In the worrisome context of increasing rates of intimate partner violence and a number of recent deaths reportedly occurring in domestic situations, the establishment and maintenance of effective intervention strategies is a critical public health concern. The present study aimed to evaluate the functioning of a regional intersectoral rapid intervention collaboration agreement (called A-GIR) initiated to respond preventatively to situations identified as high risk of domestic homicide, in Quebec, Canada. In order to better understand how such a collaboration may be successfully implemented, a qualitative analysis was conducted of the perceived functioning of A-GIR and the factors that favor its success as well as issues that should be addressed in this and other such initiatives to ensure efficient and effective practices that prevent the loss of life. Participants (N = 15) were active A-GIR members, who responded to semi-structured interviews which were thematically analyzed. Results are discussed in relation to established partnership action evaluation criteria. The study highlights the necessary conditions for the success of a collaborative agreement such as A-GIR.

The article describes Tools of the Mind—an instructional program developed 25 years ago and now implemented in a variety of early childhood settings across the United States and in Canada. Based on the principles of cultural-historical psychology, this program addresses developmental and learning needs of young children by offering a comprehensive curriculum and by delivering professional development for early childhood educators. The article provides examples of how Vygotskian and post-Vygotskian ideas get embodied in Tools of the Mind instructional strategies with a special emphasis on make-believe play as a leading activity for preschool- and kindergarten-aged children. The authors discuss the results of several evaluation studies conducted on Tools and how these results helped to shape the current state of the program.

Mothers and teachers play a pivotal role in promoting preschool children’s theory of mind. This study explored and compared mothers’ and teachers’ mental-state discourse during storybook reading with children, focusing on their use of mental terms and references to three mental-state aspects: false belief, mental causality, and different points of view. Participants were 60 mothers and their children, and 60 teachers and 300 preschoolers. Mothers read the book to one child and teachers read the same book to groups of 5 children. The book involved a central false-belief theme. Main findings revealed that mothers and teachers elaborated on book-related mental states. However, teachers’ discourse included more mental terms and more references to mental causality and different people’s perspectives. The findings suggest that reading books with rich mental-state contents encourages rich discourse on mental-state elements. Parents and teachers should be guided in how to use their unique knowledge and relationships with children to enrich their mediation of books’ mental-state aspects and discuss them with children.

The Ready to Learn parent–infant education program of the Lexington School for the Deaf in New York is a family-centered early intervention program. The staff used two new measurement instruments to scaffold their efforts to establish a collaborative relationship with parents who represent a variety of cultures and socioeconomic levels. The results demonstrate that these instruments can effectively measure changes in parents’ interactive behavior with teachers and with their children, as well as their active participation as mediators of their children’s learning opportunities over time. Specifically, the results indicate that parents contributed to setting goals for their children and the domains of the goals were consistent with the cognitive and family-centered focus of the program. Further, parents made significant gains in their ability to share information with staff, address their children’s hearing and communication needs, participate in meetings, and collaborate during assessment and team meetings over time. Le programme d’éducation parent—bébé « Prêt pour Apprendre » de l’École Lexington pour les Sourds de New York est un programme familial centré sur l’intervention précoce (Family-Centered Early Intervention). L’équipe utilisait deux nouveaux outils de mesure afin d’étayer leurs efforts pour établir une relation de collaboration avec les parents représentant une variété de cultures et de niveaux socio-économiques différents. Les résultats démontrent que ces instruments se révèlent effectivement capables de mesurer des changements dans le comportement interactif des parents avec les enseignants et avec leurs enfants. Ils sont aussi efficaces pour mesurer leur participation active comme médiateurs des opportunités d’apprentissage offertes à leurs enfants au fil du temps. Plus spécifiquement, les résultats indiquent que les parents ont contribué à fixer des objectifs à leurs enfants et que la nature des objectifs choisis était consistante avec la centration cognitive et familiale du programme cognitif et la famille. De plus, les parents ont fait des progrès significatifs dans leur capacité à partager des informations avec l’équipe, à s’ajuster aux capacités auditives de leurs enfants et à leurs besoins de communication, à participer aux réunions et à collaborer pendant l’évaluation et les réunions d’équipe. Das “Ready to Learn” (bereit zum Lernen)-Eltern-Kind-Erziehungsprogramm der Lexington School für Taube in New York ist ein familienzentriertes Frühinterventionsprogramm (FCEI). Das Personal nutzte zwei neue Messinstrumente, um seine Bemühungen zur Etablierung einer kollaborativen Beziehung mit Eltern aus einer Vielfalt von Kulturen und sozioökonomischen Schichten zu stützen. Die Ergebnisse demonstrieren, dass diese Instrumente effektiv Veränderungen im interaktiven Verhalten der Eltern mit den Lehrern und mit ihren Kindern sowie auch ihre aktive Partizipation als Mediatoren der Lerngelegenheiten ihrer Kinder im Zeitverlauf messen können. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass Eltern dazu beitrugen, Ziele für ihre Kinder zu setzen, wobei die Bereiche der Ziele konsistent waren mit dem kognitiven und familienzentrierten Fokus des Programms. Weiterhin machten die Eltern signifikante Gewinne in ihrer Fähigkeit deutlich, Information mit dem Personal zu teilen, die Hör- und Kommunikationsbedürfnisse ihrer Kinder anzusprechen, an Treffen teilzunehmen und bei der diagnostischen Erfassung wie bei den Treffen der Teams über die Zeit mitzuwirken. El programa para la preparación de los padres en la educación de sus hijos pequeños de la “Lexington School” para Sordos en Nueva York es un programa de intervención temprana centrado en la familia. El equipo de profesores utilizó dos nuevos instrumentos de medida para estructurar sus esfuerzos con el fin de establecer una relación colaborativa con los padres, los cuales representan una amplia variedad de niveles culturales y socioeconómicos. Los resultados demostraron que esos instrumentos pueden medir de forma efectiva cambios en el comportamiento interactivo de los padres con los profesores y con sus hijos, así como en su participación activa como mediadores de las oportunidades de aprendizaje de sus hijos a lo largo del tiempo. Específicamente, los resultados indican que los padres contribuyeron a centrar los objetivos de sus hijos y a dominar los objetivos de forma consistente relativos al foco del programa cognitivo centrado en la familia. Además, los padres pueden lograr significativas ganancias en sus habilidades para compartir información con el equipo de profesores, para dirigir la escucha y las necesidades de comunicación de sus hijos, para participar en las reuniones y para colaborar durante la evaluación y enseñar el modo de conducir una reunión a lo largo del tiempo. Il programma di educazione per bambini piccoli e per genitori Pronti ad imparare della Lexington School per sordi di New York è un programma di intervento precoce centrato sulla famiglia (FCEI). Lo staff ha usato due nuovi strumenti di misura per sostenere i propri sforzi di stabilire una relazione collaborativa con i genitori che presentavano una varietà di culture e livelli socio economici. I risultati dimostrano che questi strumenti possono misurare efficacemente i cambiamenti nel comportamento interattivo dei genitori con gli insegnanti e con i loro bambini, così come la loro partecipazione attiva a lungo termine come mediatori delle opportunità di apprendimento dei loro bambini. In specifico i risultati indicano che i genitori hanno contribuito a stabilire degli obiettivi per i propri figli ed il dominio degli obiettivi era coerente con il focus cognitivo e familiare del programma. Inoltre i genitori hanno arricchito in modo significativo la loro abilità di condividere informazioni con lo staff, indirizzare l’udito dei loro bambini e i bisogni comunicativi, partecipare alle riunioni e collaborare durante la valutazione e le riunioni di team.

Retrieval practice is known to lead to better retention of a to-be-learned material than restudy (i.e., the testing effect). However, few studies have investigated retrieval practice in relation to working memory capacity (WMC) and personality characteristics such as grittiness (Grit) and need for cognition (NFC). In two experiments, we examined retrieval practice and restudy of Swahili–Swedish word pairs in relation to individual differences in Grit and NFC. In Experiment 1, using a between-subjects design, a significant main effect of retention interval was qualified by a Group × Retention Interval interaction. However, there were no effects of Grit or NFC. In Experiment 2, a within-subjects design was used, and a measure of WMC was included. The analyses revealed a testing effect; but again, WMC, Grit, and NFC were not significantly associated with performance. These results indicate that retrieval practice levels out the playing field regarding WMC, NFC, and Grit.

