This study investigated the grouping effect on student achievement in a chemistry laboratory when homogeneous and heterogeneous formal reasoning ability, high and low levels of formal reasoning ability, group sizes of two and four, and homogeneous and heterogeneous gender were used for grouping factors. The sample consisted of all eight intact…

This study was an initial effort at Brenau College (Georgia) to analyze the relative effectiveness of a self-paced math lab approach to developmental pre-college algebra. Students enrolled in 1988-89 were taught under the lecture method; this applied to students needing both developmental arithmetic and developmental algebra. During the subsequent…

A supervised, self-instructional training program for the professional development of child caregivers is offered. Included in this volume, the first of two, are orientation materials and six training modules that are organized around the first six functional areas of the Child Development Associate (CDA) Competency Standards. These areas concern…

The enhanced metalinguistic abilities demonstrated by additive-bilingual children, including superior control of cognitive processing, may promote the development of symbolic reasoning. Children educated in additive-bilingual (immersion) settings may maintain normal native-language development, while acquiring a second language. This study…

This discussion of the uniqueness of the middle school focuses on the characteristics of the early adolescent student. It is pointed out that the special needs of these students are infrequently met by the traditional junior high school. Middle schools should be characterized by six unique elements: (1) specific individual counseling; (2) a…

Many essayists on writing believe that a student's level of cognitive development determines the organization of thought expressed by the student's writing and that an individual cannot use language at a level that goes beyond his or her stage of cognitive development. Without the maturation of formal operational structures, students cannot easily…

The relationship between bilingualism and cognitive development is explored as an exemplary area in which the disciplinary concerns of cognitive psychology, social psychology, and sociology occur together. A historical review of research shows that many of the apparently contradictory findings about the effects of bilingualism on mental…

Described is the Man in a Changing Society (MIS) project in which K-12 Swedish children use parish records to study and research local history. Church records in Sweden contain detailed information about individuals living during the 18th and 19th centuries. To make this information accessible to researchers, the Swedish church records are being…

An exploratory study was conducted to identify the degree of language performance in native and bilingual English- and Spanish-speaking children under circumstances of native and bilingual language instruction. The study is a first step in testing the hypothesis that the underachievement of children in English-as-a-second-language programs and…

This paper begins with a summary and analysis of Robert Glaser's arguments, presented in his paper "Education and Thinking: The Role of Knowledge," which contend there are strong interactions between structures of knowledge and cognitive processes, and that problem solving and reasoning are taught best in the context of the acquisition…

This review covers 422 studies of the following types: reports prepared for scientific organizations, dissertations, journal articles, research papers, and papers presented at conferences. The studies have been organized into one of seven clusters for analysis and discussion. They are: (1) learning and instruction (summarizing studies related to…

Cognitive learning related to the environment has typically been subsumed as a part of instruction in the more traditional areas of the secondary school curriculum, in particular in science and/or social studies classes. This digest contains a review of a number of studies dealing with cognitive learning in the environment, investigating the…

This document presents four research papers related to the role of inconsistent ideas in learning mathematics and a discussion paper related to the same issue. The titles of the papers are: (1) "Cognitive Conflict in Procedure Applications" (Merlyn Behr and Guershon Harel); (2) "Inconsistencies in Preservice Elementary Teachers'…

Higher order thinking skills are inevitably developed or exercised relative to some discipline. The discipline may be formal or informal, may or may not be represented in a school curriculum, or relate to a wide variety of domains. Moreover, the development or exercise of thinking skills may take place at differing levels of generality. This paper…

Described are the initial prototypes of several intelligent tutoring systems designed to build students' scientific inquiry skills. These inquiry skills are taught in the context of acquiring knowledge of principles from a microworld that models a specific domain. This paper discusses microworlds that have been implemented for microeconomics,…