Investigates the effects of recency and specific story content on the development of moral reasoning in four-, seven-, and 11- year-old children and college freshmen. Analyses confirmed that in general younger children judged on consequence, except on stories containing intentional injury to a person, whereas older children utilized intention.…

Describes three models of ethnic identity development, with particular focus on their significance for understanding the socialization and self-concepts of Black children. Considers implications for educational reform and suggests the models provide useful frameworks for making better decisions about when educators should introduce materials about…

Discusses second language acquisition, the importance of comprehensible input to this acquisition, and the inadequacy of the theory of language interference as an explanation for errors in second language speech. The role of the teacher in the language classroom and the "procedural syllabus" are described. (SED)

This study elucidates specific contextual factors important to decentration. Verbal utterances of 24 dyads of children (aged 6) and adults while communicating in a standardized problem-solving situation were analyzed according to egocentric versus decentric language categories and compared to child-child dyads. (Author/BS)

Describes two research projects based on QUEST and proposes an information handling model. Design, interrogation, and evaluation of data files are discussed relative to restraints imposed by child's developmental stage and nature of software employed. Implications of computer-related information handling for curriculum design and children's…

Tested the hypothesis that young children's tendency to draw horizontal or vertical objects perpendicularly to an oblique surface reflects their preference for perpendicular drawings as conceptually correct depictions. (Author/RH)

The difference between Homer Lane's and A. S. Neill's progressive approach and R. S. Peter's traditional approach to moral education is examined. For Lane and Neill the sources of morality are in positive feeling upon which a rational moral principle is superimposed; for Peters altruistic sentiment is directed by intellect and understanding. (RM)

The speed and accuracy of skilled and less skilled first-grade readers were assessed in the fall and spring. Children read random lists of words and coherent paragraphs. Poor decoding skills, rather than an inability to use content to facilitate word recognition, caused the poor performance of less skilled readers. (Author/BS)

This study of students (grades 1-12) concluded that the relationship between social-cognitive ability and the communication skill of comforting is contingent on age. (Comforting strategies are those messages having the intended function of alleviating, moderating, or salving the distressed emotional states of others.) (PD)

Emergent reading attempts of 24 children at the beginning of their kindergarten year are content analyzed in light of theoretical considerations about general and language development. In addition, the reading attempts of two-, three-, and four-year olds are examined. Comparison of data reveal a developmental progress across age-levels. (HOD)

Cites authorities in the fields of early childhood education and literacy acquisition to show the need to change the way in which children learn to read and write. (FL)

Examines the use of reference by kindergartners and second graders in told, dictated, and written texts. Explains findings in terms of increasing precision in the use of anaphoric and situational reference by mode. (HOD)

Presents an overview of a developmental structuralist model based on integration of psychoanalytic and Piagetian developmental psychology. Includes discussion of patterns and insights from a clinical-descriptive intervention study of multirisk families and suggests lines for future research. (RH)

Results of this study confirm discrimination of the intensive time-series design and indicate that it can be used to distinguish differences in learning (comprehension and knowledge) between eighth-grade earth science students (N=95) having formal cognitive tendencies and those having concrete cognitive tendencies. (JN)

Examined the relationship between stages of ethical orientation and moral reasoning for 63 counselors at four levels of training and explores the relationship between ethical orientation and contributions to professional and social action organizations. Findings indicated that ethical orientation is significantly associated with moral reasoning,…