Whereas intimate partner violence (IPV) perpetrated by men against women has been studied at length, relatively little attention has been given to violence perpetrated by women against their male intimate partners. This study represents one of relatively few attempts to better understand the experiences of male IPV victims. Specifically, this study explored the characteristics of men who obtain and withdraw a protection order against a female intimate partner, in comparison to those men who obtain and do not withdraw the order. We also looked at the reasons men cite for obtaining and withdrawing a protection order and the types of relief granted by the court. Findings from this study revealed that men who requested protection from abuse (PFA) against female intimate partners experienced a pattern of victimization prior to their requests for protection, including physical, psychological, or emotional abuse. Although, each of these men sought and was granted a “no abuse, stalk, or threaten” order, few of them were able to obtain temporary custody of children they had in common with the defendant, nor were they successful in getting defendants evicted from the home or getting the court to order defendants to relinquish their firearms. A comparison of men who withdrew their PFAs to those who did not withdraw them suggested that men who did not withdraw their PFAs perceived their abusive situations as being more serious. Implications for future research are discussed.

Research on partner abuse has lagged in much of the world where attention has been on other problems (such as famine and war) and other crimes against women (e.g., honor killings, genital mutilation). We conducted a sweeping review of scholarly articles published in peer-reviewed journals and by government agencies outside of the United States and English-speaking developed nations that provided quantitative data on physical, psychological, and sexual abuse of intimate partners as well as consequences, risk factors, and attitudes. One hundred sixty-two articles reporting on more than 200 studies in Asia, the Middle East, Africa, Latin America, and Europe met the inclusion criteria from various types of samples. Most of the studies reported on female victimization only, but 73 reported on both male and female victimization.

We also conducted an analysis of data from our literature review, including 1 major cross-national study, to determine the relationship among prevalence of abuse, social factors, and women’s empowerment. Results indicate that partner abuse is a widespread problem around the world, with multiple causes. Overall prevalence of abuse is higher in Third World countries compared to the United States, and rates for physical and psychological abuse are comparable across gender in most countries when all types of samples are considered. No significant association was found between rates of partner violence (PV) and a nation’s level of human development. However, a significant relationship was found between a nation’s level of gender empowerment and rates of PV by both males and females but only for university dating samples from the International Dating Violence Study (IDVS). In addition, an analysis of the IDVS indicates that efforts by 1 partner to dominate the other are positively correlated with physical abuse perpetration for women, but not for men. Among the limitations of this review was the relatively few numbers of large population studies that ask about both male and female perpetration and victimization and the consequences and context of PV. Implications of the findings include the need for a broader conceptualization of PV as not merely a gender problem but also (and perhaps primarily) a human problem.

This study adds to the available literature on female-perpetrated intimate abuse by examining Dutton’s (2007) theory of the abusive personality (AP) in a sample of 914 women who had been involved in dating relationships. Consistent with the AP, recalled parental rejection, borderline personality organization (BPO), anger, and trauma symptoms all demonstrated moderate-to-strong relationships with women’s self-reported intimate psychological abuse perpetration. Fearful attachment style demonstrated a weak-to-moderate relationship with psychological abuse perpetration. A potential model for explaining the interrelationships between the elements of the AP was tested using structural equation modeling (SEM). Consistent with the proposed model, recalled parental rejection demonstrated relationships with BPO, trauma symptoms, and fearful attachment. Similarly consistent with the model, trauma symptoms demonstrated a relationship with anger; and BPO demonstrated strong relationships with trauma symptoms, fearful attachment, and anger. Additionally, anger itself had a strong relationship with women’s self-reported perpetration of intimate psychological and physical abuse. Contrary to the proposed model, fearful attachment had a nonsignificant relationship with anger when this relationship was examined using SEM.

Instructional designers plan current student experiences that promote future competence. There is a wide agreement that current instruction should allow students to “go beyond the information given” by demonstrating novel understanding. Less clear is what instructional efforts yield what specific emergent knowledge. Under these conditions, emergent learning remains an untestable, and therefore unscientific, concept. We describe a framework that creates emergent learning in both novice and experienced learners, and in many academic subjects, specifying preconditions that will yield specific emergent learning outcomes, and thereby promoting a desirable level of prospective precision in the planning of future student competence.

In this study the author examines the efficacy of translating socio-cognitive principles into practice, by using the FCL (Fostering Communities of Learners and Thinkers) method devised by Brown and Campione. The benefits of FCL are compared with traditional interventions, within the context of writing competence. The principle hypothesis of this study is that an FCL intervention program will deliver greater writing competence than more traditional methods. It is shown that students exposed to the metacognitive and shared problem solving environment that is created by FCL derive larger benefits than students exposed to traditional instruction. Moreover, it is shown that the benefits of the FCL approach increase with time, even after the intervention has ceased.

21 adults with intellectual disabilities were examined three years after participating in a cognitive intervention program in order to assess the durability of their cognitive achievements. The sample consisted of two age groups: 30-49 years (n=12) and 50-59 years (n=9). The primary intervention method was the Instrumental Enrichment Program. The effects of the intervention were examined by three types of thinking instruments: logical thinking (Reversal and Verbal Abstraction Tests), predictive thinking (Maze Tests), and insightful thinking (Postures and Children Tests). These tests were given five times: two times prior to the cognitive education program, spaced two months apart; two times after the cognitive education program, spaced two months apart; three years after the program. This repeated-measurement was used to compensate for the absence of a control group (an absence due to reality-based technical considerations). The original study yielded significant improvement from Time 2 to Time 3, and two months later (Time 4), showing a divergent effect for two types of thinking. The follow-up evaluation (Time 5) showed a drop in the cognitive functioning relative to Time 4, but not to Time 3, a finding that indicates a durability effect. The results support Feuerstein’s structural cognitive modifiability theory, according to which long-term individual changes are possible regardless of the individual’s age and cognitive functioning level.

This article is a literature review of studies on attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and Depression (Depression). Domains evaluated in our review include co-morbidity in proband and family in relation to ADHD and Depression, longitudinal studies concerning outcomes of ADHD in relation to Depression, and familial risk factors related to ADHD and Depression. The studies that were examined established a link between ADHD and Depression in probands as well as in their families. Studies addressing the question of the primary or secondary status of Depression in ADHD do not reveal any clear link between an initial diagnosis of ADHD and a Depression outcome, suggesting that childhood diagnosis of ADHD alone usually does not evolve into adult Depression. The long-term evolution of ADHD into Depression seems to be related more to the presence of an initial comorbidity condition in ADHD children and adolescents. Family factors seem to influence the genesis of ADHD and Depression. There also seems to be a direct link between Major Depression in mothers and ADHD in their children.

One of the benefits of physical activity in people with profound intellectual and multiple disabilities (PIMD) is an increase in alertness. This study investigated the effect of a power-assisted exercise intervention on alertness and the relationship of this effect to the level of additional motor and visual impairments in people with PIMD. A randomized controlled trial design (N = 37) was used with five measurements. Using individual plots and multilevel analysis, differences in change of alertness over time were analyzed between the intervention and control group, as was the relationship of changes to additional impairments. Considerable variation in alertness over time was found. The results showed no difference between the control and intervention groups in terms of alertness. No relationship with additional impairments was found. This study underlines the importance of looking at the effectiveness of interventions for people with PIMD because those interventions may not be as effective as expected.

Cumulative maltreatment or exposure to multiple types of child abuse or neglect increases the risk of perpetrating and sustaining intimate partner violence (IPV) in adulthood and is associated with deficits in emotion regulation, which are considered as robust determinants of psychological IPV. Yet, no research has evaluated this relationship by distinguishing the cognitive and behavioral components of emotion dysregulation. Thus, the goal of the present study was to examine the mediating role of cognitive and behavioral emotion dysregulation in the relationship uniting cumulative childhood maltreatment and psychological IPV. A total of 162 adults consulting in sexology completed self-report questionnaires assessing their experiences of cumulative trauma, emotion dysregulation, and psychological IPV. The majority (86%) of participants experienced more than one type of childhood maltreatment, whereas half of them reported having perpetrated (51%) and sustained (54%) psychological IPV. Path analyses confirmed the mediational role of emotion dysregulation in the relationship between cumulative maltreatment experiences and psychological IPV. The hypothesized model was also invariant across gender. Results highlight the necessity to assess child maltreatment and IPV experiences thoroughly in individuals consulting for sexual or relational problems.

