PLANNING CYCLE

Planning cycle children cognitive development

Planning cycle children cognitive development

Introduction

Children are growing up in a rapidly changing world characterized by dramatic shifts in what all children are expected to know and be able to do. Higher and tougher standards of learning for all populations of students are focusing on a narrow view of learning. Consequently, students have less time and opportunity to play than did children of previous generations. Few would disagree that the primary goal of education is student learning and that all educators, families, and policymakers bear the responsibility of making learning accessible to all children. Decades of research has documented that play has a crucial role in the optimal growth, learning, and development of children from infancy through adolescence. Yet, this need is being challenged, and so children's right to play must be defended by all adults, especially educators and parents. The time has come to advocate strongly in support of play for all children.

Planning cycle children cognitive development

Some research studies, discussed in the following sections, suggest that children having high 'quality' pre-school experience achieve at a higher level than those not receiving any, both academically and in attitudes to future learning. These findings are often qualified by the proviso that the experience must be of a high quality and that achievement relates to the social background and age of the child.

American studies of the effects of pre-school education on later performance have provided fairly conclusive evidence that 'quality' pre-school programmes can increase children's educational potential and that probably they have lasting effects. It was hoped that British pre-school education might be as effective but there were some major differences in the research data bases which made generalizations difficult. For example, a majority of the American projects dealt with children from families in the lowest social class, low IQ and of ethnic origin. The American intervention programme, Head Start, was carried out by workers already committed to the benefits of pre-school effects. Events such as referral to special education classes and grade retention do not have comparable procedures within Britain. Taken together there was cause for concern that these benefits might not be directly generalisable; however, the indicators of cognitive ability used in those studies have sufficient international currency to inspire confidence that the findings might be replicated in Britain in the future. (Saracho, 1999)

The results of major studies of school effectiveness, particularly in the USA, can be found in Purkey & Smith (1983).

Much British research into the effects of pre-school education has been carried out with small-scale experiments and the results have been open to different interpretations. For example, Tizard & Hughes (1984) used their small-scale study of children's conversations at home and nursery to argue that there may be social benefits from nursery attendance but that basic verbal-cognitive skills were more likely to have been developed at home. Osborn & Milbank argue: It is difficult to see why there has been a lack of confidence in the traditional pre-school curricula of nursery school and playgroups ...