The attainment of conservation abilities through primary school science

© 1976 John A. HenryThe Piagetian model of concrete operativity was reviewed and research and educational ramifications arising from the model were discussed. An argument was established for the possible testing of the Piagetian model by training experiences in seriation and classification. Classification experiences are advocated by the 1971 Victorian Primary Science Course, Thus it was proposed to evaluate the science course on its intellectual development objective using Piagetian criteria and at the same time consider the tenability of the underlying concrete operativity model. The experimental design was a nonequivalent control group design involving 104 Grade I children in four classes at two schools. The measuring instruments were the ACER Lower Grades General Ability Scale, the ACER Lower Grades Number Concepts Test - Level I, the ACER Lower Grades Primary Reading Survey Tests-Levels AA, Forms R and S, and the Conservation Assessment Kit-Conservation - Forms A and C. The experimental class in each school experienced discrimination and classification activities of the type suggested in the Victorian Education Department's curriculum guide A. Beginning Science (1968a). The control classes experienced no activity-oriented science lessons. A naturalistic strategy was included in the study. The 2 x 2 analysis of covariance (intelligence and pre-test scores being the covariates) on eleven dependent variables revealed a significant (0.05 level) treatment effect for total conservation score, number, substance, continuous quantity, and discontinuous quantity conservations. Two-dimensional space and length conservations recorded probabilities of 0.061 and 0.057 for treatment effects. A significant treatment effect was achieved for reading achievement. The discussion concluded that : (a) Classificatory experiences in the Victorian Primary Science course accelerate the acquisition of the first order conservations of number, substance and length in 6 year old children. The acquisition of the first order conservations of area and weight are not similarly accelerated. (b) This study further supports the logico-mathematical model of concrete operativity hypothesized by Piaget. (c) Science experiences of the discrimination and classification type are suitable pre-reading programs. The links between the science experiences and reading achievement are both direct effects and indirect effects via cognitive development. A similar relationship between the science program and numeracy achievement was not established by this study. Implications for further research were also discussed