The School District of Jennings, Missouri, undertook a study of the effectiveness of grouping on academic achievement in kindergarten. It was hypothesized that grouping children according to developmental lags would be beneficial to the subjects in terms of their academic and personal development; that the curricula would be partially responsible…

This study of the relation of variables of home environment to differences in children's cognitive development used a sample of 25 pairs of grade five boys in the 10-12 age range matched for general intelligence but discrepant with respect to verbal ability. Home environmental measures were obtained by means of a 70 minute interview with the…

Reviewed in this summary are the seven evaluations completed by the Anthropology Curriculum Project (ACP) of their own materials for grades 1-7. These seven are: 1) cognitive achievement within the premises of a single discipline approach and differential teacher preparation; 2) differential cognitive achievement by grade level holding teatment by…

This report describes the first phase of a two-part study of the processes through which social and economic disadvantagement affect the early cognitive development and educability of urban preschool Negro children. Contents include: the background, conceptual context, and research procedures; the relation of family resources and maternal life…

Description of a game involving linguistic recognition and practice with numbers ranging from one through 20 points out the value of cognition and oral practice in language acquisition. Variations of the game focusing on simple multiplication and addition are also examined. (RL)

What data, problems, and concepts are most relevant in determining the role of stimulation in human development? A critical analysis of the relationships between long term stimulation, behavior, and cognitive functioning and development points up biases and gaps in past as well as contemporary approaches. Each of the four sections of this paper…

The Durham Education Improvement Program (EIP) seeks to develop new organizational patterns and instructional systems in ongoing classrooms which would foster the educational and social development of disadvantaged North Carolina children. A small-scale model school system (consisting of three schools in target areas and a laboratory school) was…

Implications of the behaviorist and cognitive theories in language instruction are discussed in this article. Some contributions of Skinner, Politzer, Valette, Morton, Lane, and Mueller and Niedzielski clarify the behaviorists' view of language as a myriad of conditioned responses. In turn, the cognitive viewpoint, seen as the acquisiton and…

This preliminary report is the fourth in a series describing the progress of a 6-year longitudinal study by the Educational Testing Service (ETS). The present report specifically describes initial differences between children who go on to Head Start, and those who do not, based on results of 16 of the 33 measures administered in Year 1 (1969) in…

The following research projects are described in this annual report: (1) "Concept Learning in Discrimination Tasks," which indicates that kindergarten children are able to discriminate the letters "b,""d,""p," and "q"; (2) "Discrimination of Letter-like Forms," indicating that nursery…

In this paper the effects of environmental influences upon the development of reading readiness in young children were discussed. It was assumed that the effects of social, cultural, and economic factors on a preschool child are mediated in a large part through adults closely involved with the child's life. One hundred sixty Negro mothers and…

A modified approach to the development of verbal expression in young children is proposed as an alternative to either the prescriptive-instructional method or the developmental viewpoint which relies on self-initiated learning. The Bereiter-Engelmann method, the method based on operant conditioning, and the Montessori method are representative of…

This report is part of a comprehensive study of the cognitive, personal, and social development of disadvantaged children over the crucial period age three through grade three. The aims of the study are to identify the components of early education associated with children's development, to determine the environmental and background factors…

Educational reform appears to be moving in two incompatible directions, exhibiting considerable interest in increasing freedom on one hand, but on the other emphasizing the control and management of the educational environment. The purpose of this research is to examine the conceptual impact of various psychological theories, particularly…

A brief review of the findings of previously funded early childhood research is followed by a complete description and analysis of the longitudinal descriptive studies and longitudinal studies of intervention reported in FY 70 and 71 by the members of the Interagency Panel on Early Childhood Research and Development. The longitudinal descriptive…