investigated whether boys develop at the same rate as girls. (Editor/RK)

Attempts to compare the characteristics of the ego development continuum as revealed by incomplete sentences and self-report scales and also to ascertain how well the structured personality inventory can estimate the ego development stages as assessed by the Sentence Completion Test (SCT).

Examined the development of stable concepts of "boy" and "girl" in kindergarteners and first and second graders. Gender constance was explored in relation to: performance on conservation tasks; application of gender label to self or other; application of gender label to live person or pictorial representations; and sex role…

Considers adult educational needs according to the idea of developmental tasks along with changes in adult life cycles and calls for changes in adult education and legislation. (MF)

The areas of attachment, dependence, conscience, aggressiveness and sex-role identity are examined in relation to developmental problems and educational implications. (BP)

Perspective ability is the ability to represent how objects look relative to each other from another person's viewpoint. This ability involves two different but interrelated skills: multiple classification and perspective-taking. The intent here was to devise a training program designed to study the causes of transition from one stage of…