set 1977 : no. 1

In recent years an increasing number of teachers have found the "Cioze Procedure" an asset in their reading programmes. Some use it for assessing the level of their students' reading comprehension; others have made diagnostic use of it, by examining unusual responses made by their pupils; others again have found it useful in determining the readability level of books and stories, as a basis for prescribing textbooks and generally matching a student with his book. In this… Read more

In 1951, the World Health Organisation published a report by John Bowlby entitled Maternal Care and Mental Health. In that report Bowlby reviewed a variety of research studies concerning children in institutions such as orphanages and foundling homes, and he assessed the effect of these circumstances on the children's subsequent development. He came to the conclusion that the children who were the subjects of the various studies had suffered severely in their development, and that this… Read more

Is bilingualism a handicap? The literature on the effects of bilingualism on the intelligence, linguistic proficiency, and mental health of bilingual individuals is vast, complex and contradictory. The perusal of almost any random collection of articles, treatises, and opinions on the topic would lead most lay readers to the conclusion that the question as to whether bilingualism is a handicap has much in common with that as to whoso had taken the Pobble's toes: nobody knew, and nobody… Read more

There are a number of children in New Zealand who, during their pre-school years regularly use a language other than English. They use it at home with their parents, and at play with their siblings and with many of their friends. When these children enter school at the age of five, they must use as a language for playing, for learning and for finding their way about their new school, a language in which  they are both less familiar and less proficient than are their peers who are… Read more

Founded 47 years ago, the Australian Council for Educational Research has grown from a staff of two in 1930 to about ninety today. Under its first two directors, Dr K.S. Cunningham (1930-1954) and Dr Wm. C. Radford (1955-1976) it has established a reputation as an independent national organisation that offers a valuable research and development service to education in Australia -and has made significant contributions to New Zealand education through its test development programme.

In recent years it has become a matter of orthodoxy that language programmes are necessary for children from poor homes and children from minority groups. One of the most influential of all programmes for pre-school children has been the one devised by Carl  Bereiter and Siegfriend Engelmann (Bereiter and Engelmann, 1966; Bereiter, Engelmann, Osborn and Reidford, 1966). It was put into effect in what was called an "academic pre-school".

Social-class differences in children's speech and language have attracted a lot of attention in recent years, and a variety of theories have been put forward to explain and describe them. Some have claimed that lower-class, or working-class children possess a language which is deficient or limited by comparison with middle-class children; in an extreme version of this hypothesis it has been claimed that these children have virtually no language at all, and that we have to teach it to… Read more

There has been considerable concern about the development and adjustment of children of mothers who work away from home, but there is little research evidence to show that maternal employment in itself has a detrimental effect on a child's development, and there are some cases where it can be a positive advantage. Yet the situation is by no means clear cut, as many research studies  have failed to take into account such variables as whether the mother is working full- or part-time… Read more

Between 1973 and 1975 the Australian Council for Educational Research carried out a two-year study of five Victorian secondary schools, their structures, and relationships with the local community. The research found that in the five communities studied in the  State of Victoria there is only minimal influence exerted upon the school- its principal and staff- from outside regarding the school's organisation and programme. Those outside the school have strong role expectations of… Read more

The Development of Meaning, by Joan Tough, is an investigation into children's use of language and its implications for their learning at home and at school. The study is essentially an enquiry into educational disadvantage. The basis of Dr Tough's research was a close study of the language used by selected groups of children from the age of three (when it would be known whether the child was to have nursery education or not). Because of the large quantities of data that would be… Read more