RESEARCH ON: III. TEACHING AND LEARNING PROGRAMS, METHODS, AND MATERIALS Determining an Effective Educational Program for Children of Migratory Workers in Wisconsin Problem.-To design and test a system of providing education for the children of migrant workers outside their home communities. Major objectives.-The objectives are (1) to develop procedures to predict the arrival of specific children (from Texas) in specific areas of Wisconsin at specific times; (2) to develop educational programs appropriate to the needs of migrant children; and (3) to determine whether such programs are financially feasible. Procedures.-A survey will be conducted to obtain information on the number of migrant children in the State, when they arrive, how long they stay, and areas and school districts affected. A form will be developed which will be sent to the Texas Employment Agency so that a crew leader who has signed a labor contract for work in Wisconsin will be asked to list the names, home school, and other data concerning children of the crew. These forms will be used to classify children by type of home school. A form seeking a short educational assessment will be sent to the home school. When a regularly established program is in existence, a report of activities in a Wisconsin migrant school will be sent to the home school in Texas. Predictive scales will be developed on the basis of findings of the research phase of the program. DONALD R. THOMAS, Assistant Professor of Project No. 674. September 1959-August 1960. 49 The Preparation and Evaluation of Problem. This project proposes to study and revise existing educational testing materials and to create new materials in parallel English and Spanish editions. Major objective.-The objective is to produce a new battery of tests which are simultaneously constructed in both Spanish and English editions. Procedures. A new series of parallel tests in English and Spanish will be created, including areas of general ability and reading. Manuals, norms, and accessory material will be developed to make the tests useful in either language alone or in situations where a comparison of abilities in the two languages is desired. A staff of Spanish-speaking and English-speaking members will formulate and test the measures developed in the United States, Puerto Rico, and Mexico. The regular procedures of test writing, editing, and tryout will be used; item analyses will be made to determine the discrimination value of the test items. HERSCHEL T. MANUEL, Professor of Educational Psychology, University of Texas, Austin, Tex. Project No.: 681. Improvement of Motor Development and Physical Fitness in Elementary School Children Problem. This study compares the outcomes of a program of vigorous physical activity based on the exercise of inherent patterns of motor coordinations with available measures of motor development and physical fitness. Major objective. The objective is to determine whether or not a vigorous program of physical education which concentrates on inherent motor patterns will result in (1) improved performance records in the run, jump, and throw; (2) improved coordination patterns of motor performance in the same skills; (3) increase in strength in selected muscle groups; and (4) indications of the age level at which the school program can profitably be directed toward improvement of specific motor patterns. Procedures.-All children in the first, third, and fifth grades in a selected elementary school will be exposed to an experimentally de veloped program of motor activities as part of a physical education curriculum designed to challenge the child. Performance measures in the standing broadjump, the 30-yard dash, the overarm throw, the pullup, and the shuttle run will be taken at the beginning of the study and at the end of the first and second year. Additional measures will be taken on a random sample of 25 boys and 25 girls from each of the three grades. The control groups will consist of all children in an elementary school whose performance scores were recorded from September 1953 to June 1958. The means and measures of variability of the experimental group will be compared with those of the control groups and with national physical fitness standards. RUTH B. GLASSOW, Professor of Physical Project No. 696. Duration: 2 years, 2 months. Evaluation and Followup Study of Thayer Academy's Summer Advance Study Program in Science and Mathematics Problem. This study inquires into the consequences of a summer program for about 60 promising science students. Major objectives.-The objectives are (1) to evaluate the stated purposes of an advanced summer program in science and mathematics; and (2) to determine the effect of such a program on the behavior of students in mathematics and science classes during the ensuing year and on their future career decisions. Procedures.