Discusses the conflict between academic discourse and students' right to their own language. Shows how the study of interlanguage looks at the learner's present language use and provides a conceptual framework for seeing student writing as a stage in a developmental process, for seeing individual differences, and for seeing common patterns. (EL)

Shows how to use William Perry's developmental model, which addresses a student's ability to confront conflicting values and belief and use conflict as a tool of integration and growth, in a writing classroom that allows students to learn both enabling skills that help them communicate through writing and instrumental learning skills that spur…

Discusses the development of the thinking function and factors influencing that development, and presents strategies for teaching thinking. (MD)

Investigates the influence of formal instruction on natural second language acquisition processes by an experiment in which investigators tried to force other than "natural" learning processes in learners' natural acquisition of a second language. The informants in the experiment were ten Italian children attending elementary school in Munich.…

The benefits of infant intervention programs depend on their appropriateness to the characteristics of the baby, the environment, and the transactions between them. For healthy, normal infants, intervention will be superfluous at best. A basic prerequisite for designing any intervention program is an understanding of the fundamental importance of…

Investigated the influence of socioeconomic status and work experience on Egyptian children's development of economic concepts. Found that (1) Egyptian children's developmental pattern is comparable to that of children from other cultures, and (2) socioeconomic status is more significant than work experience as a source of conceptual variation…

Presented is a model of curriculum design for history instruction using the concept cluster approach. The importance of proper age/grade placement when teaching historical concepts and the developmental characteristics of children and adolescents are emphasized. (Author/RM)

Microcomputers are not necessarily a desirable teaching/learning tool for young children. Learning styles of the preschool child are not often compatible with computer assisted instruction techniques. An examination of the types of available programing activities and software is presented. (DF)

Examined four large surveys to establish the existence of passages. Results indicated that age groups and their associated passages can be identified. The passages appear to progress with time, but are not stable across cultures. Suggests that the generational event theory provides a better model for explanation. (JAC)

Explores how dialog writing, in which two participants "converse in writing," incorporates the interactive aspects of oral communication and the self-directed aspects of essay writing. Includes passages written over a year's time by a sixth grade student in a "dialogue journal" showing the development of his writing. (HTH)

This study directly compared the effects of a picture selection response with a rotational one. Eighty preschool children were compared on the response modes. Half the children indicated perspective inferences by selecting from a set of photographs while the others rotated a replica. Children were tested on three nonegocentric perspectives.…

This paper describes three early childhood curriculum frameworks that acknowledge the different needs and abilities of infants and toddlers, preschool and kindergarten children, and children in grades one through three. Infants and toddlers are at the stage of establishing trust and autonomy. Because these issues are addressed in the context of…

Designed for use in the home and in professional child-care settings, this program presents developmentally appropriate activities to support growth and development of infants from birth to 1 year. Each of the six 2-month long units contains 24 sets of activities called Activity Plans, with the suggestion to use three activity plans per week. Each…

Boys may follow various developmental pathways that lead to increasingly disruptive and delinquent behavior. To most parents, teachers, youth workers, mental health professionals, and juvenile justice practitioners, the development of disruptive and delinquent behavior in boys may appear erratic and unpredictable. This bulletin summarizes…

This newsletter issue provides an overview of the book, "Critical Thinking about Critical Periods," which discusses the neural and behavioral sciences that undergird the notion of "windows of opportunity" in early brain development. The issue presents the book's table of contents; the major sections are: (1) "Critical…