Three sources of differences between educational and developmental psychology: resolution through educational-developmental psychology

Although educational and developmental psychology should inform each other, it is unusual when they do so. Three reasons are offered for the differences between the two psychologies. First, the content of research and purposes for choosing that content are different. Second, the significance of developmental sequences is different for the two psychologies, and the role of values in developmental sequences also differs. And third, there are differences in the search for biologically constrained laws of human cognitive development versus schooling effects. It is suggested that the two psychologies can inform each other. The zone where the two psychologies meet, the zone of educational-developmental psychology, is an emergent area which is neither developmental nor educational psychology as traditionally practiced, but it takes elements from both.This is Working Paper Number 47 of the Tel-Aviv University Unit of Human Development and Education. I would like to thank Pnina Frenkel, Tamar Globerson, Annette Karmiloff-Smith, Iris Levin, Ken Russell, Gavriel Salomon, and Liliana Tolchinsky for extremely valuable comments on an earlier draft of this article.     

Professor Kagan responds

Letters

Professor Kagan responds     

Motor imagery and cortico-spinal excitability: A review

Motor imagery (MI) has received a lot of interest during the last decades as its chronic or acute use has demonstrated several effects on improving sport performances or skills. The development of neuroimagery techniques also helped further our understanding of the neural correlates underlying MI. While some authors showed that MI, motor execution and action observation activated similar motor cortical regions, transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) studies brought great insights on the role of the primary motor cortex and on the activation of the cortico-spinal pathway during MI. After defining MI and describing the TMS technique, a short report of MI activities only at cortical level is provided. Then, a main focus on the specificities of cortico-spinal modulations during MI, investigated by TMS, is provided. Finally, a brief overview of sub-cortical mechanisms gives importance to the activation of peripheral neural structures during MI.     

Literature and the Human Condition in Teaching and Learning

The benefits of literature are countless. Social workers, however, are usually not inclined to count the teaching and practice of social work among its beneficiaries. We believe that literature is one of the ways to enrich vital components of social work knowledge, attitudes, and skills. In this article, we begin by calling attention to a historical precedent for the use of literature in social work education and practice. We then examine recent research on the impact of literature on human behavior, empathy, and critical thinking and consider its epistemological roots. Next, we review evidence from social work journals on the use of literature in teaching and practice. Having examined the relationships of literature to professional knowledge and practice, we devote most of the article to illustrating how, as social work educators, we are and can be using literature effectively in the teaching of social work.     

An approach to assessing and facilitating causal language in adults with learning disabilities based on Piagetian theory

Salient characteristics associated with Piagetian cognitive stages served as the basis for developing a linguistic taxonomy of causal semantic relations. Causal statements from adults with learning disabilities and normally achieving adults were analyzed and organized within this taxonomy. A relationship between Piagetian cognitive stages and verbal expressions of causality was identified. Based on this relationship, principles of Piagetian cognitive theory were used to design assessment and intervention plans for adults with learning disabilities.