"This edited collection develops three approaches to studying writing through the lifespan: through new insights and methodological innovations, through site-specific studies with a lifespan orientation, and through longitudinal studies that draw on various methodologies to collect, reduce, and analyze data. These approaches resonate with each other, allowing readers to develop a dynamic, interdisciplinary, multifaceted understanding of the limits and possibilities of studying writing through the lifespan. The authors of the chapters in this collection employ methodological and theoretical approaches ranging from autoethnography to longitudinal structural equation modeling. This variety is in keeping with a vision of lifespan writing research as pursuing a complex research object, one that requires both methodological rigor and flexibility, theoretical precision and adaptability"--

"Presents the results of a four-year Spencer-funded project to synthesize what research says about writing development at different ages from multiple perspectives, including psychological, linguistic, sociocultural, and curricular"--

Recipient of the 2017 Most Promising New Textbook Award from the Textbook & Academic Authors Association (TAA) Chronologically organized, Lifespan Development: Lives in Context offers a unique perspective on the field by focusing on the importance of context—examining how the places, sociocultural environments, and ways in which we are raised influence who we become and how we grow and change. Author Tara L. Kuther integrates cutting-edge and classic research throughout the text to present a unified story of developmental science and its applications to everyday life. Robust pedagogy, student-friendly writing, and an inviting design enhance this exciting and inclusive exploration of the ways in which context informs our understanding of the lifespan.

This book provides an overview of human development and includes the relationship between motor development and cognitive and social development. It explores factors affecting development, including effects of early stimulation and deprivation. The book addresses assessment in motor development.

Traditions of Writing Research reflects the different styles of work offered at the Writing Research Across Borders conference. Organized by Charles Bazerman, one of the pre-eminent scholars in writing studies, the conference facilitated an unprecedented gathering of writing researchers. Representing the best of the works presented, this collection focuses solely on writing research, in its lifespan scope bringing together writing researchers interested in early childhood through adult writing practices. It brings together differing research traditions, and offers a broad international scope, with contributor-presenters including top international researchers in the field The volume's opening section presents writing research agendas from different regions and research groups. The next section addresses the national, political, and historical contexts that shape educational institutions and the writing initiatives developed there. The following sections represent a wide range of research approaches for investigating writing processes and practices in primary, secondary, and higher education. The volume ends with theoretical and methodological reflections. This exemplary collection, like the conference that it grew out of, will bring new perspectives to the rich dialogue of contemporary research on writing and advance understanding of this complex and important human activity.

In Telling Stories, more than a dozen longitudinal writing researchers look beyond conventional project findings to story their work and, in doing so, offer otherwise unavailable glimpses into the logics and logistics of long-range studies of writing. The result is a volume that centers interrelations among people, places, and politics across two decades of praxis and an array of educational sites: two-year colleges, a senior military college, an adult literacy center, a small liberal arts college, and both public and private four-year universities. Contributors share direct knowledge of longitudinal writing research, citing project data (e.g., interview transcripts, research notes, and journals), descriptions drawn from memory, and extended personal reflections. The resulting stories, tempered by the research and scholarship of others, convey a sense of longitudinal research as a lived activity as well as a prominent and consequential approach to inquiry. Yet Telling Stories is not a how-to guide, nor is it written for longitudinal researchers alone. Instead, this volume addresses issues about writing research that are germane to all who conduct or count on it. Such topics include building and sustaining good interpersonal research relations, ethically negotiating the institutional power dynamics that undergird writing research, effectively using knowledge from longitudinal studies to advocate for writers and writing educators, and improving both conceptual and concrete resources for long-range research in writing studies.

There are many reasons to be curious about the way people learn, and the past several decades have seen an explosion of research that has important implications for individual learning, schooling, workforce training, and policy. In 2000, How People Learn: Brain, Mind, Experience, and School: Expanded Edition was published and its influence has been wide and deep. The report summarized insights on the nature of learning in school-aged children; described principles for the design of effective learning environments; and provided examples of how that could be implemented in the classroom. Since then, researchers have continued to investigate the nature of learning and have generated new findings related to the neurological processes involved in learning, individual and cultural variability related to learning, and educational technologies. In addition to expanding scientific understanding of the mechanisms of learning and how the brain adapts throughout the lifespan, there have been important discoveries about influences on learning, particularly sociocultural factors and the structure of learning environments. How People Learn II: Learners, Contexts, and Cultures provides a much-needed update incorporating insights gained from this research over the past decade. The book expands on the foundation laid out in the 2000 report and takes an in-depth look at the constellation of influences that affect individual learning. How People Learn II will become an indispensable resource to understand learning throughout the lifespan for educators of students and adults.

In Writing Development in Struggling Learners, international researchers provide insights into the development of writing skills from early writing and spelling development through to composition, the reasons individuals struggle to acquire proficient writing skills and how to help these learners.

Living Mindfully Across the Lifespan: An Intergenerational Guide provides user-friendly, empirically supported information about and answers to some of the most frequently encountered questions and dilemmas of human living, interactions, and emotions. With a mix of empirical data, humor, and personal insight, each chapter introduces the reader to a significant topic or question, including self-worth, anxiety, depression, relationships, personal development, loss, and death. Along with exercises that clients and therapists can use in daily practice, chapters feature personal stories and case studies, interwoven throughout with the authors’ unique intergenerational perspectives. Compassionate, engaging writing is balanced with a straightforward presentation of research data and practical strategies to help address issues via psychological, behavioral, contemplative, and movement-oriented exercises. Readers will learn how to look deeply at themselves and society, and to apply what has been learned over decades of research and clinical experience to enrich their lives and the lives of others.

This book brings together prominent investigators to provide a comprehensive guide to doing life course research, including an “inside view” of how they designed and carried out influential longitudinal studies. Using vivid examples, the contributors trace the connections between early and later experience and reveal how researchers and graduate students can discover these links in their own research. Well-organized chapters describe the best and newest ways to: *Use surveys, life records, ethnography, and data archives to collect different types of data over years or even decades. *Apply innovative statistical methods to measure dynamic processes that result in improvement, decline, or reversibility in economic fortune, stress, health, and criminality. *Explore the micro- and macro-level explanatory factors that shape individual trajectories, including genetic and environmental interactions, personal life history, interpersonal ties, and sociocultural institutions.