Joseph T. Lawton

An alternative view of appropriate practice in early childhood education

Abstract The National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) and the Association for Childhood Education International (ACEI) have both published position papers espousing developmentally appropriate practice in early childhood education programs. Such programs are usually based upon varying interpretations of Piagets developmental theory and frequently focus upon child-directed learning and informal learning practices. This article sets forth an alternative view that programs which serve young children may need to be concerned with both developmental and instructional theory and that children can benefit from some structured learning. A program incorporating these views is carefully described in terms of its theoretical perspectives and classroom practices. This program is then compared to the NAEYC description of appropriate and inappropriate practice. The match/nonmatch is noted and discussed.

The Use of Advance Organizers in the Learning and Retention of Logical Operations and Social Studies Concepts

Ausubel predicts that prior learning of subject-matter concepts, at a higher level of abstraction than subsequent experienced materials, facilitates meaningful learning. He recommends that higher-order concepts be presented in “advance organizer” lessons with the emphasis on meaningful reception learning. Ausubel does not clearly distinguish between subject-matter and process concepts. In this study, process concepts are identified in terms of those logical operations involved in hierarchical classification as described by Piaget. It was predicted that the acquisition of prior high-order rules for hierarchical classification (process concepts) and high-order social studies subject-matter concepts would facilitate the learning and retention of subsequently presented logical operations and the conceptual structure of selected social studies learning materials. Both 6 year olds (N = 60) and 10 year olds (N = 60) were randomly assigned to experimental and control groups. In two related phases of this experiment the E groups were taught high-order rules of classification and high-order subject matter concepts. C groups were taught detailed factual information. A pretest-posttest, retention and “far distant” test assessment indicated that experimental groups learned both types of concepts when compared to equivalent control groups. Accelerated use of logical operations by 6 year olds proceeded beyond the “stage” expected for this age group. Comparing phase 2 with phase 1, it was found that sequential transfer occurred between like subject-matter concepts and logical operations. Performance appeared to improve with age. A task complexity factor appeared to affect performance seriously.

Intellective Correlates of Preschoolers' Spontaneous Play

Summary Thirty-four middle class four-year-old preschoolers were observed in free play for 20 one-minute observations and behavior was coded for cognitive and social play. Five conservation tasks and the Raven Progressive Matrices and Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test were administered to each child. Three play factors labelled sociodramatic, constructive, and parallel play and two cognitive factors labelled intelligence and conservation ability were found. Correlation of factor scores showed that constructive but not sociodramatic types of play were positively and significantly associated with intelligence. Parallel play was negatively related with conservation. Whereas the latter finding is not inconsistent with the Piagetian hypothesis that social interaction and decentration are reciprocally related, the former finding is a contribution to the play literature by suggesting that sociodramatic play may not be the only play with important cognitive consequences.

Parents' perceptions of parenting

Much has been written about parenting practices from a theoretical perspective, but we know very little about what parents believe about parenting. This article begins with an overview of parenting theory, reviews briefly studies that have attempted to identify parenting characteristics, and provides a rationale for the use of the scaling techniques known as Q-methodology for rank-ordering statements of parenting behavior.

Theories of Piaget, Bruner, and Ausubel: Explications and Implications

Abstract A comparison of the major tenets shared by the three cognitive theories of Piaget, Bruner, and Ausubel, as well as variations in the description of cognitive development unique to each, provides a basis for a global phenomenological dialectical scheme of psychological development in the spirit of Werner. These theories represent points on a dimension from Piagets particular organismic world-view to Ausubels tendency towards a mechanistic orientation. Each theory, however, adopts a structuralist approach towards theory and explanation assuming qualitative change in structure over time. Cognitive growth is seen as qualitative changes in thought systems though the source of change is seen variously to be either the properties of the internal structural system itself or the organized system provided by the external environment. Each theory proposes a form of conflict resolution as a critical mechanism of change in thinking, though the form of such change-mechanisms varies from Piagets stages of in...

Effects of Advance Organizers on Preschool Children's Learning of Math Concepts.

Effects of advance organizer (AO) lessons, presenting high-order math concepts related to set building, matching within and between sets, and counting objects within sets-compared to a traditional ...

The Effects of Different Types of Advance Organizers on Classification Learning

The effects of three types of advance organizer lessons containing high-order social studies concept (AO1), high-order rules for hierarchical classification (AO2), or both (AO3), on the learning of social studies concepts and hierarchical classification (as defined by Piaget) were evaluated for a sample of 237 rural children in kindergarten, third, and fifth grades. The overall order of training effect was AO3 → AO2 → AO1 → C. Effects on delayed posttests and or transfer tasks are also presented.

Success in Preschool Learning Related to Formal and Open-Framework Programs: A Preliminary Report.

The study examined the effect of a formal versus an open-framework preschool program on young childrens learning. The formal program is based on a version of Ausubels learning theory and uses an expository teaching, meaningful reception training approach. The open-framework program mainly emphasizes spontaneous child-directed learning experiences and is based on Pi agets theory of intellectual development. The Ausubelian program resulted in improved childrens performance on both classification and conservation tasks compared to children in the Piagetian program. Data indicated a nonsynchronous development of classification and conservation opera tions. Both groups of children found classification tasks easier to deal with than tasks on conser vation.

Dependencies between Questions and Responses during Small-Group Instruction in Two Preschool Programs.

Abstract This study examined the language of teachers and children during small-group instruction in two cognitively oriented preschools. Twenty-two small group instruction sessions were videofilmed in each preschool. Lesson-relevant utterances from the 44 videotapes were coded for grammatical and cognitive variables. In order to examine five specific question and response verbal contingencies, the data were analyzed using a sequential analysis procedure. First, it was shown that significant dependencies existed between (a) the posing of questions by teachers and childrens verbal responses in both programs; (b) childrens questions to classmates and an immediate peer response in one program; (c) teachers process questions and childrens verbal reference to a self-performed mental operation in both programs; and (d) teachers closed-form questions and childrens verbal reference to a self-performed mental operation in one program. Second, it was also shown that no dependency existed between teachers open-form questions and childrens verbal reference to a self-performed mental operation in both programs. The effectiveness or noneffectiveness of various questions is discussed in terms of the different instructional procedures employed in the two programs, and implications for teachers are suggested.

Preschool Children's Consumer Learning.

Childrens learning of consumer economic concepts in two types of preschool teaching con ditions was contrasted. Children in the Ausubelian program (high proportion of teacher- directed learning activity) achieved a significantly higher level of performance on a test mea suring learning of consumer economic concepts than did children in the Piagetian program (high proportion of child-directed activities). Children in the Ausubelian program were also more competent in applying such concepts to a shopping procedure.