Describes a finger pattern method for teaching subtraction. It is suggested that the method has several advantages over the usual methods children adopt. (PK)

A training experiment with 22 retarded children (IQs from 34 to 74) found that training on a general magnitude comparison rule for numbers 1-10 resulted in experimental subjects significantly outperforming control subjects on both immediate and delayed posttests with some evidence of transfer of training. (Author/DB)

Suggesting that learning be considered as a generative process, attempts to: (1) place generative learning ideas in the context of other viewpoints of learning; (2) explicate key postulates of the generative learning model; and (3) examine implications of these theoretical ideas for teaching, learning, curriculum development, and research. (JN)

Identified 25 variables (12 of which were scale-specific) related to changes in students' conceptions of science. In addition, a comparison between teacher and student conceptions of science did not support the prevalent assumption that a teacher's conception of science is significantly related to changes in students' conception of science.…

In a program designed to help physics faculty improve their instructional techniques and curricula, their colleagues from other disciplines are taking classes alongside regular students to provide insights into reasons for learning problems. (MSE)

Describes two experiments that examined children's understanding of the distinction between real and apparent emotion. Discusses the findings in relation to research concerning children's concept of mind, their grasp of the appearance-reality distinction; their ability to produce complex, embedded justifications; and their ideas about emotion.…

A series of nine activities that illustrate prime factorization and other elementary number theory ideas in concrete, representative, and symbolic form are described. (MNS)

Three types of overgeneral uses of object names by young children were identified. Production data from 10 children were obtained using a standardized method of recording utterance contexts. Results showed that, like adults, children's object categories applied to objects of particular kinds. Most overgeneral uses were attributable to…

The effects of two instructional strategies for sequencing examples and nonexamples of the concept "parallelogram" were compared for sixth graders. A rational sequence was favored over a random sequence at the formal level of concept attainment; no interaction effect was found between the strategy and students' mathematical ability. (MNS)

Presents descriptions of play reflecting recent theories, including the psychoanalytic works of Freud, Erikson, and Peller; Piaget's developmental theory (with discussion of Sutton-Smith); and the views of Smilansky and Parten. (AS)

Studies five-year-olds' relative number judgements of small and large number displays with and without perceptual aids. Children were found to respond to local rather than global density differences and to benefit from the provision of perceptual aids on both small and large number displays. (Author/AS)

Dicusses three education "anchors" weighing students down: adherence to print, overreliance on facts, and one-way transmission of information. Appropriate computer software can enliven a boring classroom by streamlining repetitive tasks (like revising and editing) and encouraging interactive construction of ideas. (MLH)

Reports on two studies during which 6-, 8-, and 10-year-old children were interviewed about three different types of regularities or rules: social conventions, physical laws, and logical necessities. Shows that older children made more distinctions between social and nonsocial items than did younger children. (HOD)

Assesses second-, fourth-, and eighth-grade children's perception of the social support provided by friends. (HOD)

Describes three experiments that tested autistic children's nonverbal and verbal categorization abilities. Concludes that autistic children do not suffer a specific cognitive deficit in ability to categorize and form abstract concepts. (HOD)