To produce and evaluate a language development program for culturally deprived preschool children based on characteristics of Piaget's theory of intelligence, a 6-week experimental study was carried out in Project Headstart, Starkville, Mississippi. Randomly-selected, 45 Negro Headstart enrollees made up three groups--two were taught the…

The nature and specification of goals in teaching a group of concepts affect the type and quality of learning. What is learned is learned as a means to some end. Feedback from end to means regulates learning a given activity. The task or goal structure provided by the environment may play its most important role early in life and gradually decline…

This preschool program offered a highly structured curriculum in which language development was fostered through encouraging verbal responses in a game format context. The curriculum, based on skills and concepts required for success in elementary school, included language arts, reading readiness, mathematical concepts, science, and social…

Eighty sixth-grade subjects, split into five independent groups, learned two PA lists of 12 noun pairs each. Two groups performed under traditional transfer conditions with lists conforming to a negative transfer paradigm, A-B, A-C, or to a reference paradigm A-B, C-D. Two other groups learned the same lists under a syntactic PA method where the…

Twenty-seven kindergarten subjects were trained on two different double classification matrix tasks to determine whether they were hierarchically related. Prior behavioral analyses had shown one task to be simpler than the other. It was assumed that, in hierarchical transfer relationships, one order of task acquisition is more favorable than…

The major article in this IRCD Bulletin is devoted to preschool educational programs. Following some background discussion about the new concentration in preschool education on cognitive development and the rationale for preschool learning, various techniques and procedures are reported. An extensive bibliography cites works about preschool…

The concept of deprivation has become very appealing to specialists of many disciplines as an explanation for deviations in human development. This is understandable, since the phenomenon does seem to be a key factor in development, but several technical and methodological considerations hinder immediate efforts at understanding and alleviating…

This research investigates the learning impact of Montessori prekindergarten training as compared to traditional approaches with economically deprived Puerto Rican and Negro children. The three-part, 156-page monograph includes a 22-page introduction to Parts I and II, and a 37-page appendix to Part I. Parts I and II assess training effects of the…

Activities geared to meet the needs and capabilities of low functioning residents (mental age 2 to 4 years) of an institution who were not benefiting from other language development material are given. The lessons incorporate material from other programs to form a series of 212 daily lesson plans. Each lesson is structured and self-explanatory and…

This research tests the implicit assumption that cognitive development is independent of ethnic background. The testing instrument used was a newly designed spatial reasoning test intended to reflect the sequence of acquisition of skills requisite to map reading and drawing. A sample of 270 black, Chinese, and white subjects (90 each at the 5th,…

This report presents a description of the Structure-Process approach to cognition and literacy, suggests techniques for implementation of the model, and assesses the effects of the model on a specific population. The Structure-Process approach assumes that intelligence develops cumulatively. The model was used for curriculum development in four…

This collection of original papers addresses itself to issues both in research and theory in the education of children. The contributions are organized in four parts. Part One, on "Biogenetic Perspectives," offers an exposition of research dealing with the traditional nature-nurture problem, particularly as it impinges upon the issues of social…

The Westinghouse Learning Corporation and Ohio University carried out a study on the impact of Head Start for the Office of Economic Opportunity. The main inquiry of the study concerned the difference between Head Start first, second, and third graders and non-Head Start first, second, and third graders in intellectual and social-personal…

Cognitive deficits in black and other minority children have been assumed, described, and then explained. In direct and indirect ways, the "evidence," especially in the broad public domain has been mounting to suggest a genetic cause for discovered differences between racial groups on test of aptitude and achievement. It is the purpose of the…

This content analysis schedule for the St. Martin Parish Bilingual Program of St. Martinville, Louisiana, presents information on the history, funding, and scope of the project in its second year. Included are sociolinguistic process variables such as the native and dominant languages of students and their interaction. Information is provided on…