This study investigated preservice elementary teacher reasoning ability levels, science anxiety levels, and content achievement in a large midwestern university. Pretest and posttest measures were taken on three dependent variables: (1) reasoning ability (cognitive development); (2) science anxiety; and (3) science content achievement. In…

This two-volume annotated bibliography cites 702 articles published in 1984 on a variety of issues related to preschool education in several Eastern and Western countries, including France, Great Britain, Czechoslovakia, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, Belgium, Canada, the United States, Austria, Poland, Switzerland, Ireland, East…

Studies on the effects of early day care can be characterized according to two distinct research trends. In the first, which occurred during the 1960s and 1970s, the principal issue was whether day care had any inevitable and negative consequences for the child and, particularly, the mother-child attachment. The second, more recent, trend has been…

A study investigated the writing behavior of young children in a home setting by collecting and analyzing writing samples of three children--Avaleigh, Adam, and Heather (aged four, five, and six years)--and interviewing them about the features, content, reasons, form, and other details of writing done at home. Parents kept a journal detailing…

An analysis of children's narrative composition and art revealed concurrent development at both a general structural level and at a fine-grained detail level. A three-part study investigated whether this general cognitive pattern would be maintained across a different range of tasks: literary composition, scientific reasoning, and working memory.…

This study investigated the potential usefulness of a cognitive education intervention approach to improving learning abilities of underachieving Native adolescents. The specific variables considered were: (1) the manner in which this approach may affect cognitive development; (2) academic learning; (3) attitudes towards and interest in academic…

This digest addresses cognitive learning with respect to outside-the-classroom instruction at the elementary school level. It notes that affective, not cognitive, learning has traditionally been the primary objective of field instruction at all K-12 levels. Therefore, most educational research in field instruction has been mainly non-cognitive in…

British students in four age groups--4 to 5, 7 to 8, 11 to 12, and 15 to 16 years old--were observed in their classrooms in order to explore the relationships among the learner, knowledge, and thinking, and the role that writing plays in what is learned. In the infant classroom, writing was quite visible in the form of labels, questions,…

This supplementary bibliography of publications produced in 1981 under the auspices of the Wisconsin Center for Education Research is intended to inform the educational community of the latest research and development on the education of individuals and diverse groups of students in elementary and secondary schools. A total of 50 technical…

This paper contends that efforts at educational reform must focus, above all, on the instructional encounter between teachers and students. The argument is presented in triadic sequence: three basic assumptions about learning, three interrelated models of the instructional process, and three practical approaches to promoting cognitive achievement.…

This paper examines problems involved in designing an integrated system to teach and assess critical thinking skills in the classroom, and describes the Monitor Achievement in Pittsburgh (MAP) Critical Thinking Project, an attempt to draw upon research from diverse disciplines in developing an effective pilot project in the Pittsburgh public…

Initially differentiating ideas of self-concept, personality, and self-esteem, this paper discusses the development of the self from infancy through adolescence. The discussion of infancy focuses on learning about bodily self and related disruptions and describes the emergence of the social and independent self. The discussion of toddlers and…

Focusing on health and personal service occupations, the documents aggregated here contain the combined teacher and student log sheets for the grade 1 unit of a career education curriculum originally designed for migrant children; student worksheets on job and role information; and learning activities related to 12 jobs: blacksmith, television…

The documents aggregated here comprise the second grade unit of a career education curriculum for migrant children. The unit for grade 2 foucses on the fields of recreation and transportation. Travel agent, tour guide, camp counselor, coach, usher, school bus driver, airplane pilot, trucker, mover, railroad engineer, and astronaut are the 11 jobs…

Using examples from children drawing in a year one classroom, this article examines firstly, how drawing operates as a unique mental tool, and secondly, the role of drawing in the construction and development of knowledge. Young children utilize prior knowledge and experience to negotiate and construct meaning through their interactions with…