To validate a group phonics test designed to measure students' phonics knowledge, a study examined possible causal relationships of phonics knowledge and sight word recognition, sight word fluency, general reading fluency, and reading comprehension. Subjects, 95 first graders, 95 second graders, and 95 third graders chosen at random from 3 schools…

Most teachers persist in using highly structured teaching methods with pre-school pupils and in trying to teach academic skills for which young children are not prepared. This is the case because many teachers teach as they were taught or in ways that students' parents and relatives want. But researchers find these practices dangerous, and stress…

Proficiency in the arts describes the educational growth Indiana students are expected to achieve as they acquire skills and techniques in the arts. Three levels of proficiency statements are described: (1) foundation proficiency statements; (2) specific proficiency statements; and (3) proficiency indicators. Each discipline, music (general music,…

Piagetian stages of cognitive development are reviewed, and what teachers of geography skills, particularly map skills, can do to make use of Piaget's theory of child development is discussed. Piaget describes children at four different stages: (1) sensorimotor stage--birth to 2 years, (2) preoperational stage--ages 2-7, (3) concrete operational…

A study explored the possibility of instructional influence on children's passage along a developmental spelling continuum. The spelling of a group of 28 children who received intensive phonics instruction their kindergarten year was contrasted with the spelling of 24 first-grade children instructed in word-based materials. Subjects were initially…

This paper represents one portion of an ongoing effort to elaborate on pedagogical principles based on structural-developmental (largely Piagetian) theory and research. Here, a concept of "problem structure" is developed as a means for identifying physical factors that contribute to children's ability to apply experimental reasoning.…

The paper presents a description of and a rationale for a single-stroke LOGO package for physically handicapped students. The package is intended to promote cognitive decision making via a simplified single-stroke keyboard approach. Sequential behaviors of nonhandicapped students learning to use the system are described. Physically handicapped…

Children may cognitively know that an object of fear is pretend, not real, but still feel fear and anxiety. A review of the development of reality from the psychological and cognitive perspectives shows that the growing child's interaction with mother, family, and environment helps the child gradually develop an understanding of reality. Teachers…

Delinquency intervention and research have undergone changes in recent years. One new line of research has been aimed at mapping out juvenile criminal careers. Findings from this research suggest that involvement in technically delinquent activity may be a transitory, developmental phenomenon related to adolescence. Youth appear to be increasingly…

Nine undergraduate science and non-science majors (novices) who had recently completed their first college classroom study of genetics and seven genetics graduate students and biology instructors (experts) were videotaped as they attempted to solve a selected group of seven moderately complex classifical genetics problems and three Piagetian tasks…

With reference to Fenson's (1984) study of American children's pretend actions and utterances, this study examined the development of pretend actions and utterances in the play of 16 Japanese firstborn children. Subjects, whose cognitive and language development had been followed experimentally since the age of 6 months, were nonretarded…

Discussed are research methods used to measure developmental changes in children's reasoning about ability. While adults generally differentiate ability, effort, luck, and task difficulty as causes for success and failure, children progressively think that effort or outcome is ability (level 1), that effort is the cause of performance outcomes…

This report deals with teachers' professional development on the job within the context of teaching in schools. It links the quality of learning--and the opportunity to learn--to the quality of a teacher's capacity to know what to teach, how to teach, and to whom. Comments are made on the academic preparation of new teachers and the ways teachers…

This paper reports findings that have emerged from several studies conducted concerning young girls' and boys' attitudes toward menstruation. The research work discussed included: (1) cross-sectional data about menarcheal experience and about attitudes toward menstruation from early adolescent girls in grades six through nine; (2) cross-sectional…

A total of 100 children from divorced and separated families were compared with 100 children from intact families in this investigation of ways in which children handle the concepts of family membership and relationships. Children were given two social and two physical tasks: a family identity task; Piaget's interview for determining the…