-The three instruments used to evaluate student gains during the summer program will include (1) a measure of student ability to identify and define scientific problems and to deal with scientific methodology; (2) an assessment of developed mathematical concepts, abilities, and other mathematical skills; and (3) a test of the student's understanding of science as an institution and of scientists as an occupational group. The significance of the difference between pretest and posttest (administered 10 weeks later) means will be tested to evaluate the student gains. Personality measures will be used to compare the students in this program with those in a 5-year study of the career development of scientists. Assessment of the effects of the program on the behavior of students will be made through questionnaires and visits to the students' home schools. WILLIAM W. COOLEY, Instructor and Research Associate in Education, Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass. Project No. 715. Duration: 1 year. Development of Mathematical Concepts in Children Problem.-This study seeks to describe the development of mathematical concepts in young children and to explore the character of this development in terms of modern learning theory. Major objectives.-The objectives are (1) to analyze the mathematical character of the space and number concepts of children aged 4 through 9; (2) to determine the proper age for the introduction of nonarithmetical mathematical topics; (3) to apply modern learning theory, particularly stimulus sampling theory of discrimination, to the study of the formation and learning of mathematical concepts by children. Procedures.-This research will be conducted in two separate but related phases. In the first phase, longitudinal studies will investigate how early the verbal skills connected with deductive reasoning can be introduced. Subjects for this investigation will be drawn from a current program in the teaching of geometry in the first, second, and third grades. Control groups will be selected from comparable elementary classes in nearby school districts. The second phase of the study will be concerned with fundamental experiments in the learning of mathematical concepts. Subjects will be drawn at random from a population of children aged 4 through 9 in the Palo Alto area, and a specific mathematical model drawn from the general notions of statistical learning theory will be developed. Statistical methods appropriate to stochastic processes, particularly Markov processes, will be used. PATRICK SUPPES, Professor, Stanford University, Stanford, Calif. Project No. 727. Duration: 3 years. An Investigation of Differential Binaural Stimulation in Problem. This study seeks to determine whether or not differential binaural stimulation can be used effectively to improve pronunciation in foreign language teaching. Major objective.-The objective is to determine the effect that hearing simultaneously the teacher's voice in one ear and his own voice in the other will have on a student's ability to compare the differences in pronunciation. Procedures. Two groups of 20 first-semester freshmen college students without previous training in Spanish will serve as subjects. They will receive general language instruction in Spanish from the same teacher but will be given different types of language laboratory training. The experimental group will be given differential binaural stimulation, hearing themselves in one ear as they hear the taped stimulus material in the other. The control group will be given the same stimulus material but will hear it in both ears along with their own voices. Testing materials will be administered to both groups at the end of 3 consecutive months of twice-a-week language laboratory training. With pronunciation errors used as a basis, an analysis of variance and the statistical significance of the differences will be computed. CHARLES VAN RIPER, Director, Speech and Hearing Clinic, Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, Mich. Project No. 739. Duration: 1 year, 1 month. Observational Study of School Classroom Behavior From Diverse Evaluative Frameworks: Developmental, Mental Health, Substantive Learning, and Group Process Problem. This study seeks to determine what common and unique elements of classroom behavior are present in observations made from diverse observational frameworks. Major objective.-The objective is to determine how different classroom behavior will appear when it is viewed from four evaluative frameworks: (1) developmental, (2) mental health, (3) substantive learning, and (4) group process. Procedures. This research is divided into six stages. The first stage will be devoted to the development of four schedules for use in simultaneous observation of the same sample of classroom behavior. In stage 2 representatives from education, psychiatry, psychology, and sociology will meet and clarify the positions to be studied. In the third stage, graduate students will be trained in observational techniques and will collect observational data in elementary and secondary school classrooms. During stage four an analysis of these data will be made, and the observational schedules will be revised for utilization in stage five, which will be a duplication of stage three. The final stage will consist of an analysis of the new data and preparation of the final report. WILLIAM C. MORSE, Professor of Educational Psychology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Mich. Project No. 753. Duration: 2 years. October 1959-September 1961. |