Bank Street Research Articles

Locus of Control among Computer-Using School Children: A Report of a Pilot Study

Forty-six high SES school-aged children (aged nine to fifteen) participated in a prototypical after-school and summer computer camp provided by an independent non-profit research laboratory. Following an initial sixteen-hour exposure to Logo and Bank Street Writer, children twelve years of age or less were found to minimally shift towards an internal locus of control (paired 1-tailed t-test significant at .03), as measured pre and posttest with the Nowicki-Strickland Locus of Control (LOC) Scale for Children. The LOC scale was chosen as an operationalization of Papert's concept of “empowering children” via microcomputer interaction. Because prior research on LOC has associated an internal LOC with positive learner attributes (such as the ability to delay gratification, persist on task, greater tendencies toward beneficial social interaction, less dogmatism, academic competence, social maturity, and possibly a correlate of independent, striving, and self-motivated behavior), it was felt that such an investigation could assist researchers in more clearly distinguishing between the reaction of different groups towards technology as a tool. Treatment consisted of a semi-structured sixteen-hour microcomputer experience in a class/lab environment. Software used in the study was restricted to Logo and Bank Street Writer. Classification of the LOC instrument by topic and response suggests that even highly internal-scoring children do not regard “planning” as an important process leading to successful outcomes in life. The relationship of this finding to a recent study conducted by Bank Street College utilizing Logo is discussed.

The importance of research for Logo.

Logo has excited educators of the deaf by offering a nonlinguistic medium in which students can gain general thinking skills and a sense of empowerment. Research with hearing students, suggesting that few Logo students attain the larger goals of educators, has led some people either to discredit Logo or to discredit the research. This article addresses these oversimplified responses to Logo research. It describes goals of current Logo instruction, reviews some Bank Street College research on Logo and thinking skills, offers guidelines to educators for thinking about this research, and illustrates how research may be used to create improved Logo learning materials.

Bank Street Writer

Bank Street Writer

GAO Dismisses Bank Street Protest

GAO Dismisses Bank Street Protest

GAO Dismisses Bank Street Protest

GAO Dismisses Bank Street Protest

GAO Dismisses Bank Street Protest

GAO Dismisses Bank Street Protest

School Technology Contract Stirs Dispute

School Technology Contract Stirs Dispute

Letter to the editor

Software: Practice and ExperienceVolume 11, Issue 3 p. 321-321 Letter to the Editor Letter to the editor Randal Leavitt, Randal Leavitt Systemhouse Ltd. 99 Bank Street, Ottawa, OntarioSearch for more papers by this author Randal Leavitt, Randal Leavitt Systemhouse Ltd. 99 Bank Street, Ottawa, OntarioSearch for more papers by this author First published: March 1981 https://doi.org/10.1002/spe.4380110308AboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Volume11, Issue3March 1981Pages 321-321 RelatedInformation

Social Studies in the Primary Grades

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size Additional informationNotes on contributorsHarriet C. NealHarriet C. Neal is a doctoral student at the University of the Pacific and a freelance consultant. She has worked at Bank Street College of Education with their Follow Through Program and has taught at the preschool, primary, and college levels.

Preschool Education: A Perspective from Bank Street

Preschool Education: A Perspective from Bank Street

Multivariate Comparison of Two Model Preschool Programs

This study compared two preschool programs-Bank Street and Montessori-using an observational scale originally developed for a study of Head Start classrooms. The two questions underlying the study were: ( 1 ) could the observation scale discriminate between the two programs and ( 2 ) how many independent dimensions underlay the variables derived from the scale. Three classrooms were observed in each program. In each classroom observations were made on four boys and four girls. Each subject was observed for 40 min. on each of three separate days. Three sets of variables were formed from the basic categories. The variables in the first set measured activities and experiences emphasized by Montessori but not by Bank Street literature, in the second set the experiences emphasized by Bank Street and not by Montessori, and in the third set experiences emphasized by both programs. All the differences were found in the first two sets. Perhaps they only reflect a single basic dimension of preschool programs. In order to address this issue multivariate analysis of variance and factor analysis were applied to the nine variables, four from the Montessori set and five from the Bank Street set, which did not show effects of teachers (thus allowing this term to be dropped from the model). The analysis of variance was used to assess how many variables in each set differentiated independently of the others between the two programs, as determined by their step-down Fs. For each set of variables the most general variable was tested first followed by the remaining variables in order of their increasing univariate Fs. Only one of the Montessori variables reached significance according to this criterion, but three of the Bank Street did. Discriminant analysis of these data gave similar results. A second analysis examined the dimensions within the two programs by means of principal components factor analysis with varimax rotation. Of importance here was not the number of factors since this was limited by the small number of variables but how the composition of the factors compared with the results of the analysis of variance: the three Bank Street variables which discriminated independently between the two programs were all on the same factor when looking within the Bank Street program. In determining the dimensions needed to describe preschool programs, it is important to distinguish questions concerning differences between programs from interrelations among the variables within a program.