Much research now indicates significant long-term effects for individuals who have experienced various forms of abuse in childhood. Recent research also has examined the role of women as perpetrators of intimate partner violence (IPV), including potential factors that contribute to their use of violence. One trend revealed in the research is that many of the women who engaged in acts of IPV also had a history of experiencing one or more types of childhood abuse (e.g., physical or sexual abuse, or witnessing family violence). This article discusses the specific framework of complex trauma as a theoretical model to understand how unresolved triggers of childhood trauma may potentially serve as ongoing catalysts for women’s IPV. Using the lens of complex trauma illuminates the critical interpersonal factor yet to be studied thus far, which suggests that many women’s IPV experiences may be rooted in having childhood traumas triggeredby their intimate partner. Suggestions for treatment are recommended as exploring the intersection between past trauma and present violence, which seems to be the key for unlocking important answers in treating violent women and decreasing IPV.

One of the most striking observations during our longitudinal studies in six vocational schools with more than 50 classes and teachers was the tremendous loss of knowledge from one teaching unit to the next one: sometimes over as short a time as from the beginning of a lecture to its end, sometimes from one week to the next one. So, it is not only mid- or long-term forgetting but also very short-term forgetting, or “forgetting while learning.” An exemplary analysis of an example from conceptual learning is given, and some causes for this striking form of forgetting—at a moment where forgetting is extremely detrimental for any kind of continuing learning—are presented. This article refers to some theoretical considerations about certain conditions of conceptual learning and presents the conclusions of the longitudinal studies rather than the description of the research and development processes. It may be interpreted as a direct contribution to teachers’ further education.

After introducing the networked flow as a collective creativity process, this article analyzes whether certain social network analysis (SNA) indices could be possible predictors of the social structures’ collective creativity. An empirical study was conducted in which online collaborative groups of adults on a postgraduate course interacted by a web platform to achieve a shared objective. The groups’ final products were evaluated on their originality and transferability, and these were then compared to the groups’ collective activity parameters. Final results show that the Cliques Participation Index (CPI), purposely created for this study, is a potential predictor in the groups’ collective creativity.

While the prevalence and incidence of intimate partner violence (IPV) with males as perpetrators and women as victims has steadily gained public and professional attention since the 1970s, equal attention to the incidence of men as victims of IPV, specifically emotional abuse, has not kept pace. This article will prepare counselors to better understand, assess, and intervene in incidences where men are indeed victims of this dimension of IPV.

Adult attachment is related to several important relationship variables, including physical aggression (e.g., Bookwala & Zdaniuk, 1998; Henderson, Bartholomew, Trinke, & Kwong, 2005) and relationship beliefs (Stackert & Bursik, 2003). In this study, we extended previous findings by examining the specific associations between anxious and avoidant attachment, dysfunctional relationship beliefs, and partner-specific assertiveness and psychological aggressiveness. Results indicated that assertiveness was associated with sex (males reported lower assertiveness) and attachment avoidance (participants high in avoidance reported less assertiveness toward partner). Psychological aggressiveness was related to sex (males reported lower psychological aggressiveness) and attachment (anxious and avoidant attachment were related to more psychological aggressiveness). As predicted, the relation of anxious attachment to psychological aggression was mediated by dysfunctional beliefs. Students with anxious attachment were more likely to believe that disagreements were destructive, which was related to higher rates of perpetrating psychological aggression.

Objective: A training intervention that aims to improve the problem-solving and organization skills of adolescents with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) has been investigated. Aim of this study was to examine the mechanisms of change that occurred during the intervention in an empirical trial. Method: Forty-nine adolescents with ADHD aged 12–17 years took part in the intervention. The primary outcome of the intervention was the reduction of ADHD symptoms. To understand how the intervention facilitated the improvement of the outcome, we conducted mediation and moderation analyses. As potential mediators, improvement in academic enablers and meta- and neurocognitive functioning were investigated. Age, gender, and medication status were analyzed as potential moderators of the outcome. Results: An improvement in academic enablers partially mediated symptom reductions. There were no effects of moderation. Conclusions: Enhancing academic skills can reduce ADHD symptom severity. The training intervention examined in this study is a promising treatment for adolescents with ADHD.

Children, 4–6 years of age, in special education kindergartens were randomly assigned to a classification training (n = 45) and a comparison (n = 49) group. Children in the training group were taught the Classification unit of Bright Start, whereas those in the comparison group received a regular content-oriented curriculum. Both groups were given pre- and posttests of classification, semantic categories, and conceptual and perceptual analogies. Children who received the classification training improved more on all tests than did those in the comparison group. Significant positive correlations were found between verbal conceptualization and classification, conceptual analogies, and perceptual analogies. Teaching classification appears to have effects that generalize to other domains of language and higher order thinking that are significant in the cognitive development of young children with developmental language delays. The findings support the interplay between thinking and language and positive cognitive developmental effects of training in classification.

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder is a widespread problem that affects many aspects of the academic and social system. The development of techniques aimed at cognitive remediation of attention disorders is one approach to helping deal with the high prevalence of ADHD in school-age children. In order to serve most efficiently students with attention deficits, these techniques should be implemented on an institutional level. We have developed a cognitive training program, the Attention Education Program (AEP), that uses techniques of visual-motor imagery to increase ADHD children’s attention control. In this study we examined the effects of AEP training on elementary school children with ADHD. Thirty children from the Quebec special education system, who were rated as having ADHD, participated in two testing sessions on the Conners CPT with sessions six months apart. Approximately one-half of the subjects received AEP training during the six-month interval between tests, while the other group received no training. AEP training led to improvement on CPT reaction times in ADHD children, and to a reduction in CPT errors in a subgroup of hyperactive subjects. These results suggest potential therapeutic value of cognitive remediation programs implemented in the school system.

A community’s conception of child development, “native theories” of socialization, the meta-communicative framework, the cultural meaning and value system—including the parent-child dyadic relationship—as part of the wider historical and cultural process significantly influence the construction of a person. It includes reference to literacy events, parents’ conceptions of the ideal child, their educational objectives, and indigenous conception of “intelligence,” all of which can influence the academic progress of Ethiopian children. Although these cultural practices, native theories of development, and conceptions of “schooling” are “functional” and valued within the group—especially in their Ethiopian socio-cultural and economic milieu—the group’s encounter with the Israeli schools and other social systems has created a conflict that works to the disadvantage of Ethiopian children. The data presented here show the rift between school ethos and home environment of Ethiopian children, which inadequately prepares them for formal demands of the Israeli school system. There is a discontinuity between home and school, non-existent among middle class Israeli children.

Cognitive education is defined and described according to aspects that are common to various curricula and programs as well as aspects that vary across programs. Its most basic and universal characteristic is its focus on processes of systematic logical thinking and especially the application of basic tools of learning. The application of fundamental cognitive and metacognitive concepts in teaching and learning is described with examples. Selected curricula, programs, and approaches are listed and briefly characterized. Criteria for evaluating cognitive education programs are proposed, and some examples of successful evaluation strategies are given. Evaluation of effectiveness across different cognitive education programs shows effects on cognitive development, IQ, school achievement, intrinsic motivation, and reductions in referral to special education, although such effects depend on age of learners, specific program characteristics, and effectiveness criteria.

The present article reports on a study that extends Dynamic Assessment (DA) to the domain of second language (L2) writing instruction. As in general education, the L2 field has increasingly moved toward a process approach to writing that emphasizes the importance of multiple drafts, opportunities for feedback, and attempts at revision. The present study, undertaken collaboratively with an experienced classroom teacher of L2 Japanese, reformulated this process as three interrelated stages of mediated activity: an initial DA session in which the teacher prompted learners to identify and correct errors in order to identify knowledge and abilities that were in the process of emerging; a peer mediation session to collaboratively review, discuss, and correct exemplar sentences containing representative problematic constructions; and a whole-class discussion of the language constructions. Analysis of recorded and transcribed sessions indicates the value to learners of collaboratively discussing and correcting similar error types in their peers’ writing.

