This study investigated teachers’ use of knowledge from research on children’s mathematical thinking and how their students’ achievement is influenced as a result. Twenty first grade teachers, assigned randomly to an experimental treatment, participated in a month-long workshop in which they studied a research-based analysis of children’s development of problem-solving skills in addition and subtraction. Other first grade teachers (n = 20) were assigned randomly to a control group. Although instructional practices were not prescribed, experimental teachers taught problem solving significantly more and number facts significantly less than did control teachers. Experimental teachers encouraged students to use a variety of problem-solving strategies, and they listened to processes their students used significantly more than did control teachers. Experimental teachers knew more about individual students’ problem-solving processes, and they believed that instruction should build on students’ existing knowledge more than did control teachers. Students in experimental classes exceeded students in control classes in number fact knowledge, problem solving, reported understanding, and reported confidence in their problem-solving abilities.

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This paper concerns a particular problem raised by Mandarin Chinese pronouns, viz. they appear to obey a linear precedence constraint unlike English (e.g., Huang (1982)). This calls into question the nature of UG and how it can account for these crosslinguistic differences.In this paper, experimental analyses of children's (null and lexical) pronoun interpretation in Chinese and English argue for universal 'structure dependence' (including 'command') in the Initial State and against either a universal or a languagespecific role of 'linear precedence' alone. A linear precedence effect is developmentally achieved only in Chinese.The acquisition results provoke a revised theoretical analysis of the grammar of pronouns in Chinese and a strong form of UG. We argue that it is not necessary to propose a language-specific definition of 'command' in Chinese in order to explain the apparent linearity effects on Chinese pronouns, and it is not necessary to propose a linear precedence rule in UG. Rather, consideration of an articulated structure of Chinese NP, which is motivated by the acquisition data, explains essential differences between lexical ta pronominals and null pronominals in Chinese and accounts for linearity effects in the adult language. We propose that ta pronominals are not themselves in argument position and are not N o heads. They are not equivalent to null pronominals.Together the experimental and theoretical results support a 'strong continuity' theory of UG in which universal "principles and parameters" of UG continuously constrain the child's mapping from UG to a specific-language grammar. Language development, and the Chinese precedence effect for pronouns, lies in pragmatic/semantic features connected with the lexical realization of the specifier of a pronominal NP, not in the development of UG. tigation we are led to new insights regarding the grammar of Chinese pronominals and its relation to Universal Grammar (UG). This paper represents one component of a cross-linguistic project in which first language acquisition of English and several other languages are compared in order to investigate the nature of principles and parameters in UG. We assume the theory of UG (as summarized in (1)) to provide a model of the "Initial State" for language development (cf. Lust (to appear, in preparation)).

No abstract

Despite the rising incidence of drug and alcohol abuse among the elderly, information concerning the social and psychological factors fostering such abuse is scanty and potentially biased toward the limited number of older abusers who obtain professional help. Using a brief interview with carefully selected samples, the present study compares characteristics of social background and social support among 21 older clients (age 55 and over) of drug treatment facilities, 30 older abusers not in treatment, and 155 elderly nonabusers. Analyses suggest that age and gender affect the likelihood of receiving treatment for substance abuse more than the likelihood of being an abuser. Controlling for age and gender effects, substance abuse appeared more prevalent among single and divorced elderly and among respondents who lived alone; presence or absence of living companions was more influential than relationships with nearby social supports. Implications for health and social service programs as well as for further research are discussed.