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London, Routledge £30 hb, £12.99 pb, 208 pp. ISBN 0-415-10144-1 (hb), 0-415-101145-X (pb) What a happy circumstance it would be if an educational innovation, which had professional credibility, led to higher pupil scores in national examinations not only in a specific subject but in a range of subjects. In this book Philip Adey & Michael Shayer provide a well-written account of how they believe they have achieved just such a goal.At the heart of their account is a description of the Cognitive Acceleration through Science Education (CASE) project in which materials were developed to support intervention in the cognitive development of pupils, with a view to raising levels of thinking capability. The materials were used, over a 2 year programme, with pupils of starting age 11+ or 12 + in 10 schools. Each school provided experimental and control classes and agreed to dedicate about 25% of science curriculum time to the intervention activities. The effects of the intervention were monitored through tests of cognitive development and science achievement, immediately after the programme and then one year later. In addition, the General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) performances of the pupils were monitored after a further 2 or 3 years.Immediately after the intervention very limited differences between experimental and control groups were found in relation both to science achievement and cognitive development. One year after the intervention, it was found that any differences which had arisen in cognitive development were maintained and science achievement scores indicated significant positive effects for 12 + boys and 11 + girls. Perhaps, the most striking findings emerge from the GCSE results which were analysed for science, mathematics and English. In science strong positive effects were found with the 12 + boys and 11 + girls and similar patterns emerged in mathematics and English. In English there was an additional positive effect with the 12 + girls.Adey & Shayer argue that these results provide evidence of both long-term and far-transfer effects, supporting the notion of a general cognitive processor which can be positively influenced by appropriate intervention strategies. No small claim, so what of the interventions?The CASE materials were designed to address each of the Piagetian schemata of formal operations (such as proportionality, classification, probability) and also to incorporate the 'principles' of concrete preparation, cognitive conflict, construction zone activity, metacognition and bridging. It is interesting that Vygotskian notions should be drawn upon in assembling these principles of working, and a 'marriage of convenience' between personal and social perspectives presented. On a practical level this makes sense. The interventions are carried out in social groupings and the teacher has a clear role to play in mediating activities and supporting development of thinking. Indeed the principles listed offer a check-list for 'good teaching' irrespective of the theoretical preferences of th...

Three years after the end of a two-year intervention program intended to promote formal operational thinking, the achievement of students initially 11 years of age was tested by their results in British National examinations, taken at age 16. Although the intervention was set within the context of science learning, the effects were found in science, mathematics, and English. In contrast to results reported earlier for the older cohort aged 12 years initially, where the boys showed greater achievement than girls in science and mathematics, here the effect was limited to girls. In comparison with control classes the effect sizes were science, 0 . 6 7~; mathematics, 0.72u, and English, 0 . 6 9~. Although half of the students showed increased achievement in science, which was consistent with the Piagetian model used in the intervention, the achievement of some in science, mathematics, and English was not associated with gains on Piagetian tests above those of control students. These results were attributed to aspects of the intervention methodology intended to enhance metacognition. The distinction between intervention and instruction was discussed in relation to normative data on Piagetian development in adolescents.

A curriculum for teaching thinking based on a structured theoretical model that combines elements of out-of-context and infusion methods has been shown to have long-term far transfer effects on students' thinking ability and academic achievement. More work is needed to meet the needs of a wider range of abilities.

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This paper describes a set of Science Reasoning Tasks (1979) which are valid and reliable tests for assessing the ability of children to use concrete and formal reasoning strategies. They have a precision comparable with conventional psychometric tests, and they estimate the same abilities which Piaget originally described by individual interview. They can be used by science teachers without professional training in Piagetian studies, and a class of 30 pupils can be tested on each task in about 50 minutes.The classical method of determining a child's level of cognitive development is by the methode clinique developed by Piaget. Its essential features are that it allows (1) the child to be influenced by his perception and handling of the apparatus; (2) the reasons for the child's responses to be investigated; (3) observation of the child's reaction to counterarguments; and (4) for flexibility in questioning following the child's response. This method is clearly appropriate to the detailed elucidation of the child's thinking since it reveals not only the stability of a concept, but also the thinking behind an incorrect response. It is difficult to imagine how the richness of the Piagetian vision of cognitive processes could have developed without the use of such a probing method of investigation.However, all interview methods have one obvious disadvantage-they are very time-consuming and thus effectively rule out the collection of large quantities of data typically required by research and survey programs. This problem has led a number of authors to consider the possibility of developing tests of cognitive development which can be used to assess individuals in groups of 20 or more at one time. If one's concern is to estimate subjects' optimum level of thinking, rather than to find out for the first time the behaviors in which that competence is exemplified, then group tests may offer further advantages in addition to being indispensable for gathering data from large samples. They can be at least as valid as, and may be more reliable than, interviews and their criteria for ascribing levels to subjects' responses are more open to public scrutiny. What Must a Group Test Do?Group tests of cognitive development that are to be widely used in work related to secondary-and college-level science education should enable pupils to be categorized on at least a 6-point scale of development, possibly with respect to each of a number of topic areas in science: 1 preoperational 2A early concrete operational

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