General intelligence (g) is a highly practical ability that affects personal well-being in many aspects of life. This article reviews five key facts documenting its pervasive utility, and then illustrates how higher levels of intelligence enhance an individual's performance and well-being in four realms of daily life: work, daily self-maintenance, chronic illness, and accidents.

The first key fact is that people who do well on one mental test tend to perform well on all of them; that is, all mental tests correlate with one other. All measure mostly the same underlying ability factor, no matter what their manifest content or purpose. Mental abilities differ in their generality-specificity, and the general mental ability factor, g, is the most general of all. Second, high intelligence is expressed as a set of generic thinking skills that includes learning efficiently, reasoning well, thinking abstractly, and solving novel problems. These information-processing skills can be applied to virtually any kind of content in any context. Hence, third, everyday life continually requires individuals to learn and reason well. Fourth, ample evidence shows that general intelligence not only predicts many forms of success and well-being but usually does so better than socioeconomic status. More specific mental abilities add little to prediction beyond that contributed by g alone. Fifth, intelligence predicts performance better when tasks are more complex. Although higher intelligence is somewhat useful in many life arenas, it is particularly advantageous when jobs and daily tasks are more cognitively demanding. It is therefore important to know the distribution of task demands in different life areas.

Four life arenas illustrate how more cognitively demanding tasks put less intelligent individuals at greater risk. Job analysis research has repeatedly shown that the major distinction among jobs is their cognitive complexity, for example, their requirements for obtaining, analyzing, communicating, and applying oral, written, pictorial, and behavioral information. Consistent with this finding, intelligence predicts job performance progressively better in higher level jobs, and higher level jobs tend to recruit workers from higher levels of IQ.

Daily self-maintenance refers here to carrying out the many small reading, writing, and reasoning tasks that modern societies impose on their members, such as reading labels and filling out forms. Research shows that the difficulty of these functional literacy tasks, like that of jobs, rests on the complexity of their information processing demands, most generally, on the need to learn and reason. Functional literacy, like IQ itself, predicts various forms of socioeconomic success and failure.

Preventing and managing both chronic disease and accidental injury, the leading causes of death today, is a highly cognitive process. Studies of health literacy, which is learning and reasoning applied to health matters, show that less literate individuals have difficulty understanding and adhering to treatment regimens. Lower adherence predicts higher mortality. Accident prevention models reveal that it requires the same information processing skills that job analyses document as distinctive requirements of high-level, complex jobs: for instance, learning and recalling relevant information, identifying problem situations quickly, and reacting swiftly to unexpected situations. Health providers can reduce excess complexity in their communications and treatment regimens. They can also increase cognitive assistance when tasks are inherently complex, such as in the daily self-management of diabetes, hypertension, and asthma.

In this study the authors investigated the reliability and validity of a group dynamic assessment procedure applied with adolescents with significant cognitive delays and multiple handicapping conditions. The authors addressed the question of how responsive these students are to group mediated intervention using an instrument that measures cognitive processes. The test used was a modification of selected subtests from the Das/Naglieri Cognitive Assessment System (CAS). From the results they documented test-retest reliability and concurrent validity with classroom achievement. The performance of 26 adolescents who participated in a group dynamic assessment procedure was compared to the performance of 22 adolescents who did not participate in the procedure. The group participating in the dynamic assessment procedures showed significant gains in posttest scores. Gains were maintained six months following the intervention.

This paper is a report of an evaluation of the Bright Start program that has been designed to assist the cognitive development of children in the early school years. Children in both experimental and control groups lived in the same public housing project in North Marseilles, France, went to school in the same district, and were of the same chronological age. Analyses were conducted on two non-independent criterion variables: overall school achievement, and achievement scores in specific subject areas. The results of the study showed that it is possible to learn to learn at preschool. Pupils who received cognitive early education in kindergarten learned better and applied more effectively a range of new academic knowledge in the two years that immediately followed the intervention than did comparable children who did not receive cognitive early education.

The principal objective of this study was to investigate the predictive power of thinking styles for hardiness—a healthy personality disposition. Four hundred (146 males and 254 females) students from a large, comprehensive university in Shanghai, the People’s Republic of China, responded to the Thinking Styles Inventory-Revised II (Sternberg, Wagner, & Zhang, 2007) and the hardiness scale (Bartone, Ursano, Wright, & Ingraham, 1989). Results showed that after students’ age and gender were controlled for, creativity-generating styles (also known as Type I styles) and a style that allows students to work in collaboration with others (i.e., external style) positively contributed to hardiness, whereas norm-favoring styles (also known as Type II styles) and a style that denotes a lack of discipline and planning (i.e., anarchic style) negatively contributed to hardiness. Implications of these findings are discussed in relation to university students, faculty members, and for university senior managers.

This study investigated how the forethought phase of self-regulation is related to the cultivation of successful intelligence (SI) through a filmmaking project. The sample included 83 middle school students divided into an intervention and a control group. Students in the former group received a 3-month intervention involving the making of short movies for the cultivation of SI, whereas the latter continued with traditional teaching. Both groups were tested for their SI before and after the intervention and completed a questionnaire for the forethought phase components of self-regulation. This article presents the analyses of students’ responses to the forethought phase components questionnaire. The results demonstrated that, in general, students of the intervention group expressed higher levels of forethought self-regulation indicators than their peers in the control group; the relationship, however, between self-regulation and SI measures was relatively weak.

Teachers’ behavior in the classroom can be assessed from different perspectives using teacher ratings, student ratings, or classroom observations. This article presents an observation instrument to assess teachers’ promotion of self-regulated learning (SRL), capturing teachers’ instruction of self-regulation strategies as well as characteristics of the learning environment that should foster students’ self-regulation. Thirty-four classroom videotapes were systematically coded regarding teachers’ promotion of SRL. Moreover, student and teacher ratings were collected to compare different perspectives. For the prediction of students’ SRL, the value of observation data and of teacher and student ratings was analyzed. The results suggested that teacher and observer ratings did not agree, and that teacher and student ratings agreed to some extent. Regression analysis showed that the instruction of metacognitive strategies assessed through observations as well as through student ratings significantly predicted students’ SRL, whereas the ratings of the observed learning environment predicted student SRL and achievement negatively. In addition, teachers’ perceptions of fostering situated learning also predicted SRL of their students.

Although kindergarten curricula typically center on the teaching of “basic skills,” cognitive education programs that pursue the same goal have not been entirely successful at fostering reading, writing, and numbers skills. Previous research in our laboratory reinforced our confidence in the ability of cognitive early education to promote educability, especially in children of low socio-economic status. As a preventive measure, we gave the “Bright Start” program of cognitive early education to a group of children from a very low SES group during the kindergarten year, and assessed its effects on acquisition of reading competence through the first three grades, in comparison to a control group from the same social milieu and a control group of much more socially advantaged children. The results affirm once again the influence of the socio-economic environment on learning, and provide evidence that cognitive early education can promote reading acquisition and can compensate in very large measure for socio-economic differences.

Traditionally, many educators and psychologists believed that successes and failures within the school context are attributable mainly to individual differences in such classic variables as ability, personality, and learning motivation. This article presents research evidence demonstrating that intellectual styles, that is, people’s preferred ways of processing information and dealing with tasks, also play critical roles in students’ learning and development and in teachers’ practices. It further demonstrates that some styles are more valued than are others and that styles are malleable.

The article is divided into four parts. The first part briefly introduces the background of the research to be presented. The second reviews the key literature, supporting the position that intellectual styles are value laden, with creativity-generating styles (also known as Type I styles) being more adaptive than are norm-favoring styles (also known as Type II styles). The third part highlights some research findings indicating that styles can be modified. The final and fourth part of the article discusses the implications of the research evidence for various parties of educational institutions at all levels—generally referred to as “schools” in this article.

In humans, cultural differences in advanced social cognition have been well demonstrated. In tasks pertaining to theory of mind, for instance, individuals pass standard assessments of false-belief understanding at substantially different ages in different cultural environments. Less well-studied are more basic sociocognitive capacities, such as joint attention, which are held by many to constitute the foundational skill set for advanced sociocognitive reasoning. Here, we review the striking group differences in joint attention displayed by great apes as a consequence of being raised in different cultural environments, including wild habitats, institutional settings such as zoos and biomedical research centers, and home-rearing or language-training settings. Like humans, apes develop tactics for joint attention that are adaptive to the particular environments of their early rearing experiences. Great apes serve as animal models for environmental influences on sociocognitive capacities in our own species.

