Teaching Methods; Thought Processes IDENTIFIERS *Piaget (Jean); Research Reports

co-workers might lead one to believe that all adolescents are formal thinkers by the time they are 15 or 16 years of age. The studies reviewed by the author on formal thinking in the United States seem to support the contention that the majority of late adolescents and adults function at the concrete operational level and not at the formal operational level. The data collected and the conclusions arrived at by the researchers indicate that over 50 percent of the American population at age 16 and older function at the concrete operational level, thus contradicting Piaget's findings resulting from research with Genevan subjects. The discrepancy here is probably due to the subjects studied by Piaget. He appears to have chosen the more able students in his studies on formal thought development, hence finding greater cognitive development than he possibly would have found had he studied a truly random sample. If \the cognitive development of late adolescents and adults has been accuratel