A learning cycle approach to undergraduate instruction implemented in a variety of subjects at Metropolitan State College in Denver is described. An experimental group demonstrated significant gains in critical thinking and cognitive skill development as well as improved retention using a framework based on Piaget's stages of cognitive…

Discusses the learning cycle, a strategy developed by Karplus for incorporating Piaget's concepts into a pragmatic method for use in any classroom. The three facets to this strategy, exploration, invention, and application, are described. Includes an exercise that can be used for high school and college classrooms. (CS)

Discusses Personalized System of Instruction (PSI) and describes a Cognitive Skills-Oriented PSI (CPSI), an individualized instruction technique stressing the teaching of cognitive skills in conjunction with specific subject matter. Discusses learning theory, materials, communication strategies, and role of the teacher. (DR)

In order to determine whether mistakes committed by younger children are the result of retention mistakes rather than faulty perceptual encoding, twenty children (6, 8, 10, and 12 years old) reconstructed two visual patterns from immediate memory, while twenty other children (5 and 6 years old) reconstructed the identical patterns by direct…

Describes nine consequences for children who are given the opportunity to work with art teachers. Some of these are that making images provides intrinsic satisfaction; children learn that the images they create can function as symbols; and children's power to conceptualize visual ideas and to use effective means of expressing them increases. (KC)

The developing directional preferences in writing and drawing that were observed in subjects between four years of age and adulthood suggest that two semiindependent motor systems are involved in writing: one for rapid and nonfigurative tasks, the other--which occurs later--for precision and symbolic functions. (Author/GT)

Studies of thioridazine (Mellaril) use for treating childhood behavior disorders (psychosis, hyperactivity, behavior problems, emotional disturbances) were reviewed with a special emphasis on methodology. It was found that the caliber of these studies has been unsatisfactory and that measures of drug effect have tended to stress global rather than…

The theories of Karl Popper, Imre Lakatos, and Jean Piaget are examined in an attempt to find answers to some long-standing, critical problems in mathematics education. (MK)

Questions how cognitive ability and aptitude of graduating high school students taking science courses compare to students in other programs. Explores a related question concerning the extent to which different Piagetian schemes are related to instructional patterns. Results show that students operating at higher cognitive levels take more science…

Discusses the cognitive developmental approach in moral education and describes a program in the Cluster School in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The authors challenge counselors (as consultants) to become deliberately involved in the values and moral growth of students. (Author/CC)

Argues that the teaching of initial reading should focus upon the beginning reader rather than on teaching procedures and that factors in the individual child such as motivation, experience, oral language, cognitive development, and pace of learning should be considered. (FL)

Conservation forms were presented to 24 day- and 16 residential-school deaf students (ages 7 to 19) and 36 normally hearing control Ss (4 to 16), using conventional Piagetian instructions and attribute specific instructions. It was found that deafness does not apparently account for conservation differences found between deaf and normally hearing…

A study involving 65 children from 5.6 to 9.5 years of age suggested that the average child's ability to differentiate spoken words from other units of speech improves with age and that significant relationships exist between children's knowledge of spoken words and their reading achievement. (GT)

Changes in the performance levels of 41 elementary school-aged girls on Euclidean geometric operations tasks were related to changes in forms of their drawings of two anticipated rotation movements. Operatory and imagery performance were measured in three sessions over a 3-year period. (JMB)