African American students tend to have better learning outcomes if they can identify with the educational process. Two types of schemata may account for the influence of ethnic/racial identification on learning outcomes: the schema that reflects the ethnic/racial or cultural identity of African American students, and a second schema paradigm that is the relational schema induction theory. Ethnic/racial identification with a learning task facilitates Black students’ ability to identify the relations among the elements of the task, create a mental analog, and apply it to novel learning situations. This notion was tested in a post hoc evaluation of a case-based learning approach to teaching abnormal psychology to a class of 39 undergraduate students at a historically Black college or university (HBCU). This study compared case studies about an African American, European American, and Native American in terms of their effect on learning outcomes. The hypothesis was that the African American case would be associated more strongly with learning outcomes. Results from structural equation modeling analyses supported the hypothesis. Implications for teaching and learning among African American students are discussed.

This longitudinal study focuses on the development of reading abilities and its relationship with social and emotional integration in students with and without special educational needs (SEN). The first measurements (Time 1 [T1]) took place at the end of 5th grade; the second series (Time 2 [T2]) were 1 year later. Participants were 18 students with SEN, 18 students without SEN matched on intelligence with the SEN group, and 18 students without SEN with average IQs, all from integration classes in regular secondary education in Austria. The students with SEN consistently showed the lowest reading abilities in reading fluency of words and nonwords, sentence comprehension, and text comprehension, followed by the low-IQ students. The average-IQ students always showed the highest reading abilities. Students with SEN reported being less socially integrated than low-IQ students without SEN. Average-IQ students show the highest social integration. However, students with SEN showed a similar level of emotional integration as their peers. Regression analyses showed, as expected, that T1 measures of reading fluency of words and nonwords as well as sentence comprehension and text comprehension all predicted T2 measures of these variables. Intelligence was an additional predictor for word reading fluency in the average-IQ group only. Social and emotional integration appeared to be additional predictors for text comprehension at T2 for students with SEN but not for the other groups. The results of this study suggest that students will learn better when they feel socially and emotionally integrated.

TPACK (Technology Pedagogy Content Knowledge) is currently considered one of the most useful frameworks for describing the types of knowledge that teachers should master in integrating technologies effectively in their teaching. According to the TPACK framework, these types of knowledge consist of technological knowledge (TK), pedagogical knowledge (PK), and content knowledge (CK). This article suggests improving the authenticity and the holistic nature of the TPACK framework by (a) adding a new aspect (the affective aspect, which involves teachers’ attitudes toward change) and (b) elaborating on the systemic-organizational aspect (associated with the teachers’ perception of school as a learning organization) and the cognitive aspect (related to the cognitive skills required for effective use of educational technologies), which are not discussed in enough detail in TPACK.

This study investigated the extension of Cattell-Horn-Carroll (CHC)–based cognitive assessment with dynamic testing using self-regulated learning (SRL). It was based on extensive review, which called for an integrative assessment of the propensity for learning and cognition of children with learning disabilities (LDs). The objective was to examine whether a brief SRL engagement during dynamic testing could enhance self-regulatory behaviors and performance in 3 CHC areas and reveal differences in SRL processes. There were 50 children at risk for LDs assigned to 2 groups: 1 group participated in dynamic extensions of assessment with SRL (involving thinking aloud and mediated learning experience); the control group undertook the same tasks without SRL. Significant intergroup differences were found in behaviors across three CHC areas and test performance in writing but not in fluid reasoning or memory tasks. Thinking-aloud processes revealed SRL capacities not evident in static assessment. Implications of dynamic extensions of tests using SRL were discussed.

Education reform efforts are frequently introduced and discontinued without producing the promised impact. The problem may lie not with the quality of the reform initiative but rather with the quality of its implementation or treatment integrity. This article reviews the variables that influence treatment integrity and some specific approaches for increasing it and concludes with a proposed data-based decision-making approach to scaling up treatment integrity in large educational systems. If true education reform is to occur, then it will be necessary to assure that the reform efforts are implemented with integrity.

Despite the global universality of physical space, different cultural groups vary substantially as to how they memorize it. Although European participants mostly prefer egocentric strategies (“left, right, front, back”) to memorize spatial relations, others use mostly allocentric strategies (“north, south, east, west”). Prior research has shown that some cultures show a general preference to memorize object locations and even also body movements in relation to the larger environment rather than in relation to their own body. Here, we investigate whether this cultural bias also applies to movements specifically directed at the participants’ own body, emphasizing the role of ego. We show that even participants with generally allocentric biases preferentially memorize self-directed movements using egocentric spatial strategies. These results demonstrate an intricate system of interacting cultural biases and momentary situational characteristics.

Adolescence is an important age period for the development of prospective cognition. Teenagers become able to reason about the future, including anticipating events and formulating plans to reach goals. This article focuses on adolescents’ development of skills for strategic thinking: for anticipating possible scenarios in a plan and formulating flexible plans that take these into account. We have studied teens’ work on projects within youth programs (such as arts, leadership programs) because they provide real-world-like contexts for understanding development of these skills. Two case studies demonstrate the complexity of strategic skills and how they are learned. Effective strategic thinking requires learning to anticipate the particularities of the contexts and people involved in reaching a goal, for example, how to communicate effectively with a specific audience through a specific medium. It also requires learning general “meta” concepts and strategies that apply across situations, such as formulating plans that take uncertainties into account.

This study examined the role that achievement goals may play in predicting subjective well-being, particularly the extra contribution of achievement goals beyond that of personality traits. There were 371 university students from Nanjing, China (mean age = 20.67, SD = 1.30) who participated in the study and reported their achievement goals, the Big Five personality traits, and subjective well-being (including life satisfaction, positive, and negative affect). Results revealed that mastery-approach goals positively and significantly predicted life satisfaction; mastery-approach and performance-approach goals positively, whereas performance-avoidance goals negatively significantly predicted positive affect. When working with the Big Five personality traits, mastery-approach goals and performance-approach goals showed their added contributions to life satisfaction and positive affect, respectively. These results highlight the importance of considering achievement goals when explaining individual differences of subjective well-being as well as the importance of taking subjective well-being into account when understanding the nature of achievement goals.

Imitation provides the basis for acquiring knowledge, as well as providing a foundation for the development of reciprocal social skills. Children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) do not naturally imitate others, and it is hypothesized that deficits in imitation may impede their ability to develop both academically and socially. Early imitation intervention studies, using traditional direct teaching (e.g., teacher-directed discrete trial training), focused on the learning function of imitation and were successful in improving skill acquisition but had little impact on the development of socially successful interactions. More recently, imitation interventions have targeted reciprocal or synchronous imitation (e.g., child-directed reciprocal imitation training), focused on the social function of imitation and have resulted in gains in imitation abilities and concomitant improvements in social engagement. This article explores imitation deficits in individuals with ASD, describes basic and applied research focusing on improving imitation skills, discusses implications for clinical intervention, and provides a synthesis of the current literature within the framework of prospective cognition.

The definition of “transfer” of learning is so broad that it encompasses most realms of psychology, making it difficult to arrive at agreed-upon criteria for classifying different types of transfer. Research findings indicate great difficulty in achieving distal transfer, even when effective didactic principles, such as metacognition, are used. In studies where transfer was achieved, it was limited, relative to levels of investment and expectation. It has appeared mostly in laboratories, with little evidence of maintenance over time.

The author proposes that we should examine the products and processes of transfer from the learner’s point of view. This perspective rests on a distinction between transfer potential, which relies on a network of schemas in memory storage, and the transfer process itself, which occurs in working memory. This analysis reduces the number of transfer characteristics and suggests description of transfer as effective and justified use of principles, relationships and strategies, in tasks that are distal from the learner’s point of view. The article leads to the conclusion that to be achieved, transfer must become a curriculum’s central goal (what to teach). The principles and methods of reaching this goal (how to teach) rest on four main components: (a) well planned curricula, (b) training teachers for transfer expertise, (c) “learning communities” and challenging environments, and (d) use of advanced technology.

