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.(CLICK TO ENLARGE)
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.These photos by Muybridge
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.illustrate the concept behind
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.the microgenetic method in
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.which minute changes are
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.closely examined. Here we
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.see changes in a horse's
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.gait; in my research, we
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.examine changes that occur
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.in children's thinking as they
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.learn new thing
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The
changes that occur in the first decade of life are among the most profound
in the
human
lifetime. It is natural, therefore, for those interested in change to be
interested
in
cognitive development.
My
research focuses on the growth during childhood of problem solving and
reasoning
skills.
Three areas of particular interest are strategy choices, long-term learning,
and
educational
applications of cognitive-developmental theory.
The
research on strategy choices focuses on how children decide which strategy
to
use
from among the many strategies they know. My research indicates that even
four-year-olds
choose among alternative approaches in surprisingly intelligent ways.
My
colleagues and I have built computational models to illustrate how young
children
can
make such intelligent decisions and also to show how the decisions change
with
changes
in knowledge and skill.
For
more information see the following articles:
Siegler
& Shipley, 1995; Siegler, Adolph, & Lemaire, 1996;
Siegler
& Lemaire, 1997; Rittle Johnson & Siegler, 1999;
and
Chen & Siegler, 2000.
The
research on long-term learning examines how children discover new strategies.
Small
numbers of children are given prolonged experience in solving problems.
Videotapes
and verbal protocols obtained immediately after each problem allow
examination
of the discovery, the circumstances leading up to the discovery, and the
subsequent
generalization of the discovery to new problems. The emphasis is on
individual
differences in patterns of learning as well as commonalities in the learning
of
different children.
For
more information see the following articles:
Siegler,
1995; Shrager & Siegler, 1998; Siegler &
Chen, 1998;
Siegler
& Stern, 1998; Crowley & Siegler, 1999;
Chen & Siegler, 2000;
Siegler,
2000; Siegler, 2002; and Siegler & Svetina,
2002.
The
research has yielded a number of educational implications, particularly
in the area
of
early mathematics. It is being used to develop tests to identify young
children who
are
at risk for later mathematical difficulties. We are also developing programs
for
preventing
small, easy-to-remedy, early problems in mathematics from growing into
large,
intractable, later ones.
For
more information see the following articles:
Geary,
Bow-Thomas, Fan, & Siegler, 1996; Rittle-Johnson, Siegler,
& Alibali, 2001;
Siegler,
2003; and Siegler & Opfer, 2003.
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