THE RELATIONSHIP OF CONSERVATION, CLASSIFICATION, AND SERIATION TO FIRST-GRADE READING ACHIEVEMENT

The present study explored the relationship between cognitive operativity and reading. Performance on three Piagetian tasks (conservation, classification, and seriation) and on the Indices of Cognitive Development in Reading (ICDR), which included Conservation-Sensitive Tasks in Reading (Con-STR), Classification-Sensitive Tasks in Reading (Class-STR), and Seriation-Sensitive Tasks in Reading (Ser-STR) was related to three subtests of reading achievement (word-meaning, sentence-completion, and comprehension-reading) and to overall reading achievement. The subjects were 100 first-grade children of average ability from five urban public schools in Mahasarakham, Thailand. All subjects were individually administered the Piagetian tasks and the ICDR measures using a clinical method. Reading achievement was then measured in small groups. Correlational analysis, step-wise multiple regression analysis, multivariate multiple regression analysis, and path analysis were performed to examine their relationships. The results indicated that when the Piagetian tasks and the subtests of ICDR measures were used to predict overall reading achievement, all of them were significantly correlated with the criterion measure. Seriation abilities were the most powerful predictors in each set. When the Piagetian tasks and the subtests of ICDR measures were used to predict performance on reading achievement subtests, seriation and Ser-STR were more highly related to word-meaning than to sentence-completion and comprehension-reading subtests, while conservation and Con-STR were most related to the sentence-completion subtest. Classification and Class-STR were most strongly related to word-meaning and sentence-completion subtests. Path analysis indicated that Piagetian tasks had no significant direct effect on reading achievement but had a significant influence on ICDR measures. Among the ICDR measures, Ser-STR and Con-STR had significant relationships to reading achievement. These findings suggest that Piagetian cognitive tasks may be used to determine children\u27s cognitive maturity before learning to read. They may also have some utility in predicting reading achievement and in identifying children deficient in essential skills for learning to read