Stated intention and executive practice in a traditional pre-school programme

Abstract

The aims of the adults implementing traditional nursery programmes in eight play-groups were elicited by questionnaire. The relative importance accorded to each was compared with everyday practice of the play-groups as described in semi-structured interviews and as assessed by interaction analysis. Socio-emotional development was accorded most prominence in the interview and questionnaire data, but the systematic observation revealed that activities likely to facilitate cognitive development received considerably more time (the ratio was almost 8 to 1). No correlations were found between the orderings of aims elicited by the other two methods and the observational data, and no relationship emerged between the ability level of the children (measured by the Columbia Mental Maturity Scale) and the types of behaviour employed by the adult concerned. However, there were indications that certain kinds of managerial behaviour were associated with lower listening vocabulary scores (measured by the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test).

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