Knowledge under Construction is the first to examine young children's spatial and scientific thinking through their architectural constructions with Legos and blocks. The authors' coding system allows teachers and parents to observe and record children's cognitive behaviors related to spatial thinking. In challenging Piaget's thesis, the authors illuminate our conceptions of children's emergent knowledge of space and scientific inquiry, and provide new insight into alternative ways to measure cognitive abilities in children based through block play.

Knowledge under Construction is the first to examine young children's spatial and scientific thinking through their architectural constructions with Legos_ and blocks. The authors' coding system allows teachers and parents to observe and record children's cognitive behaviors related to spatial thinking. In challenging Piaget's thesis, the authors illuminate our conceptions of children's emergent knowledge of space and scientific inquiry, and provide new insight into alternative ways to measure cognitive abilities in children based through block play.

The Importance of Average drives home the reality that average intellectual ability is not synonymous with mediocrity. Under the right conditions, average ability can potentially lead to professional excellence and exceptionalism. Archaic psychological and social constructs are examined as they are shown to limit student achievement. Ability, effort, and luck are discussed as possible motivational predictors that contribute to average student success. Education policy must change in order to serve as a corrective against indifference toward average students.

The Importance of Average calls attention to the policies and practices that discriminate against the silent majority of students in the American educational system. Arguments presented emphasize the collateral damage caused to average students by legislative mandates, administrative policies, teaching practices, parenting beliefs, and adherence to strict psychological constructs. Each of these factors has created a pervasive psycho-educational belief of average ability. The authors challenge what they consider as a pseudo-definition of 'average' that was brought about as an attempt by...