Describes a remedial college course in which discovery-based teaching and physical models are employed to teach students how to think. Discusses program content, program structure, program goals, results of the course, and the impact on student success in future science and math courses. (DKM)

An object-retrieval study tested the hypothesis that locating a caregiver would interfere with false belief performance and be related to preschool children's emotional awareness. Results showed age-related improvement to above-chance levels during object identity and location tasks, but caregiver location task performance showed no age-related…

Investigated understanding and use of numerals in 48 children ages 3 and 4. Found that children rarely noticed the absence of numbers if they were not able to explain their purpose. They used several methods to represent number on notes for the milkman, party invitations, and labels. Results suggest that understanding preceded use of numerals.…

Argues that Bartsch and Wellman are successful in analyzing natural language to understand the emergence and development of a theory of mind in everyday social interaction. Discusses their delineation of the transition from a focus on desire to a concept of belief, and describes their views on contextual and cultural variables in theory of mind…

Presents a rationale for designing an authentic arts-based curriculum (AABC) that will facilitate the scholastic achievement of second-language learners. The article offers proposals for the implementation of such a curriculum, discusses the design of AABC positioned within a Vygotskian framework of learning, and synthesizes applicable findings…

Investigated the ability to deceive in participants with autism, mental retardation (MR), and normal development. Results indicated that participants with autism and those with MR did not differ in their ability to use a deceptive method, but participants with autism were significantly less able to understand that they manipulated the beliefs of…

Examined factors associated with individual variation in false belief understanding in three- to five-year olds. Found that family size was strongly associated with false belief understanding in children who were less competent linguistically, suggesting that the presence of siblings can compensate for slower language development in developing…

Examined effects of problem size in mental addition among elementary children in China (n=104) and Missouri (n=105) and among undergraduates in China (n=26) and Missouri (n=35). For all Missouri subjects and Chinese through first grade, larger-valued numbers took longer and induced more errors. (Author/NBI)

Argues that Darwin's "On the Origin of Species" remains a seldom-read book among both biologists and biology students. Explains that this situation presents two problems: (1) it perpetuates misconceptions about Darwin and his ideas, and (2) it prevents an understanding of developing arguments through the selection of appropriate…

Investigated the ability of young children to recognize themselves in delayed videotapes and recent photographs. Results suggested a significant developmental delay in young children's success on mark tests of self-recognition using delayed feedback as compared to live feedback, which may have important implications for characterizing the…

Presented a battery of false belief tasks varying in type of belief questioned, target for belief ascription, presentation of reality information, and deception context to Head Start children. Found that performance was better on locations tasks than on contents tasks and with older children compared with younger children and that performance was…

Examines research that measured the effects of early child day care and how adverse findings affect the public-debate about how to provide care for U.S. children. Areas addressed include day care's effect on the mother/child relationship; its effects on child cognitive development and social development; and who is ultimately responsible for day…

Argues that reasoning is not governed by mental logic or models. Proposes new operational semantic theory, in which reasoning is based on children's operational understanding of key terms in a given problem. Reports results of a study of class inclusion in which dramatic differences in performance were found as the result of linguistic context.…

Synthesizes current thought in neuropsychology, philosophy of cognition, and science education. Suggests that dualistic views and those based solely on biological structural-functional analyses may be insufficient to explain the active role of the learner. Presents 10 principles of neurocognition as a context for analysis of learner-centered…

Examined 6-, 9-, and 14-year-olds' imagination of the unknown within a storytelling context. Performed phenomenological analysis of the two youngest groups' drawings and the oldest group's story on the "heffalump" theme. Derived eight categories providing an image-analysis of the concept of the "unknown" structured as "something-otherwise," that…