Some aspects of research on learning and cognitive development in Europe 1

A model of human learning processes is presented, wherein learning is conceived as a qualitative development of the structure of the learner's actions. As an illustration of this conception a concise outline of Gal'perin's theory of learning is given. In connection with the relation between cognitive development and learning some Russian research is reviewed, which provides evidence for the standpoint that cognitive development can be strongly stimulated by appropriate learning and instruction. Finally an analysis is presented of structures of action, which represent important objectives of learning to think.     

有关蜜蜂的问题

初中生物学教材在“蜜蜂”一节中，简要介绍了三种类型蜂的形态结构、功能及其发育；在高中生物学教材生殖和发育中涉及到蜜蜂的特殊生殖方式和发育特点，在遗传和变异涉及到单倍体雄峰。现将学生对蜜蜂感兴趣的问题总结如下：     

Acceleration of cognitive development of kindergartners

A curriculum modification was designed to increase the general reasoning ability of kindergarten children who were lagging in cognitive development. The new instructional program was tested with 22 kindergarters who scored in the lowest 9% on the EAS measure of general learning and reasoning ability taken from SRA's Survey of Basic Skills. The experimental children were given “learning set” instruction on unidimensional classification, unidimensional seriation, and number conservation for four months. They received the instruction in groups of six for 15 minutes two or three times per week during the time usually reserved for mathematics. Control children received the normal mathematics instruction, also in groups of six, for matched sessions. The experimental children made twice the gains of the control children on the EAS measure, and matched their gains on reading and mathematics achievement. It appears that integrated “learning set” training on these three Piagetian concepts may be a potent tool for aiding kindergartners who are falling behind their peers in cognitive development.     

Grounding development in cognitive processes

Developmentalists have made remarkable progress over the last several decades in detailing what children know at various points in development. Less progress has been made, however, in detailing the processes through which knowledge is realized in real-time tasks, or in detailing the processes of developmental change. We argue that the operating characteristics of perceiving and remembering provide a foundation for making progress on these issues in the next century. We include three examples applying these ideas to specific phenomena in early word learning. These examples illustrate how forming developmental hypotheses in terms of perceiving and remembering may bring new insights into specific phenomena as well as into how the ordinary operating characteristics of perceiving and remembering serve as bootstraps to more specialized and more abstract kinds of knowledge.     

Some implications of cognitive theory for instructional design

This article examines some of the implications of recent developments in cognitive theory for instructional design. It is argued that behavioral theory is inadequate to prescribe instructional strategies that teach for understanding. Examples of how instructional designers have adopted relevant aspects of cognitive theory are described. However, it is argued that such adoption is only a first step. The growing body of evidence for the indeterminism of human cognition requires even further changes in how instructional designers think and act. A number of bodies of scholarly research and opinion are cited in support of this claim. Three implications of cognitive theory for design are offered: instructional strategies need to be developed to counter the reductionism implicit in task analysis; design needs to be integrated into the implementation of instruction; designers should work from a thorough knowledge of theory not just from design procedures.     

Relations between brain and cognitive development

Goldman-Rakic reports important new data on cortical development in rhesus monkeys. Some of her findings, especially concurrent cortical synaptogenesis, may be related to cognitive capacities that develop in infancy. The developmental pattern of concurrent synaptogenesis in rhesus is consistent with a straightforward model of relations between brain and cognitive development: Concurrent synaptogenesis is hypothesized to lay the primary cortical foundation for a series of developmental levels in middle infancy that have been empirically documented in both human and rhesus infants. Other general brain changes, especially in the electroencephalogram, also seem to correlate with these levels, as well as with other levels that develop at other periods. In the simplest form of the model, these several factors all show synchronous developmental discontinuities at the time of emergence of a level. Specific research methods are available for specifying when discontinuities occur in development of both brain and behavior.     

Social and cognitive development in infancy

The relation between social and cognitive development has been important in several accounts of infant development. Piaget’s theory specifies that social and cognitive development become significant at eight months and are closely linked thereafter. Brazelton and Trevarthen emphasize the role of social development and social interaction from the first months on. Neither theory predominates today, but studies of new topics such as the infant’s discrimination of people and objects may help decide which is correct. In contrast to the question of when infants distinguish the social from the cognitive, it is obvious that the social and physical environments of the child are fundamentally different all along. Adults, and not objects, have expectations for infant development and adjust their behaviour in line with those expectations. The research on developmental outcome preserves this difference. Cognitive development in infancy proceeds normally in a great many environments. Social development, on the other hand, has been found to vary with the characteristics of the caregiver. This difference between social and cognitive development is interpretable in terms of the difference between the social and physical worlds.     

论认知疗法的发展应用

认知疗法于本世纪60-70年代在美国产生,在数十年的发展过程中其理论与治疗技术不断得以丰富和发展。它凭着治疗理念清晰、易被接受;疗程短,见效快等特点,已成为心理咨询与治疗领域应用最广泛的一种技术。本文主要对认知疗法的整合性发展,认知疗法在个体治疗和团体治疗中的应用,及其在应用中存在的一些问题进行讨论。     

高等教育多学科研究中的一些认识问题

高等教育的多学科研究虽然被高等教育理论和实践证明是行之有效的方法,也为大量的研究者所运用,但在开展多学科研究的原因和实际做法上存在着很多误区。这些误区的存在影响着多学科研究的顺利进行,并进而威胁到高等教育研究的进展和理论的成熟。澄清这些误区,有助于更好地理解和运用高等教育的多学科研究方法。     

Convergent validity of group tests of cognitive development

This study was designed to investigate the convergent validity of individual clinical task interviews as presented by Piaget and Inhelder paired with three widely used group tests of cognitive development. These tests are designed to assess the acquisition of cognitive abilities. The three group test raw scores paired with summed raw scores on four concrete-formal task interviews yielded the following Pearson product-moment correlations: Reasoning Test (Ankney and Joyce), 0.43; Logical Reasoning Test (Burney), 0.61; Classroom Test of Formal Operations (Lawson), 0.37. The raw data was then ranked into cognitive level groups and presented on contingency tables. The following contingency coefficients were determined: Logical Reasoning Test, 0.52; Logical Reasoning Test (adjusted), 0.61; Classroom Test of Formal Operations, 0.50. This study reflects that the Reasoning Test tends to indicate lower cognitive levels of subjects when paired with summed scores on the clinical task interviews, whereas the Logical Reasoning Test and the Classroom Test of Formal Operations tend to indicate higher cognitive levels of subjects when paired with summed scores on the clinical task interviews. In each case the correlations do not appear to be sufficiently strong to warrant selection or categorization of an individual student based on his/her test performance.     

Domain specificity and variability in cognitive development

There are core-specific and noncore-specific domains of knowledge, but only the core-specific domains benefit from innate skeletal structures. Core skeletal domains are universally shared, even though their particular foci may vary; individuals vary extensively in terms of the noncore domains they acquire.     

谈如何进行生物学概念教学

生物学科作为一门自然学科,在其知识体系中存在着大量专业性概念,仅高中生物学必修教材中比较重要的概念约有450个,有具体定义的概念有近200个,平均每节课中都要涉及4~5个重要概念。在讲解减数分裂、分离定律、染色体变异等复杂性内容时一节课甚至要讲解10~15个重要概念。准确地理解这些概念是学生学习生物学的基础,很多情况下学生由于对某些基本概念理解模糊,而给后续学习造成很大的障碍。可见概念教学作为课堂教学的一个重要的组成部分,教学中应对其给以足够的重视。笔者根据自己的教学实践,就如何提高概念教学效果的体会总结如下:1充分利…