Intended to introduce teachers to the concept approach in teaching social studies materials, the five chapters of this publication discuss (1) a definition of "concept" and the term's relationship to facts and generalizations, (2) the function of concepts in the social sciences, (3) how concepts develop, (4) how concepts are related to inquiry and…

A national observer team surveyed 335 Head Start Centers during an 8-week summer period to locate useful innovations and developments in preschool education methods which might have future implications for the whole educational system. Team reports agreed that the programs had been more successful in bolstering the social and emotional needs of…

This paper examines several recent lines of research concerning category clustering and describes an alternative to the standard category clustering procedure used to study recall organization in younger children. The specific issue considered is the age at which children first show evidence of spontaneous category clustering in their free-recall.…

Sources consulted in preparing this bibliography of education material related to the teaching of moral or values education include the "Bibliographie de Quebec,""British Education Index," the "Canadian Education Index," the "Cumulative Book Index," the "Current Index to Journals in Education," the "Directory of Education Studies in Canada," the…

Four experiments were conducted to assess the effects of certain stimulus variables on children's discrimination learning. In general, it was found that word frequency was negatively related to discrimination learning as long as the words were meaningful to the subjects. Moreover, the relationship between word and performance reversed in…

The aim of this study was to test a hypothesis derived from the Cognitive Clarity Theory which compares Indian and non-Indian children in two localities of British Columbia. It was hypothesized that, in comparison with Indian children, the non-Indian children would show significantly superior performance on objective tests of cognitive clarity in…

The effects of Piagetian curricular elements added to a traditional Head Start program were investigated to determine if such elements helped to develop classification, seriation, and conservation. Two Head Start classes of 23 and of 19 children were used in the study. Student skills were assessed through a pretest and posttest using classical…

Influences of socioeconomic status, cognitive skills, and response tempo upon personal-social behaviors in disadvantaged preschool children were investigated as part of the Educational Testing Service-Head Start Longitudinal Study. Measures of cognitive skill, cooperation, response latency, and socioeconomic status were taken. Results indicated…

Age and instructional differences in the representation of pictorial information were investigated in a recognition memory task. A total of 56 nursery school and 40 college-age subjects observed pictures under name labeling, color labeling, imaging, and no label instructions. Subjects were then tested for retention of object identity and color…

This handbook of activities in designed to help parents (or preschool teachers) present interesting learning games to children, ages 3-6 years. Activities are grouped into the following categories: (1) Sensory Awareness, (2) Getting Ready to Read and Write, (3) Learning Math Concepts, (4) Discovery through Science, (5) Creating through Art and…

Reported is a study using tasks described by Piaget and Inhelder to evaluate changes in reasoning ability. The tasks were to evaluate the development of interpropositional logic, i.e., formal operations. The tasks used were validated using a formal operational population. They were administered at the beginning and end of the school year to…

The two-level theory of mental abilities posits two broad classes of ability: level I (learning and memory) and level II (the "g" factor of intelligence tests, reasoning, abstraction, and problem solving). Levels I and II are hypothesized to interact with SES and/or race such that: (l) SES differences are greater for level II than for I,…

This study investigated: (1) the level of thinking of the Iteso Primary School children in Uganda; and (2) whether abilities involved in the Piagetian tasks of conservation, classification, and seriation develop at the same rate. The subjects, ages 6 to 13 (the period of the 7-year African primary school) were interviewed in their own language and…

The purpose of this study was to epistemologically justify the place of literary art in the curriculum by showing that its aesthetic significance gives knowledge that can be communicated in no other terms than its own and that this knowledge is consistent with certain epistemological theories. Using theories of art proposed by Langer and Cassirer,…

An outline for Piaget-based early childhood education curricula is presented. Long term objectives of the curriculum are the facilitation of moral and social growth, and intellectual development leading to formal operational functioning. Education is seen as a process that encourages creative and critical thinking. Short-term objectives are listed…