Publication Date

1972

Document Type

Dissertation/Thesis

First Advisor

Sie, Georgiana W.||Reed, Mary Frances, 1906-

Degree Name

M.S. (Master of Science)

Legacy Department

Department of Home Economics

LCSH

Educational psychology; Nursery schools

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine whether nursery school attendance had a significant influence on the personal and social adjustment and the achievement potential of first grade children. The sample consisted of twenty-four children, sixteen girls and eight boys, enrolled in the first grade at the Northern Illinois University Laboratory School in DeKalb, Illinois. Ten of these had attended nursery school and fourteen had not attended. All had attended kindergarten. Data were obtained by administering the California Test of Personality and the Metropolitan Readiness Tests. I.Q,. scores from the Otis-Lennon Mental Ability Test were available, as well as scores of some of the children on the Kindergarten Test of Basic Experiences. Some family background information and names of nursery school and kindergarten attended and length of attendance by some children were obtained from their school records. As much information as was available about types of nursery schools attended, along with some personal information, was obtained from parents and teachers as supplementary materials used to interpret particular score patterns. A 2 x 2 analysis of variance was used to determine whether there was a significant difference between the two groups. No significant difference was found at the five percent level: (1) between children who had attended nursery school and those who had not, on test scores of readiness and adjustment, and (2) between boys and girls, on test scores of readiness and adjustment. However, the data analysis showed boys slightly higher than the girls in scores on the Metropolitan Readiness Tests. A larger sample is recommended for future study of a similar nature. The scores of personal-social adjustment for children with nursery school compared with non-nursery school experience approached the ten percent level of significance. Correlations were run to find a possible significant relationship between I.Q. and adjustment and I.Q. and readiness test scores. There was a slightly higher correlation between I.Q,. scores and readiness test scores of non-nursery school subjects than for the nursery school group. There was a negative correlation between adjustment scores and I.Q. scores of the males of the sample, and between adjustment scores and I.Q. scores of the subjects who had attended nursery school.

Comments

Includes bibliographical references.

Extent

vii, 93 pages

Language

eng

Publisher

Northern Illinois University

Rights Statement

In Copyright

Rights Statement 2

NIU theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from Huskie Commons for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without the written permission of the authors.

Media Type

Text

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