Deferred imitation is well accepted as a method to assess declarative memory in preverbal infants. Until now, mostly Western middle-class infants were tested with this paradigm. Therefore, early cultural differences in imitative behavior and/or declarative memory performance are largely unknown. This study investigated deferred imitation performance in two samples from two cultural contexts: 6-month-old Cameroonian Nso farmer infants (N = 38) and German middle-class infants (N = 46). Both samples were tested with one of two types of pillow tasks, similar to the hand puppet task: a pillow with either a White female face or a Cameroonian Nso female face. After a baseline phase, four target actions were demonstrated. Memory performance was assessed after a delay of 10 minutes. Infants’ imitative behavior was observed and compared with baseline behavior. Both the Cameroonian Nso and the German infants showed significantly more target actions in the test than in the baseline phase (memory effect). These results clearly demonstrate that imitation as a learning process in infancy is found in various cultures. Although infants of both samples showed more proximal interactions such as caressing, hugging, and kissing the pillow from their own cultural context than the one from the unfamiliar cultural context, the cultural nature of the material in memory tests did not influence memory-based performance.

This research aimed at identifying the statistically predictive relationship of personality traits to teaching approaches. The NEO Five-Factor Inventory and the Approaches to Teaching Inventory were administered to 268 academics from six elite universities in mainland China. Results showed that personality traits significantly contributed to teaching approaches beyond gender, type of institution, and taught academic discipline. Specifically, as expected, openness was beneficial to the conceptual-change teaching approach, whereas neuroticism was conducive to the information-transmission teaching approach. Furthermore, extraversion was related to the conceptual-change teaching approach, whereas agreeableness was associated with the information-transmission teaching approach. Implications of these findings are discussed with respect to academics and university senior managers.

In this study we evaluated 24 third-grade students’ preferences for reading and writing tasks. Tasks were identified according to challenge level based on the amount of required writing, whether students studied collaboratively, and duration. Students gave performance judgments and value ratings for 2 high- and 2 low-challenge tasks and explained their ratings. Students who had frequent opportunities to complete high-challenge tasks preferred them because they felt creative, experienced positive emotions, and worked hard. Students with less exposure to high-challenge tasks questioned whether they had the appropriate metacognitive abilities to complete them. Overall, students expressed a dislike for low-challenge tasks because they were boring and required minimal thought. Discussion focuses on how teachers can scaffold instruction for students at different achievement levels.

This study was conducted in the South African context, where education is in a state of transition. One of the central issues in higher education is the development of academic literacy. However, as a result of an inadequate focus on educational linguistics and a lack of explicit instruction in academic literacy, many students do not achieve their full potential. This study focuses on aspects of academic literacy in the examination responses of a group of students studying in the discipline of speech-language pathology. The purpose of the study was to determine whether or not there is a relationship between the students’ academic literacy skills and their ability to answer examination questions. By means of an exploratory retrospective longitudinal record review, the examination scripts of 20 students were rated for evidence of various academic literacy skills. The ratings were highly correlated to the actual examination marks in both years of study, suggesting that there is a need to incorporate explicit instruction in academic literacy to develop students’ metacognitive processes while reading and writing for academic purposes.

This study examined 78 students as they began learning how to use a computer system to create visual models of fractions ordering problems and then use the visual models to reason about the correct answers to the problems. We used quantitative data collected by the computer system during a 2-day intervention to identify groups of students with similar performance characteristics. After the intervention, we conducted individual interviews with 10 students for the purpose of investigating qualitative differences between the groups. Our results indicated that most of the 78 students learned to use the computer system to create accurate models in a relatively short period, but not all students learned how to use the models to reason about the correct answers to the problems by the end of the intervention. We hypothesize that we can improve future versions of the system by creating differentiated scaffolds for students with different performance characteristics. In addition, we may be able to improve the learning outcomes associated with implementing this type of technology in classrooms by providing teachers with more detailed data about their students’ performance and the correct and incorrect strategies their students use to solve problems.

An investigation was carried out into the phonological short-term memory (PSTM) and visuospatial short-term memory (VSSTM) skills of children with specific language impairment (SLI; n = 41) using memory span tasks. Individuals with SLI were compared with children who had milder degrees of language difficulty (“low language functioning” [LLF]; n = 31) and children with typical development (n = 88). Regression analyses examined the effects of group after controlling for age and nonverbal IQ; further regressions included an additional control for verbal IQ. Even after controlling for all of these variables, children with SLI and LLF showed significantly weaker PSTM than children with typical development. For VSSTM, there were no overall group differences in performance. The findings imply that the PSTM difficulties that have been reported in children with SLI are substantial, whereas VSSTM appears to be an area of relative strength for most children with SLI.

Between the idea

And the reality

Between the motion

And the act

Falls the Shadow

T. S. Eliot, “The Hollow Men”

This article reports on the development and evaluation of a meta-cognitive tool for practitioners’ reflection on the ‘shadow’ between espoused theories and theories-in-use. The learning theories profile (LTP) was developed to support practitioners in education to identify and reflect on the theoretical perspectives that underpin their professional decision-making. In order to assess the usefulness of the LTP for reflection on professional development and practice, 15 special educators who were enrolled in a university course took part in a trial of the tool. Data from pre-activity and post-activity surveys suggested that the LTP helped students to critically consider contemporary and traditional theories of learning, raised awareness of the application of learning theories in education practice and supported users to reflect on their own professional practice, and interactions.

Even if the label special educational needs (SEN) is similarly used in various countries for indicating students with disabilities, the practices and diagnostic criteria leading to this label vary widely. This study aims to clarify the diagnostic process in Austria that leads to labeling. A sample of 169 special needs teachers who regularly write SEN reports participated in the online survey. The survey questions were based on those of a study by Ansperger (1998), who questioned special education teachers writing such reports in 1995–1996. Results show that, although more and more standardized instruments are used, still quite several unstandardized assessments are reported. Little time is available for the assessments, and only few reports include information on future pedagogical/educational intervention. It is concluded that in inclusive education, assessment should be more oriented toward educational intervention to address the diversity in learning needs among students than at diagnosing disabilities.

This paper presents a model of cognitive therapy that is being developed in the Division of Specialised Education at the University of the Witwatersrand. It is called Mediated Cognitive Therapy (MCT) because it has its roots in traditional cognitive therapy but derives its methodology from Reuven Feuerstein’s theories of Structural Cognitive Modifiability, the Mediated Learning Experience (MLE), and of Cognitive Functions and Dysfunctions (Feuerstein, Rand, Hoffman, & Miller, 1980).

Socially shared regulation of learning refers to processes by which group members regulate their collective activity. Successful individuals regulate their motivational, cognitive, and metacognitive engagement. Our hypothesis is that successful groups also share in regulating group processes. Following our earlier conceptual and empirical work on the social aspect of motivating and regulating learning (Hadwin & Järvelä, 2011; Järvenoja & Järvelä, 2009; Järvelä, Volet, & Järvenoja, 2010), our research questions are as follows: (a) What challenges do individuals and groups report experiencing during collaborative group work? (b) How do students collectively regulate these challenges at the time, and in future collaborations? (c) How do collaborative learning outcomes compare between groups with varying degrees of emerging shared regulation? We present an empirical study in which 18 graduate students worked in collaborative teams of 3–4 over an 8-week period. The nStudy (Winne, Hadwin, & Beaudoin, 2010) software was used for collaborative planning and work, as well as face-to-face and online collaboration between team members. Data included individual and collaborative statements about collaborative challenges, collaborative statements about contextual and future regulation strategies, collaborative learning performance, and log file traces of students’ contributions to collaborative chat discussions and planning activities. Findings indicated that the students expressed multiple challenges resulting in 3 kinds of regulation over time profiles: strong, progressive, and weak shared regulation. We also conclude that successful collaboration not only requires self-regulation but also allows each team member to support fellow team members to successfully regulate their learning and the team to come together to collectively regulate learning.

Educational research is continually being thrashed for its poor quality. Several recent efforts to define better research standards have sputtered. Acknowledging others’ arguments that the nature of educational research is applied (directed at problems of schooling), heterogeneous (multidisciplinary), and complex (multidimensional), we nonetheless advocate more widespread implementation of scientifically based research methodologies. Our central thesis focuses on the concept of credible evidence. We suggest that most educational research approaches that are in vogue today are incapable of yielding empirical evidence that is convincing from either a scientific or a prescriptive standpoint. After offering a refresher on the logic underlying carefully controlled scientific investigations and then contrasting current educational research inquiry with inquiry characteristic of medical research, we present an educational research model in which what we refer to as “randomized classroom trials” studies are accorded a position of prominence. We provide examples of candidate topics for such studies and discuss the challenging issues that must be resolved so that educational practice will be better informed by educational research evidence that is credible.

