Educational experience and cognitive development 1 , 2

This paper examines the relationship between general educational experiences and cognitive development during the school years, kindergarten through high school, and also the effects of focused instruction on learning across short time intervals. Children appear to acquire concepts and other outcomes of learning in the cognitive domain gradually, rather than abruptly, although qualitatively different cognitive operations are presumed to emerge which make possible successively higher levels of concept attainment. The quality of “general education” of the kind experienced by American children under compulsory, universal education appears to influence both the rate of cognitive development and also the maximum level of development that is achieved. Focused instruction clearly aids students to attain concepts to successively higher levels during short time intervals and also to use their concepts in understanding principles and in solving problems. From these conclusions and the results of other studies and analyses, the inference is drawn that the quality of educational experience exerts a strong influence on both the rate and the final level of cognitive development.