Microdevelopment: Transition Processes in Development and Learning

Microdevelopment is the process of change in abilities, knowledge and understanding during short time-spans. This book presents a new process-oriented view of development and learning based on recent innovations in psychological research. Instead of characterizing abilities at different ages, researchers investigate processes of development and learning that evolve through time to determine progressive changes. With contributions from the foremost researchers in the field, this study will be essential reading for all interested in cognitive and developmental science.

Nira Granott is an assistant professor at the School of Human Development, University of Texas at Dallas, and director of the Microdevelopmental Lab at the UT Dallas. She has a Ph.D. from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the Media Laboratory, and Ed.M. from Harvard University, the Graduate School of Education. She had taught in teachers' continuing education programs, at Harvard Graduate School of Education, and at UT Dallas. She had worked as an educational software designer, producer of multimedia projects in educational television, and consultant for software design projects. Her primary research interests are collaborative microdevelopment, the process of change in development and learning, pathways and mechanisms in the emergence of change, and the way people at different ages interact with each other to make change happen. Included in Who's Who in the World, 2001. Member of American Psychological Society, Society for Research in Child Development, Jean Piaget Society, and American Educational Research Association.

Jim Parziale is a part-time professor at the Graduate School of Education at the University of Massachusetts, Boston, and a teacher and science resource teacher for Brookline Public School, Brookline, Massachusetts. He has an Ed.D. in human development and psychology from Harvard University and has won many awards for teaching excellence. His primary research interests are the process of knowledge construction during classroom science activities and the self-organization of children and adults' knowledge with interrelations to the environments in which problems are solved.