This digest describes a selection of environmental education research studies that were included in the ERIC system in 1985. It is noted that much of the reported research in environmental education continues to deal with the affective domain, but that there are stronger efforts toward relating affective components with knowledge gain,…

Workshops on child development explored the cognitive development of children, mass media and its effects on children, parenting, the emotional and personality development of children, and educating the exceptional child, including the gifted. The discussion of cognitive development focused on the need to collect information about cognitive…

The relationship of Piagetian cognitive modes and integrated science process skills is explored in this study. Specifically, this investigation focused on identifying the hierarchical relationship among Piagetian cognitive modes and integrated science process skills for different Piagetian cognitive reasoning levels and to determine if positive…

Two experiments with 167 first-, third-, and fifth-grade children revealed age-related changes in the composition of natural categories. Categorization was investigated via perceptual similarities of objects and conceptual similarities of superordinate classes. The free-classification paradigm (Garner, 1974) was adapted to natural categories,…

Currently, professionals disagree about whether children should be informed about their illnesses and the possibility of their deaths. Some experts feel discussion of these subjects would only upset the children while others feel this knowledge is the children's right and will allay the children's anxieties. What is needed but not available is…

A constructivist analysis of the concepts of communication and environment may go against the traditional ideas of realists. Both concepts are treated as subjective constructs of a cognizing agent. It is held that the basis of the constructivist theory of knowing as the idea that knowledge is a mapping of ways of acting and thinking and the result…

The convergence of several lines of psycholinguistic and sociolinguistic research suggests possible explanations for age-related influences on language acquisition. These factors, which include cognitive development, sociocultural context, affective factors, and language input, can be helpful to language educators. By being alert to the cognitive…

This study on how teachers learn from experience to teach, explores teachers' recognitions of and responses to puzzles and surprises in the classroom when they involve coming to see in new ways the classroom setting and their personal role within it. Interview and observation data from four teachers provided the information for an analysis of this…

This pamphlet reviews five reports that highlight an emerging consensus among researchers about the value of systematically incorporating cognitive instruction into the elementary school curriculum. First is a comprehensive framework by Robert J. Marzano and C. L. Hutchins for an integrated approach to thinking skills that has been developed and…

Reported in this document are the Secretary of Education's personal recommendations for a sound elementary school core curriculum, presented by means of a report on a fictional "James Madison Elementary School." The report opens with discussion of the importance of commitment to course content and instruction in basic skills in…

This research investigates the development of analogy, in particular, the study of the development of systematicity in analogy. Systematicity refers to the mapping of systems of mutually constraining relations, such as causal chains or chains of implication. A preference for systematic mappings is a central aspect of analogical processing in…

The article discusses the use of the Structure of Intellect (SOI) model as a basis for developing thinking abilities in a variety of curriculum areas: (1) the integration of subject matter areas and SOI operations; (2) thematic lessons that sequence specific cells of the SOI model; (3) directed teaching lessons to develop student awareness of…

Provided in this annual report, the 10th of a series, are the texts of four papers presented at a preconference workshop on new directions for infancy research. The papers focus on the middle European contribution to infancy research, main themes in European research on infant perception and cognition, an innovative therapeutic approach to…

A federally funded research report, titled "The Development of a Program in Orientation and Mobility for Multi-Handicapped Blind Infants" by Randall Harley et al., is briefly summarized in this one-page abstract. The report discusses the development of the "Peabody Mobility Kit for Infants," a package of assessment and training…

The present study was designed to identify parent-child interaction patterns that might differentiate bright from below average elementary students in order to test the hypothesis that environmental processes related to regulation of executive processes influence both children's learning and developmental level. Thirty-two mother-child dyads (16…