ABSTRACT
An alternative interpretation of the improvement in children's mental capacities as they grow older attributes the change to physical and physiological development. It seems likely that the process of physical growth imposes limits on the way in which children can respond to the demands made on their cognition. Learning is essentially an interactive process. In the classroom the actions and characteristics of both teacher and taught will determine the quality of the learning that takes place. There is much to learn about the factors that make some cognitive tasks harder than others. The sophisticated learner changes his cognitive actions according to his understanding of cognitive goals: the growing child learns this flexibility only slowly. Knowledge of the 'person variables' has two facets, namely, knowledge of one's own enduring abilities and traits, and knowledge of transient processes and states. Though children may possess a certain amount of metacognitive 'knowledge' at one level, their lack of metacom-prehension often causes them to fail.