Effective self-regulation is needed to foster student learning. A meta-analysis has shown that even primary school children benefit from training in self-regulated learning. However, there is a lack of research considering the connection between key aspects of regular classroom instruction and students’ self-regulated learning. This study investigates the hypothesis that in primary school, self-regulated learning is systematically related to the quality of teaching. Teaching quality is conceptualized as a multidimensional construct comprising classroom management, supportive climate, and cognitive activation. All three dimensions of teaching quality, as well as metacognitive strategy use and volitional control, were reliably assessed for 996 third graders from 54 classes in German primary schools via questionnaire. Because of the clustered data structure, we used multilevel regression analyses for identifying the assumed connections. Most notably, at the classroom level, metacognitive strategy use was significantly predicted by cognitive activation, whereas volitional control was predicted by a supportive climate.

The school curriculum and the educational legislation of Greece place the development of critical thinking among the first priorities of formal education. In practice, however, teaching is based most of the time on the mnemonic abilities of the students. As a result, schools are subjected to endless criticism and teachers are constantly exhorted, typically in the vaguest of terms, to use teaching practices that engage the higher cognitive abilities of their pupils. This work describes a program which aims to equip teachers with specific and practical, effective schemata for infusing thinking into day-to-day curriculum activities. The first part of the work presents conceptualizations of critical thinking and of teaching for thinking, both of which have been used as tools for developing an infusion program later presented to primary school teachers in an inservice course. The second part presents the results from the implementation of the program, which show that the program is both easy to use and effective in promoting the involvement of primary school-aged children in learning activities which engage in critical thinking.

This study examined the relationship between social withdrawal (isolation and unsociability) and peer victimization by exploring the moderating influences of gender, classroom norms of social withdrawal, individualism, and collectivism. One hundred fifty-eight adolescents (M_age = 14.11, SD = 1.10; 46.3% boys) in 7th and 8th grade from Curitiba, Brazil, completed peer assessments of isolation, unsociability, peer victimization, and self-reports of classroom individualism and collectivism. Isolation and unsociability were aggregated into classroom norms. Data were analyzed using multilevel modeling. Isolation and unsociability positively predicted victimization. Unsociability was a positive predictor of victimization in low-unsociability classrooms. Isolation was negatively associated with victimization in low-isolation classes. The relationship between isolation and victimization was weaker in more collectivistic classes. The relationship between unsociability and peer victimization was strongest among boys in classes low in individualism. This study provides further support that social withdrawal has consequences for adolescents’ socioemotional development which vary by classroom context.

Research has demonstrated that people treat digital technology-based environments as if they were real. The implication is that perceiving and enacting actions in these environments draws upon the representations and skills humans have developed in the real world. These findings are consistent with the insight from grounded cognition in that the same set of representations used in perceptual grounding of actions are the basis of many forms of cognitive processing. This research investigates factors that could support users in leveraging their existing real-world representations to improve learning outcomes in desktop virtual training environments. A reasonable hypothesis is that users are more likely to evoke existing real-world processing (including being sensitive to potential risk) if technological artifacts they use are congruent with their experiential basis. In an effector (WiiMote vs. mouse) by visual realism (high vs. low) design, participants watched as a computer avatar cut a cucumber and performed a cut on their own. Participants treated WiiMote more like a knife than a mouse as they demonstrated risk aversion by taking a longer time in performing the task when the visual realism was lifelike. The results demonstrate the usefulness of an embodied perspective when designing and developing digital-physical computing interfaces.

South Africa’s development since 1994 has been of interest to many people across the world as the diverse nature of our society, including the growing diversity of student populations at our universities, demands very special interventions and initiatives to help create a healthier society. Research at Stellenbosch University demonstrates a positive relationship between wellness (which includes its intellectual, social, emotional, physical, spiritual and occupational dimensions) and student success. The main focus of this article is on how a university can develop systemic-holistic strategies to enhance wellness. High levels of wellness in students contribute toward the formation of harmonious and healthy communities on campus, where diversity is regarded as an asset. Furthermore, these “well” students will one day enter the world of work as well-rounded professionals and global citizens who do not hesitate to continue contributing toward the creation of a better society. Academic (or cognitive) success is of vital importance; however, student success in our very diverse context requires a much wider spectrum of characteristics or graduate outcomes for them to flourish and contribute optimally.

Literature reviews offer evidence for using systematic instruction to teach students with intellectual disabilities in mathematics. A new approach in teaching mathematical skills is to provide quantity–number competencies (QNC). However, this approach has not yet been examined in people with intellectual disabilities.

The objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of a QNC training based on the developmental model by Krajewski (2008) in students with intellectual disabilities.

Based on their cognitive and mathematical abilities, 25 children with intellectual disabilities were assigned to one of two experimental conditions. The training group received a QNC training, whereas the control group received a language skills training.

The posttest findings indicate that the gains in mathematics competence in the QNC training group were substantially larger than in the control condition. However, the QNC training group could not keep up their advancement of competency until to the follow-up conducted 3 months afterwards.

The recent rise of electronic media, and the move away from traditional reading and reading, are leading to a fundamental shift in the way in which the human brain processes information. This shift in patterns of human cognition has separate implications for new readers, individuals with reading disabilities, and children without access to schools. While this evolving method of reading may threaten the development of deep reading skills in new readers, it also promises to provide unprecedented access to information and instruction for children without access to formal schooling.

This case study seeks to extend our knowledge of the phenotype associated with excellent word reading in autism spectrum disorder by a detailed examination of psycholinguistic, neuropsychological/cognitive, and classroom/academic functioning of a Swedish-speaking 7-year-old boy (called “Jonas”). On age-referenced word reading-decoding assessment, Jonas scored among the top 7%. Reading comprehension status varied as a function of information source. Jonas’s phonological processing and phonological memory performance was found to be normal to strong. In contrast, he scored poorly on tests of oral semantic, syntactical, and narrative language. On the WISC-III, Jonas performed highly uneven across subtests from impaired to above average levels. On the Kaufman factors, Jonas had a peak in perceptual organization (IQ score 119), thus reflecting very strong visual attention skills, which together with normal to strong phonological abilities might underlie his excellent word reading. Finally, both his parents and teacher reported on other classroom-learning skills and difficulties.

This article is, first of all, a synthesis of the various views on cognitive education (CE) as presented by the guest authors of this issue, and it is also a critical discussion of the field. We discuss how Sternberg’s initial 5 questions were addressed by the authors, and we place these within the larger framework of the scientific literature on CE, metacognition, and dynamic assessment (DA). We try to unveil the strong and weak points of the various approaches, and we discuss some perspectives for the future.

This study focuses on the goal orientations of students with and without special educational needs (SEN). The sample (mean age 13 years, 10 months) was composed of 37 students with low IQ, but without SEN; 37 students who were diagnosed as having learning disability (LD); and 37 students having emotional or behavioral disorders (ED). The groups were matched by IQ and gender. The results showed that students without SEN scored significantly higher in mastery goal orientation, significantly lower in performance-avoidance orientation, and had a lower work-avoidance orientation than students with LD or ED. Students with ED showed a significantly lower performance-approach orientation than students without SEN and students with LD. Results from correlational and regression analyses showed that SEN is always an explaining variable for goal orientation and that group differences cannot be explained by IQ, gender, actual achievement, self-estimation of achievement, and school anxiety.

The effects of inservice education and experience in teaching thinking skills on teachers’ self-reported thinking behaviors and teaching style were investigated with an American group and a Costa Rican group of teachers. Both similar and different effects on personal problem-solving strategies and teaching behaviors were reported across the two groups. Explanations are proposed for the differences in relation to educational traditions in the two countries.

In this article, we present 2 studies with the primary objectives of (a) identifying college-aged students’ perceived costs for their academic studies and (b) exploring college students’ descriptions of “beneficial” aspects of costs. In Study 1, 10 cost concepts were identified from 2 focus groups, including stress, lost opportunities, effort, financial, and lost interest, to name a few. In Study 2, 98 undergraduates were surveyed on their perceptions about possible “beneficial” aspects of cost. Some of the beneficial aspects of costs that were reported included gained rewards and the development of time management skills. Implications of our findings are further discussed, along with avenues for future research.

