Sage Journals: Discover world-class research

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).

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Bereiter

, and Engleman

(1966), Teaching Disadvantaged Children in the Pre-school. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall.

Brogden

J. J.

(1973), ‘A study of social interactions of three and four year old children and the adults in their day-care environment’. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Syracuse University. Reported in A. S. Honig and B. M. Caldwell (1974), ‘Review of research using APPROACH—procedure for patterning responses of adults and children’, Classroom Inter. Newsl. 9, 19-31.

Ciricelli

V. S.

, (1969), The Impact of Headstart: an Evaluation of the Effects of Headstart on Children's Cognitive and Affective Development, Vol. 1, Report to the US Office of Economic Opportunity by Westinghouse Learning Corporation and Ohio University.

Frankenburg

W. K.

, (1970), Manual of the Denver Developmental Screening Test. Colorado: University of Colorado Medical Center.

Gordon

I. J.

, and Jester

R. E.

(1973), ‘Techniques of observing teaching in early childhood and outcomes of particular procedures’, in Travers

R. M. W.

(ed.), Second Handbook of Research on Teaching, pp. 184–217. Chicago: Rand McNally.

Gray

S. W.

(1969), Selected Longitudinal Studies of Compensatory Education, Nashville, Teenessee: George Peabody College for Teachers.

Honig

A. S.

, and Caldwell

B. M.

(1974), ‘Review of research using APPROACH—a procedure for patterning responses of adults and children’. Classroom Inter. Newsl., 9, 19–31.

Hough

J. B.

, and Duncan

J. K.

(1970), Teaching: Description and Analysis. London: Addison-Wesley.

Jester

R. E.

, and Gordon

I. J.

(1974), editorial, Classroom Inter. Newsl., 9, 2.

10.

Turner

I. F.

(1976), ‘Cognitive effects of play-group attendance’. Irish J. Educ. (in press).

11.

Weikart

D. P.

(1971), Relationship of Curriculum, Teaching and Learning in Pre-school Education. Paper presented at the Hyman Blumberg Memorial Symposium on Research in Early Childhood Education. Baltimore, Md.

12.

Widlake

(1973), ‘Educational Priority Areas: action research’, in Chazan

(ed.), Compensatory Education, pp. 87–110. London: Butterworth.

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

Abstract

Get full access to this article

References