European and international research shows how the child has an attitude, in relation to the knowledge of the natural world, characterized by curiosity and free exploration. My research refers to the theoretical contribution of Dewey ([1933. "How We Think: A Restatement of the Relationship of Reflective Thinking to the Educational…

This book began as a deep discussion among administrators, teachers, researchers, teacher educators, and educational consultants concerned about the critical reduction of play, engaged learning opportunities, and intellectually stimulating experiences in classrooms for toddlers through the primary grades. This group made a pact to organize and…

The extent to which academic instruction should be a major goal of the curriculum for preschool and kindergarten children is a constant topic of debate among the many parties concerned with early childhood education. The main argument presented in this report is that the traditional debates in the field about whether to emphasize so-called free…

The study investigated preferences shown by 25 preschool children regarding the handier toy, the smaller toy, the more probable toy, the animate noun, and the first-mentioned noun as agent in interpreting semantically reversible sentences prior to adult performance. (Author/SBH)

Conclusion to a 3-part report. See also AA 501 768 through AA 501 771.

Condensed from the first Evangeline Burgess Memorial Lecture presented at Pacific Oaks College and Children's School, Pasadena, Calif., April 3, 1968.

ELEVEN GENERALIZATIONS FROM THE OUTCOMES OF STUDIES AND EXPERIMENTS CARRIED OUT BY THE SZOLD INSTITUTE OVER A PERIOD OF 2 YEARS WERE PRESENTED. THE FIRST NEGATED THE PREMISES OF A LIMITED POOL OF ABILITY AND OF THE STABILITY OF IQ. TABLES DEMONSTRATED THE POSSIBILITY OF RAISING THE IQ OF CULTURALLY DEPRIVED CHILDREN BY AN AVERAGE OF ABOUT 20…

Three national evaluation efforts--Head Start, Follow through Planned Variation, and Head Start Planned Variation--are reviewed to examine their effectiveness concerning the trainability of intelligence in disadvantaged children during preschool and elementary grades. The evidence on the effectiveness of these projects is highly controversial, but…

Discusses the theories of Piaget, Bruner, Lifschitz and Langford, Vygotsky and others. (SB)

This speech, presented at the 1977 meeting of the World Organization of Preschool Education (OMEP), proposes that the preschool linguistic environment determines language facility, which affects later school and work success. The normal course of communicative ability is traced. It is proposed that although most children, in and out of preschool,…

AS PART OF AN EFFORT TO ASSESS THE EFFECT OF THE BALTIMORE HEAD START PROGRAM ON COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT, CHILDREN ENROLLED IN THIS PROGRAM WERE GIVEN THE PEABODY PICTURE VOCABULARY TEST (PPVT) AND THE DRAW-A-PERSON (DAP) TEST AT THE START OF THE PROGRAM, AT ITS TERMINATION, AND WHEN THEY ENROLLED IN KINDERGARTEN. A CONTROL GROUP, DRAWN FROM THE…

CHARACTERISTICS OF THE INTELLECTUAL PROCESSES OF THE LOW-INCOME CHILD ARE PRESENTED. THE MAJOR IMPOVERISHMENT OF THESE CHILDREN IS IN THE AREA OF LANGUAGE SKILLS. ANOTHER CHARACTERISTIC IS THEIR POOR PERFORMANCE ON INTELLIGENCE TESTS. IN THE AREA OF PERCEPTIONAL PROCESSES THESE CHILDREN CAN NEITHER DISCRIMINATE SOUNDS WELL NOR PERFORM WELL ON…

A discussion of the findings of a recent follow-up study of children who had participated in one of fourteen infant or preschool experimental programs during the 1960's. (BD)