Lawrence Kohlberg's stages of moral development, when applied to theories of teaching composition, support any method or material that refers to the age and prior experience of the writer and the newness of the task the writer is attempting. Rhetorical development and maturation in the ability to write and argue persuasively are partly conceptual…

This study examines the development of children's concepts of illness in light of Piagetian findings regarding the ontogenesis of causal relations. The Concept of Illness protocol was administered to 72 3-, 7-, and 11-year-old children; 24 from each age group. Children were interviewed individually in a school setting. Raters assigned subjects'…

This paper reviews literature related to two questions: (1) How do preschoolers acquire numerical concepts? (2) What range of basic numerical knowledge do beginning kindergarteners possess? The first section briefly highlights main ideas of learning theories. The second section discusses Piaget's concept of conservation of number and how young…

The author is concerned that teaching strategies based on the values clarification approach (VCA) and on Kohlberg's stage theory of moral development might be premature. The VCA has been adopted widely despite concerns about threats to privacy of participating students, infringement on rights of parents to shape their children's values, and…

This paper reviews approaches to understanding how adolescents of different ages and abilities read and understand literature. The specific examples discussed focus on the contrast between "describer" and "explainer" responses to passages in which literary characters experience sudden and traumatic changes in their lives.…

Samples of forty students at ages twelve, thirteen, fourteen, and fifteen participated in a study of adolescents' sensitivity to suddenly changed circumstances of literary characters. Each student answered six questions on each of five passages; for each set, two questions focus on the story itself and four require consideration of consequences of…

This paper primarily considers the effects of parental and sibling deaths on preadolescent children, including the relationship of child rearing styles to the process of mourning. Through a review of the literature and an integration of several psychological factors, the author shows that familial death places children at risk. However, she…

This paper outlines a toddler day care curriculum, based on Piaget's developmental theory, which is suitable for implementation at a laboratory preschool or community college child care center. Implications of Piaget's theory for the curriculum of a toddler program are discussed. The specific program developed is described in terms of guidelines…

This paper discusses research on the effects of formal features of television programs on children's attention, comprehension, and social behavior. Formal features are defined as visual and auditory events which are not primarily a part of the content or message. Three models of the influences of form and content are discussed: (1) the…

American college students are highly diverse with respect to formal intellectual development. This diversity can present educators with a difficult challenge, especially in fields that depend heavily on mathematics. The Cognitive Development Project at the University of Massachusetts is an attempt to foster the development of formal operational…

This paper examines the interrelationship between children's acquisition and use of symbols and the development of imaginative play. The paper focuses on the use of pretend play as an expression of the child's capacity for symbolic functioning and as an index of intellectual development. The first section of the paper reviews developmental changes…

Eighteen pairs of teachers and students from grades one through twelve were each asked to hold a one-half hour discussion as part of a study of developmental changes in teacher/student interaction. Analysis of results from transcriptions of the discussions indicated that all grades used a high proportion of descriptive orientations but that more…

It is suggested that the schools cannot avoid questions of morality and values. This manual will help administrators reflect on these questions in the context of their own schools. The manual reviews several of the most popular forms of moral education--inculcation, values analysis, and values clarification; presents a rationale and process for a…

In this study of perspective taking and moral judgment 20 children (10 boys and 10 girls) at each age level between 4 and 10 years were given Feffer's Social Role-Taking Task, a spatial perspective-taking task and Damon's Test of Positive Justice. Investigated were: (1) the specific developmental sequences for role taking, spatial…

This study was designed to provide observations of the vocalizations and language of infants and young children and of changes in the subjects' pattern of play with toys, as well as their locomotor activity in a playroom. One hundred infants and children ranging from 10 months to five years of age were observed for two 15-minute periods, one with…