This article presents the Practical Action Teaching Model and discusses its four phases: identification of the practical problem, practical reasoning or deliberation, action, and reflection. It incorporates intrinsically motivating, practical, value-based student problems that call for critical and creative thinking and offer opportunities for…

With college graduate students in actual classroom settings, the effects of taking a recall test, a recognition test, or no test on retention four weeks later were studied. Results indicated that simply taking an exam had no significant effect on retention. (Author/GK)

Analyzed the Weigl-Goldstein-Scheerer Color-Form Test using a sample of Danish children. Distinguished three dimensions: configuration of sorting, verbalization of the sorting principle, and the flexibility of switching sorting principle. The three dimensions proved themselves to constitute the a-priori-defined gradients. Results indicated a…

This study designed to use Piagetian logical operations and open-ended, clinical interviews to collect data amenable to a developmental analysis of children's levels of understanding of specific science topics: gravity, energy, and magnetism. Results indicated a correspondence between a child's overall cognitive development and the specific…

Working with students grouped by three conceptual levels offers one way of looking at students and recognizing what can be done to provide them with a stimulating environment for learning. (RL)

Presents transcripts of freshmen engineering majors solving elementary physics problems to examine some limitations of formula-centered approaches to problem solving. Although students use formulas successfully, the qualitative conception of the underlying physical situation is weak. Results from written tests indicate that this phenomenon may be…

Describes three procedures (with sample items) developed to measure conceptual growth in children: (1) a short answer type achievement paper test; (2) stimulus cards; and (3) card sorting task. Tests were designed to enable investigators to observe, record, and quantify student's thinking without disrupting or distorting it. (DS)

Discusses the deficiencies of presenting the theme of energy in the current West German school textbooks. The article emphasizes the structural importance of entropy for the understanding of energy and suggests how the physics teacher can contribute to the development of an appropriate attitude toward the energy crisis. (HM)

Reviews existing gerontological literature, pointing to the prevailing familial, nonfamilial distinction, and presents an argument for drawing conceptual boundaries along peer, intergenerational lines. Explores the potential utility of this distinction by examining home care, to draw attention to a potentially useful distinction which has been…

A training series, designed to increase kindergarteners' conceptual and visual perception skills in dealing with texture, was evaluated. Improvement occurred in subjects' ability to describe texture and to use it in artwork, but the Boehm Test of Basic Concepts indicated that ability to form new concepts was not fostered. (SJL)

This study considers two problems related to cognitive development: "Is development hierarchical?" and "If so, what are the mechanisms involved in the process of development?" Analysis of the results of an experiment lead to differentiation of stages of development, and problem-solving strategies at each level are discussed.…

This article, first in a monthly series of six, presents a theoretical overview of artistic development in young children during the prerepresentational stage and draws implications from this for teachers on intervening in a child's artistic development through dialogues. (SJL)

The scores of 60 first graders on the Concepts about Print Test (Sand) indicated that above-average readers were superior to below-average readers in print-direction concepts, letter-word concepts, and advanced concepts about print. (Author/MKM)

Insight into children's ideas about selected equality sentences is provided through a series of interviews with six- and seven-year-old pupils. The evidence indicates that children consider equality as an operator rather than a relational symbol. (MP)

A structured interview was used to ascertain the level of understanding of the concept of death in 52 elementary school children. Data analysis showed sex, religious affilation, and the death of a close relative had little or no relationship to the level of understanding of death. (Author/RL)