Differential results of instruction at the preoperational/concrete operational transition

Abstract

The same cognitive intervention was attempted with children from two schools serving different populations. All children were identified by their teachers as having cognitive difficulties in kindergarten. Within each school, children were randomly assigned to experimental and control groups. Children in the experimental groups received more than 40 short lessons on unidimensional classification (oddity), seriation, and number conservation. These lessons were taught via a learning‐set procedure employing 160 kinds of manipulatable objects. Children in the control groups received an equal amount of instruction on verbal and mathematics materials recommended by their teachers. Five months after the instruction was concluded, the experimental group in one school scored significantly better on a psychometric test of reasoning. There was no significant difference in verbal and mathematics achievement. Differences in the significance of outcomes of the intervention at the two schools suggest that children at different stages of cognitive development will benefit differently from cognitive interventions. © 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Effects of Teaching Patterning to 1st-Graders

“…The results Hendricks et al (1999) obtained from instructing 1st-graders on patterning and class inclusion resemble those that Pasnak et al (1987), Pasnak, Holt, Campbell, and McCutcheon (1991), and Pasnak et al (1996) ing younger children (kindergartners) on simpler concepts (the oddity concept and operational seriation). That is, increasing children's competence in key reasoning abilities that are age-appropriate may improve the children's academic performance.…”

“…Hendricks et al (1999) ascertained the effects on a few 1st-graders of learning set instruction on both patterning and class inclusion. The learning set method, espoused by some comparative and educational psychologists (Gagné, 1968;Gelman, 1969;Kingsley & Hall, 1967;Pasnak, Hansbarger, Dodson, Hart, & Blaha, 1996), relies on a large variety and number of exemplars to achieve wide generalization of the principle taught, and requires few teaching skills beyond warmth and enthusiasm. The children improved on class inclusion from 28 percent to 92 percent correct, and on patterning from 42 percent to 84 percent.…”

Instructing First-Grade Children on Patterning Improves Reading and Mathematics

“…A major difference between this study and the less successful intervention by Hendricks et al (2006) is that Hendricks et al worked with children from suburban schools near a major university rather than children from a generally disadvantaged urban area. Clements and Sarama (2007c) noted marked differences in patterning abilities for children of different socioeconomic statuses, and Pasnak, Hansbarger, Dodson, Hart, and Blaha (1996) found that a cognitive intervention conducted identically and simultaneously but with disparate samples of kindergartners was very productive for one sample but not at all productive for the other. Kindergartners in one school may be like preschoolers or first graders in some other schools.…”

Benefits of an Intervention Focused on Oddity and Seriation

“…These children had most of the school year to learn the concepts taught, and their mastery was incomplete. As Pasnak, Hansbarger, Dodson, Hart, and Blaha (1996) discovered, the intervention can work well for some children who are at the appropriate stage in cognitive development and not work at all for children who are too low functioning. In a study by Waiss and Pasnak (1993), it did not work well for children who already understood seriation and all but the most difficult forms of the oddity principle.…”