Impact of Early Education on Disadvantaged Children / E. Kuno Beller.

The present study was undertaken to investigate the interplay of motivation, socio-emotional interactions between the child and his educators in the impact of early educational intervention on the later development of disadvantaged children. The study attempted to concentrate on obtaining a broad spectrum of the child's functioning and changes in the child's functioning over time. The focus was equally on immediate and long range effects of early educational intervention. By attempting to encompass a wide range of the child's functioning and a broad temporal span it was hoped to avoid ending up with fragmented findings. The children were drawn from four public schools located in an urban slum area. Negroes constitute seventy-one percent of the population in the target area. Each of four schools in the area opened a nursery program for 15 four-year-old children. Each classroom had one head teacher and one assistant teacher. The classes operated four days a week; on the fifth day, the teachers were engaged in a continuation of their in-service training program, making home visits, and working closely with parents and school personnel. Three different types of measures were employed to assess development in the area of intellectual functioning: standardized intelligence tests, measures of academic achievement, and a measure of cognitive style. Measures of socio-emotional functioning were also employed. Two major findings are: (1) The three groups on entering school did not differ from each other on their intellectual functioning; and (2) Initial exposure to school resulted in a larger increase in the level of intellectual functioning. (CK)

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