N.S.W. Kindergarten Children’s Knowledge of First Grade Social Studies Content Prior to Instruction- A Pilot Investigation

This study sought to investigate kindergarten children’s knowledge of the first grade social studies syllabus in N.S.W. prior to instruction. A forty item test which measured the cognitive outcomes of the first grade syllabus was constructed and administered in November to ninety first grade and ninety kindergarten children in three metropolitan schools. While the mean scores of the first grade and kindergarten children were significantly different, it was argued that the difference did not justify the extra year of instruction given to the first grade children. Moreover, there were no significant qualitative differences obtained in the levels of knowledge possessed by the children either in the first grade or kindergarten sample. Suggestions for future curriculum revision in the social studies were made. Over the past five years the substantive and syntactical structures of a number of Australian primary and secondary social studies curricula have undergone major modifications. * Within their substantive structures, these curricula seek to embrace a wider range of social science disciplines than the traditiona