EFFECTS OF CLASSIFICATION EXPOSURE UPON NUMERICAL ACI I 'VEr-ENT OF EDUCABLE laNTALLY RETARDED

Two groups of educable mentally retarded children were compared as to their arithmetic and classification performances attributable to the presence or absence of four and a half week exposure to classification tasks (taken from Inhelder and Piaget). The randomized block pretest-posttest design was used. The experimental group (N=16) and the control group (N=16), constituting 16 pairs, were matched on their arithmetic skills prior to the experimentation. ANOVA revealed significantly greater mean gains for the experimental group on both arithmetic performance (p<.05) and classification performance (p<.01). It was found that arithmetic post-test covaried significantly with arithmetic pre-test (p<.001) and classification pre-test (p.05) and that classification post-test covaried ificantly with age (p<.05) and classification pre-test (p<.001). When the effects of these cavariates were sorted cut and the two groups were compared by ARCOVA, the experimental group showed significantly higher post-test performances on arithmetic (1)=.01) and classification (p 001) over the control group, indicating that the classification exposure treatment did indeed facilitate, greatly, the acquisition of arithmetic as well as classification, skills. Paper presented to the 1973 Annual Meeting of American Educational Research Association, New Orleans, February 27, 1973. U, SS. DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH, EDUCATION & WELFARE OFFICE OF EDUCATION THIS DOCUMENT HAS BEEN REPRO= DIKED EXACTLY AS RECEIvED FROM THE PERSON OR ORGANIZATION ORIGINATING IT POINTS OF VIEW OR OPINIONS STATED DO NOT NECESSARILY REPRESENT OFFICIAL OFFICE OF EDuCATION POSITION DR P1)1 iry Effects of Classification Exposure Upon Numerical Achievement of Educabla :entally Retarded Children Piaget discussed four basic factors that contribute to i tellectual development. They are physiological development, direct experience with the physical world, social transr ssion, and equilibration, the ability to assimilate new information and generalize correct answers for similar experiments (Ripple and Rockeastle, 1964). In order for equilibration to occur the child must operate on or act on objects; such a process is called an operation which is considered to be the basis of arithmetic. One of the fundamental assumptions of Piaget's theory. of cognitive growth is that there is a fixed order in which concepts are acquired. Especially with reference to the acquis of number concepts, it is emphasized that the idea of classification must be investigated by children before numbers can be fully understood (Copeland, 1970). This strategy would appear to be even more important to the mentally retarded child who is severely handicapped by the lack of ability to concentrate, low transfer of learning, low abstract thinking ability, poor comprehension of details and situations, and the lack of initiative (Garton 1964). Classification is defined as the grouping of objects or instances on the basis of one or more observable characteristics. Inhelder and Piaget (1964) point out that the origin of classification has been traced to the maturation of the central nervous system and to the developmental period prior to language and symbolic representation (sensori -motor level, 0 to 2 years of age). As the child progresses through the other developmental stages (pre-operational, 2 to 7 years; concrete Operational, 7 to 11 years; and formal operational 11+ years), the classification behavior, that is, the act of building classes becomes increasingly complex, building upon previous classification experiences.