Cognitive education is education that seeks to improve the cognitive (mental) skills of the student in order that the students can lead constructive and satisfying lives. There are many different models for cognitive education, but I have constructed a career doing cognitive education through a “theory of successful intelligence” (Sternberg, 1997, 2010; Sternberg & Grigorenko, 2007; Sternberg, Jarvin, & Grigorenko, 2009; Sternberg, Kaufman, & Grigorenko, 2008)—a theory that can be used in teaching not only on a small scale but also on a large scale.

In this article, I first describe the theory of successful intelligence. Next, I describe how the theory has been augmented in recent years through the addition of wisdom. Then I discuss an even more recent addition, the role of ethical reasoning and behavior. Finally, I draw some conclusions.

The purpose of this exploratory study was to examine the perceived opportunities and threats of teachers working on a primary level in North Rhine Westphalia, Germany, regarding inclusive schooling. Two open-ended questions using a standardized paper-pencil-questionnaire format were administered to 452 general and 130 special education teachers. Results of descriptive and inferential statistical analyses indicated that both teacher groups expressed strong concerns related to students’ educational needs and learning opportunities. Nevertheless, their perceptions differ significantly in specific categories. General education teachers anticipate inclusive schooling to improve social school climate; however, they expressed several concerns: declining teaching quality, having insufficient professional skills themselves, higher work load, and lack of resources. Their special education colleagues expected improved learning opportunities would result for all students but were worried about changes in their professional role and the political realization of inclusive schooling. Implications for practice, limitations, and the need for future research are discussed.

The aim of this study was to examine sociocultural influences on the development of specific sociocognitive developmental milestones. The self-recognition and self-regulation skills of 2-year-old children were assessed in two autonomous-relational cultural contexts: educated, urban, middle-class families from Costa Rica (N = 19) and Mexico (N = 15). These two cultural groups are representative of a consistent pattern of an autonomous-relational Latin American cultural model; there were no differences between the two groups in mothers’ socialization goals, maternal behavior during mother–child play, and toddlers’ self-recognition and self-regulation. As predicted by ecocultural models of development, consistent cultural models emerged: Sociodemographic factors were associated with mothers’ relative emphasis on autonomous socialization goals and lower levels of directive and didactic play. There were also significant correlations between facets of mothers’ cultural models and toddlers’ development of self-regulation, but not self-recognition. This study provides further evidence that the sociocognitive development of children’s self-regulation during the second year is dependent on the “ecological imprint” that is provided by their mothers’ cultural model. Furthermore, the same mechanisms that account for cross-cultural differences also seem to account for intracultural variation in maternal behavior and toddlers’ development.

In this paper I describe the mediation of specific resources and learning strategies for sustaining pupils’ perceptions of a work of art. Participants in the research were aged between 8 and 11 years and of mixed gender and ability. Three complementary forms of intervention were designed. The first took the form of a video to explain the artist’s work and her working methods. In the second intervention I used the semantic differential instrument to support pupils’ perceptual exploration and interpretation of a piece of sculpture made by the artist. In the third intervention I used a semistructured interview to prompt pupils to evaluate and reflect about their recorded interpretations of the work in question. These interviews are presented in a case study format. The results show that the interventions had a substantial influence on the way participants were able to structure their perceptions and justify interpretations of the meaning of the sculpture in question.

Students are often placed in groups to facilitate learning. Understanding the cognitive processes involved when students learn from others is important for creating group situations that facilitate learning. Research from cognitive psychology predicts who will learn most from whom and in what situations. It also provides a set of methods that education researchers can use to further explore “Learning from Others.” However, because the goals of cognitive psychologists and educators often differ, it is important to apply cognitive psychology research cautiously within an educational context.

While alertness is widely acknowledged as one of the most important preconditions for learning and development, individuals with profound intellectual and multiple disabilities (PIMD) experience a wide range of difficulties in the contact with their environment. The aim of the present study was to identify aspects of stimulation situations that influence the alertness levels of individuals in the target population.

Based on video recordings of 24 participants, alertness levels and environmental conditions were scored. Descriptive analyses and multilevel logistic regression analysis were used to identify the aspects of the stimulation situation that were related to occurrence of alertness.

The results show that visual stimuli (optimally in combination with auditory stimuli) produced the highest alertness levels. Furthermore, the effects of stimuli outweighed the effect of time. The role of direct support persons is thus especially important in alertness stimulation of individuals with PIMD.

This study applied the dynamic assessment (DA) of narratives in a bilingual Spanish- and English-speaking early elementary population. We examined transfer and change in narrative performance within and across languages after mediated learning experience (MLE) in Spanish or English. Sixty-eight bilingual children were randomized to two groups: Spanish (n = 24) or English mediation (n = 25), while a control group (n = 19) participated in regular academic activities. The MLE Spanish and English groups participated in mediated learning focusing on storytelling ability, and children’s modifiability was rated. Pre- to posttest narrative macro- and microstructure change was measured for all children. Both MLE groups demonstrated significant gains in macrostructure compared to the no-treatment control group. Children’s stories were stronger in Spanish overall. Children in both MLE groups demonstrated transfer of narrative macrostructure across both languages regardless of the language of the MLE. When the language of MLE matched language of story production, children did not make greater posttest gains than when unmatched. Finally, MLE in English had a small effect on children’s modifiability ratings. For English-language learners, DA may be a valid method to assess children’s modifiability, language learning, and transfer of skills across languages in an academically relevant task.

This study examined college students’ cognitive motivation based on goal intentions in the context of negative performance–goal discrepancies. Specifically, an integrated model of intended effort was developed to further understand the relationships between negative performance–goal discrepancies, self-reactive influences, and intended effort toward the next proximal goal. We explored these relationships within an authentic achievement-oriented setting by using actual exam performance with a sample of 451 undergraduate students. Primary results from a path analysis suggest that, among other things, future affective self-evaluation is more predictive of intended effort than performance–goal discrepancy or self-efficacy toward original goal attainment. Implications are primarily intended for those interested in fostering students’ cognitive motivation.

Problem-solving abilities, text comprehension, and working memory updating were investigated in 25 8–year-old children with a specific difficulty at comprehending written texts (i.e., poor comprehenders) and 25 control children matched for gender, age, schooling, and reading decoding ability. Poor comprehenders revealed to be less competent not only in the tasks that required a good text comprehension but also in problem-solving and updating tasks. Results are discussed in terms of their implications for educational settings.

The development of novel educational assessment models founded on item response theory (IRT), as well as software tools designed to implement these models, has contributed to the surge in computerized adaptive tests (CATs). The distinguishing characteristic of CATs is that the sequence of items on a test progressively adapts to the performance levels of students as they are taking it. An important advantage of CATs is that they can reduce the duration of the assessment by automatically excluding in real time those items that are either too easy or too hard for a student’s capabilities. Furthermore, a CAT can provide real-time feedback to students based on their ongoing performance on the test. More recently, dynamic CATs have emerged that include special features (e.g., graduated prompts, pretest and posttest assessment items, cognitive scaffolding items) to assess the proximal development zone of the students. This allows test administrators to obtain information about the kind and level of mediation required by the students to reach their optimal performance. The following article presents some initial results from the experimental application of a computerized adaptive dynamic assessment battery of reading processes in a sample of Spanish-speaking elementary school students. Specifically, the aim was to analyze the effect of the graduated prompts implemented in a syntactic awareness test on the results obtained. In addition, preliminary results regarding the predictive and incremental validity of dynamic scores on reading competence are presented and discussed.

Increasing people’s interest and involvement in science is a growing concern in education. Although many researchers and educators seek innovations for classroom instruction, much could be gained by harnessing the activities that people perform at their leisure. Although new media are constantly emerging, comic book reading remains a popular activity for children and adults. Recently, there has been an explosive increase in the creation of educational comic books, including many about science. This rapid increase in science comics far outstrips our understanding of how comics impact people’s beliefs and interests in science. In this theoretical article, we draw on research from cognitive science and education to discuss heretofore unexplored cognitive impacts of science comics. We propose several ways in which learning could be enhanced or impaired through reading science comics and discuss several broader issues related to the use of comic books in education, including individual differences and informal learning.