A COMPARISON OF TWO TEACHING METHODS ON PREOPERATIONAL CHILDREN'S KNOWLEDGE OF THEIR INTERNAL BODIES.
Contributors: University of Pennsylvania.
Published: 1986
Number of pages: 148
Subjects: Health Sciences, Nursing.; Health Sciences, Education.
Description: The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship of two teaching modalities used in the instruction of anatomical structure and physiologic function to young children, 4 1/2 to 7 1/2 years of age who use Piagetian preoperational thought patterns.

Using an experimental pretest-posttest design, a sample of 159 subjects was recruited from the prekindergarten, kindergarten, and first grade classes of seven schools. These classes were assigned, using stratified random assignment, to one of three research groups. Subjects in the first experimental group received information about their internal bodies using a multisensory teaching method while a cognitive-perceptual teaching method was used with the second group. Both experimental groups received identical content, only the mode of presentation differed. The third group served as a control.

All subjects' Piagetian cognitive level was initially evaluated to insure that they were using preoperational thought processes. Their knowledge of their internal bodies was then pretested using a recall memory approach. Subjects in the experimental groups were then taught about their internal bodies using one of the two teaching modalities. Postesting was then done at one and six weeks post-intervention. During these later testings, the experimental subjects' knowledge was evaluated using both recall and recognition memory approaches. Subjects in the control groups were tested at the same intervals using the same techniques as employed with the experimental groups, only no interventions had been conducted.

The first two research hypothesses predicted that children aged 4 1/2 to 7 1/2 years and who used Piagetian preoperational thought would learn significantly more about anatomic structure and physiologic function when exposed to a multisensory teaching approach as compared to a cognitive-perceptual teaching approach. These hypotheses were supported. The third hypothesis, which predicted that there would be significant differences in the amount of learning that occurred in children of varying levels of enmeshment in preoperational thought, was not supported.
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 47-04, Section: B, page: 1493.

Thesis (PH.D.)--UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA, 1986.

School code: 0175.