Examines the eight models for general education programming presented in this volume, highlighting patterns found in the articles. Indicates that the programs emphasize communication skills, an appreciation for diversity, technological and mathematical literacy, the development of moral reasoning skills, and the improvement of student critical…

Provides references related to the most common learning goals mentioned in the eight general education programs described in this volume: civic education, communication, critical thinking, ethics, and international/intercultural education, along with mathematics, science, and technology. Includes a brief discussion of journals dealing with general…

Examined how task design influences the effectiveness of peer collaboration in facilitating students' conceptual change in physics. Subjects were 8- to 12-year olds studying heating and cooling. Results showed the general superiority of collaborative tasks that both facilitate critical testing and require rules; task designs deploying one feature…

Identified factors associated with learning mathematics in groups with computers. Subjects were 8 groups of 6 students, ages 9 to 12 years, using LOGO. Analysis of learning measures indicated positive gains resulting from groupwork, with no differences across gender or ability; analysis of process factors pointed to explanations for the differing…

Compared six-year olds learning on a computer task using LOGO in four different social conditions--alone, with peer, with adult, with peer and adult. Found that children working with an adult performed significantly better than those working without an adult. However, adults' interventions did not consistently result in either the prevention of…

Suggests that young pupils find collaborative learning hard to sustain, and discusses interpretations of this observation. Suggests that theory and research have neglected situational continuities between formal and (more successful) informal collaborations. Argues for attending more carefully to the environments of joint problem solving and how…

Investigated thinking patterns of fourth- and seventh-grade dyads collaborating on a projection of shadows task. Found that on average students gained in transformational reasoning but not in geometric description; however, the opposite was true for one quarter. Results suggest the need to take into account the plurality of goals, interests, and…

Tested predictions about age-related differences in the tutoring abilities and behaviors of children at three, five, and seven years of age. Found significant changes in tutoring strategies, verbal instruction, and contingency of teaching in the three age groups. (DR)

Describes a series of preliminary studies suggesting that the benefits of collaboration may be not only the result of peer interaction but also due to peer presence. Suggests peer presence must be considered in all such studies, and that better integration of social and affective approaches with cognitive approaches may be necessary to understand…

Suggests that adequate conceptions of children's measurement processes should take into account social and cognitive learning. Contends that progress in children's performance in measurement depends on learning in both areas. Reports significant findings from two studies designed to test the effects of intersubjectivity, or the social dimension,…

Examined reversal of emergent simple discriminations through stimulus contiguity. In experiment one, Baseline and Reversal phases were positive for most children. Experiments two through four examined protocol aspects that possibly contributed to successful reversal of the form discrimination; found that reversed discrimination usually was a…

Newborns were habituated to white squares of varying size and luminance and retested with colored squares for recovery of habituation. Newborns could discriminate yellow-green from white in large squares, but not in small squares. They could not discriminate blue, blue-green, or purple from white. Results suggest newborns have little…

Validated models of mental addition processing by testing children and adults in a production task paradigm. Examined individual-difference relations between strategy choice parameters and criterion-related measures of ability. Found that individual differences in the apparently calculative processes that underlie numerical facility are highly…

Two experiments investigated whether preschoolers attend to appearance instead of taxonomic relations in sorting sets of objects with conflicting appearances and taxonomic relations. Found that training and instructions have a significant effect on children's preference for sorting according to taxonomic relations or appearance, and that both…

Investigated role of word identification skills, text phrasing, auditory analysis, and digit-naming speed on oral reading fluency and expressiveness of poor and average fifth-grade readers. Found that poor readers were less fluent and expressive than average readers; parsing contributed to fluency in average but not poor readers; and digit-naming…