Teacher Education, Educational Leadership & Policy ETDs

Publication Date

5-15-1969

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to determine the effect of two types of treatments which were designed to increase the efficiency of the cognitive functions, Discrimination, Inference, and Generalization and to decrease the tendency to be Overcautious or to Overgeneralize in processing given data. The Concept Structure Study Program was planned to provide an understanding of the meaning elements and the arrangement of elements which together comprise the structure of concepts at varying levels of complexity. The Cognitive-Emphasis Social Studies Units were designed to facilitate the formation of simple-to-complex concepts by differentiation of relevant from irrelevant data, grouping of items of information according to specific criteria, organization of data in a subordinate-superordinate hierarchy. The meanings thus derived were used to generate additional concepts about unfamiliar data. Two hundred sixty-three fifth-grade children in twelve classrooms in the Albuquerque Public Schools comprised the sample. Classes were sectioned into four groups of three classrooms, and one of the following treatment arrangements was randomly assigned to each group: (1) study of concept structure and cognitive-emphasis units, (2) study of concept structure, (3) study of cognitive-emphasis units, and (4) no-treatment study. The treatment period lasted three weeks, and instruction was conducted by student teachers enrolled in a teacher preparation program at the University of New Mexico. The Social Studies Inference Test and the Application of Principles Test developed in the Taba Study by Samuel Levine and. Freeman Elzey were administered to collect pre- and posttest data. Analysis of Covariance was used to measure differences in performance between the treatment groups on the five cognitive variables.

Conclusions

1. On four of the five cognitive processes, the three treatment arrangements were associated with significantly higher means than was the no-treatment arrangement.

2. No single treatment produced a significant difference on all five variables.

3. In order of success, the study of cognitive-emphasis units was the most effective; the combination study ranked second, and the study of concept structure was third.

4. All three treatments produced significant gains on Inferring.

5. Neither treatment was more successful than the others in developing Discrimination; only cognitive-emphasis unit study resulted in a significant gain over the no-treatment method.

6. No treatment produced a significant reduction in Overgeneralization.

7. Caution was significantly reduced by cognitive-emphasis unit study and by the combination treatment; concept structure study resulted in no significant reduction.

8. No treatment was significantly different from the others on Generalization results, but all were significantly higher than the no-treatment method.

Recommendations

1. Treatments should be used as a regular part of the Social Studies curriculum in Grade Five to develop greater proficiency in Discrimination, Inference, and Generalization and to reduce the tendency to be Overcautious.

2. Emphasis should be given to the development of a teacher question strategy designed to elicit thinking at higher cognitive levels.

3. Future replications of the study should be designed to (1) extend the treatment period, (2) increase the number of units in cognitive-emphasis unit study, (3) increase the number of concepts at each level of concept structure study, and (4) test the effectiveness of the treatments in the context of other curriculum content and at other grade levels.

Document Type

Dissertation

Language

English

Degree Name

Elementary Education

Level of Degree

Doctoral

Department Name

Teacher Education, Educational Leadership & Policy

First Committee Member (Chair)

Miles Vernon Zintz

Second Committee Member

F. Keith Auger

Third Committee Member

LeRoy Condie

Fourth Committee Member

David Wayne Darling

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