From Individual Differences to Dynamic Pathways of Development

Abstract

A fruitful way to build upon French-language research on development of analogical and propositional processes in logical reasoning tasks is to use dynamic systems tools to describe and analyze relevant developmental pathways. Issues to address include (1) the characteristics of developmental transitions, such as hysteresis; (2) the nature of growth processes, such as hierarchical development or predator-prey interactions; and (3) the construction of effective scales for measuring change in logical reasoning.

Intensity vs. Duration: Comparing the Effects of a Fluency-Based Reading Intervention Program, in After-School vs. Summer School Settings

“…This mirrors how other types of skill learning take place (Fischer & Biddell, 1998;Fischer & Pare-Blagoev, 2000). Skill theory says that mastery of a skill level requires ample time, as in the case of the afterschool intervention program; once that skill has been integrated with other knowledge, a burst in performance is seen as the subject moves from one level to the next.…”

“…The RAVE-O program has three goals: (1) to develop reading fluency from the word identification level, to the reading comprehension level (2) to increase processing speed at the lexical and sublexical level (3) to improve the emotional and motivational well-being of the child as s/he develops new reading strategies (Wolf & Bowers, 2000). It is designed to address the needs of the whole child, because it recognizes that the child is a part of a dynamic system (Fischer & Pare-Blagoev, 2000;Wolf & Bowers, 2000).…”

Reductionism versus emergentism:A framework for understanding conceptions of giftedness

“…For instance, without the cultural invention of chess, we don't know what kind of "natural talent" Bobby Fisher or Garry Kasporov would possess. Emergentism shares a family resemblance with modern dynamic systems theory and general system theory in that both are concerned with the emergent organizational and developmental properties of a complex system that cannot be fully predicted by its initial state or lower level principles (Wachs, 2000; see also Fischer & Pare-Blagoev, 2000 for a discussion of development as a dynamic process).…”

A Quest for the Holy Grail in the New Millennium: In Search of a Unified Theory of Cognitive Development

“…This series of commentaries by colleagues from Canada, the United States, and European countries provides good examples. Gelman (2000) has helped clarify the structure of knowledge; Pascual-Leone's (2000) model provides elaborate conceptualizations about the biological contributions to cognitive development; Fischer and Paré-Blagoev (2000) have focused on theoretical and methodological tools to dynamically model change in cognitive development; Edelstein and Schroeder (2000) have emphasized the importance of the equilibration process; Suizzo (2000) and Gelman (2000) have focused on the importance of studying children's cognitive development in the context of their social and cultural environment; Bloch (2000) suggests focusing on means-end analyses to understand situational variations in cognitive behaviors; Lautrey and colleagues (e.g., Lautrey, 1993;de Ribaupierre, 1993) contributed to the specification of interactions between processes, tasks, and individual preferences while retaining a constructivist perspective on development and the notion that development is organized toward the attainment of higher order structures.…”

“…Fischer and Paré-Blagoev (2000) suggest dynamic structuralism as a unifying framework for the study of developmental pathways. This suggestion, as they also point out, is not incompatible with the Piagetian model and could provide new and effective tools and methods for modeling both skill acquisition in "noncore domains" (Gelman, 2000) and development of "species behavior" (Edelstein & Schroeder, 2000) or "core domain knowledge" (Gelman, 2000).…”