Teachers' view of children and childhood is rapidly changing in response to the pressures of modern life, new research on brain development and learning, as well as the belief that many young children in the United States are not ready for school. There are powerful messages coming from commercial, social, and political interests, as well as from…

In this article, the author gives a general introduction of a few ideas on cognitive development in children. In the first part, he deals with the topic of development, a process which concerns the totality of the structures of knowledge. He reviews the stages of development of operational structures, distinguishes four main stages of development,…