Modeling training improved imaginative play in disadvantaged kindergartners, with gains in imaginativeness, verbal communication, spontaneity, and attention span persisting two months¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study · causal r? · q2
Currency · newest study 1973 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person
Evidence quality · No study behind this claim is a peer-reviewed article with a DOI: it rests on an ERIC document (a report, conference paper or thesis). It is kept because 2 design pages cite it; treat it as a lead to check, not an established finding.

Subclaims¶

q2 i? Freyberg's eight training sessions using modeling and direct teaching significantly improved imaginativeness, positive affect, and concentration in disadvantaged kindergarten children, while a puzzle-manipulating control group showed no change. Two months later the children still played with greater imaginativeness and improved verbal communication as well as more spontaneity and increased attention span; the source does not state whether the affect gains persisted. → Third Invitational Interdisciplinary Seminar: Piagetian Theory and Its Implications for the Helping Professions 1973

Evidence¶

Third Invitational Interdisciplinary Seminar: Piagetian Theory and Its Implications for the Helping Professions 1973¶

Third Invitational Interdisciplinary Seminar: Piagetian Theory and Its Implications for the Helping Professions. (1973). https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED092496

q2 · i? · causal · r?

Freyberg studied 80 disadvantaged kindergarten children in New York City, dividing them into high-fantasy, low-fantasy, and control groups; all but controls received eight small-group training sessions acting out plots with play people, Playdoh, blocks and Tinker Toys. "The control group which had had eight sessions manipulating jigsaw puzzles and Tinker Toys, showed no change."

"At the end of a month, both experimental groups had im- proved significantly in the imaginativeness of their play as well as in the expression of positive emotions and the de- gree of concentration shown in their play."

Discussion¶

Learner Variables¶

• Attention — outcome: instruction changes it

Related Claims¶

• Example-based sequences outperform problem-only practice for novices, and fading support is argued to aid transfer — the general claim this finding bears on, with the studies behind it
• Kindergartners struggle to give verbal causal explanations, but model-based tasks let most of them express causal ideas — related
• Toy structure made little difference to imaginative play; fantasy predisposition may be already pretty well formed by age five — related
• Spatial Skills Improve Through Block Building — related
• Number Board Games Improve Numerical Knowledge — related
• Children from economically disadvantaged families are at greater risk for poor kindergarten transitions than their peers — related