Appraises the respective contribution of initial competence and of imitation of modeled response in the observational learning of conservation among first grade children. (HOD)

Over 1000 out of 4000 preschoolers observed conserved identity of matter over time and roughly two-thirds of the 1000 also conserved equivalence. Follow-up showed no correlation between kindergarten conservation abilities and grade one math performance but significant correlations between equivalence conservation by end of kindergarten and grade…

Kindergartners who received learning-set instruction on unidimensional classification, unidimensional seriation, and number conservation were retested at the end of first grade. Followup tests showed that the cognitive advantage and improved academic achievement gained from that teaching method was generally present 15 months later. However, a…

Advocated is the use of everyday games and situations instead of the traditional use of textbooks, workbooks, and worksheets. New goals and principles for the beginning arithmetic student are presented. Modifications of activities that promote the constructivist ideal are included. (KR)

A study was conducted to investigate the respective contributions of personal and social factors (initial competence and imitation of modeled responses) in children's observational learning of conservation. Subjects included 180 first-grade nonconservers from six schools attended by French-speaking middle class pupils. All subjects failed…

This study explores the relationships between nonconservation, conservation, field dependence/field independence and the following school variables: achievement, screening measures, sex and race. A sample of 72 students in grade one in a southern rural elementary school were grouped into three sections by ability and given a series of tests.…

To replicate the findings of a previous experiment in which it was shown that the systematic presentation of rules and feedback on conservation and conservation-related problems can be employed to teach young children the traditional (Piagetian) liquid quantity problem rapidly, an analysis was made of the role of two others variables: (1) use of…

The purposes of this study were to: (1) determine the influence of a series of experiences involving the equivalence relation "same length as" and the asymmetric transitive relations "longer than" and "shorter than" on the ability of first and second grade children to classify and seriate objects on the basis of length; (2) investigate the…

Documents cognitive processes mediating the observational learning of conservation. Findings suggest the presence of demand characteristics for high undifferentiated ratings under a public format of certainty appraisal. This contamination prevents valid monitoring of the course of cognitive rule processing. (RH)

A longitudinal investigation was conducted on the development of conservation skills in learning disabled (LD) children. During each of 3 years, six measures of conservation from the Concept Assessment Kit (space, number, substance, weight, continuous quantity, and discontinuous quantity) were administered to 31 newly identified LD students and 33…

This study investigated: (1) the relationship between the development of information processing capacity and certain Piagetian logical reasoning abilities; and (2) how the development of these cognitive abilities related to acquisition of certain measurement concepts. Forty first-grade children were individually administered tests of conservation…

The purpose of this study was to test the effect of several cognitive development capacities on first-grade children's ability to learn basic concepts and skills of linear measurement. The cognitive capacities of interest were logical reasoning ability and information processing capacity. The hypotheses predicted that children who had not yet…

To investigate whether children who had been in a bilingual instructional program for three years or less would have some cognitive advantages over those in monolingual programs, 96 (50 percent male, 50 percent female) first to third graders from Edmonton (Alberta) were tested in 1979. The children in bilingual programs outperformed their…

This study was designed to determine whether chronological age, the number of permanent teeth erupted, or the combination of the two would predict a child's readiness for formal arithmetic work. Sixty-four children were randomly chosen and three phases of testing conducted. The findings did not support the use of the number of teeth erupted as a…

The cutoff method was used on longitudinal data in more than one content domain in a study attempting to determine whether the effects of schooling are general or limited. Conservation of number, an informally acquired skill, and mental addition, a formally acquired skill, were evaluated among older kindergarten children, younger 1st-grade…