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Acceleration of cognitive development of kindergartners
Author(s) -
Pasnak Robert
Publication year - 1987
Publication title -
psychology in the schools
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.738
H-Index - 75
eISSN - 1520-6807
pISSN - 0033-3085
DOI - 10.1002/1520-6807(198710)24:4<358::aid-pits2310240410>3.0.co;2-q
Subject(s) - psychology , cognition , cognitive development , seriation (archaeology) , set (abstract data type) , developmental psychology , reading (process) , mathematics education , psychomotor learning , lagging , medicine , archaeology , pathology , neuroscience , computer science , political science , law , history , programming language
A curriculum modification was designed to increase the general reasoning ability of kindergarten children who were lagging in cognitive development. The new instructional program was tested with 22 kindergarters who scored in the lowest 9% on the EAS measure of general learning and reasoning ability taken from SRA's Survey of Basic Skills. The experimental children were given “learning set” instruction on unidimensional classification, unidimensional seriation, and number conservation for four months. They received the instruction in groups of six for 15 minutes two or three times per week during the time usually reserved for mathematics. Control children received the normal mathematics instruction, also in groups of six, for matched sessions. The experimental children made twice the gains of the control children on the EAS measure, and matched their gains on reading and mathematics achievement. It appears that integrated “learning set” training on these three Piagetian concepts may be a potent tool for aiding kindergartners who are falling behind their peers in cognitive development.