Schachtel's Contribution to the Teaching Experience

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size Additional informationNotes on contributorsLeah LevingerLeah Levinger, Ph.D., is a psychodiagnostician; supervisor in diagnostic practicums at New York and Yeshiva Universities; faculty***, Bank Street College of Education.

The differentiated child behavior observational system

The Differentiated Child Behavior Observational System (DCB, Ross, 1971) which provides for systematic recording of children's interactions in ongoing classroom activities, was applied in 48 classrooms with children aged five to eight. Three groups were studied: the first, representing a nontraditional, open-classroom approach was drawn from the Bank Street School for Children (middle-income); the second, with a similar approach, from Bank Street Follow Through classes in public schools (low-income); and the third, from traditional classes in public schools (low-income). The groups showed striking differences in amount of children's interactions, with significantly greater amounts in the two nontraditional groups. Analysis of the content of the interactions revealed further important differences. The Bank Street School and Bank Street Follow Through groups totalled significantly more higher-order cognitive statements and questions, and more autonomous behavior. Results indicated that although in SES background, Follow Through classes were more like the traditional classes, the interactions of the Follow Through children were more like those of the (nontraditional) Bank Street School. 1 This presentation is limited to the most salient points of definition. A comprehensive listing of examples for each subcategory component is presented in the Observer's Manual. 2 The incidence of such behaviors is reflected by the following mean total frequencies for the three groups: Bank Street School = 1.9, Follow Through = 10, and Comparison = 10.

Sociology of Education: Perspectives on Women

Sociological InquiryVolume 45, Issue 2-3 p. 106-143 Sociology of Education: Perspectives on Women Sara Lawrence Lightfoot, Sara Lawrence Lightfoot Is Assistant Professor at the Harvard School of Education. She studied cognitive and social development in young children at Bank Street College of Education and the Albert Einstein Medical School, and received her doctorate from Harvard in 1972. Her main fields of interest include the social structure of schools and classrooms, the dynamics of teacher-child interactional patterns, and the consonance and dissonance between family and school as major institutions of socialization.Search for more papers by this author Sara Lawrence Lightfoot, Sara Lawrence Lightfoot Is Assistant Professor at the Harvard School of Education. She studied cognitive and social development in young children at Bank Street College of Education and the Albert Einstein Medical School, and received her doctorate from Harvard in 1972. Her main fields of interest include the social structure of schools and classrooms, the dynamics of teacher-child interactional patterns, and the consonance and dissonance between family and school as major institutions of socialization.Search for more papers by this author First published: April 1975 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1475-682X.1975.tb00333.xAboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Volume45, Issue2-3April 1975Pages 106-143 RelatedInformation

Learning to Lead

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size Additional informationNotes on contributorsJacqueline L. RosenJacqueline L. Rosen, a senior research psychologist, Research Division, Bank Street College of Education, New York City, was Program Analyst.Mary B. PalmerMary B. Palmer, social worker, Lincoln Institute for Psychotherapy, New York City, served as her associate.

The Legacy of Paul Goodman

Abstract On August 2 of this year, Paul Goodman died of a heart attack at his farm in North Stratford, New Hampshire. As poet, scholar, essayist, novelist and social critic, his articulate disregard of conventions profoundly challenged accepted moral and social beliefs in American society. As Susan Sontag said in a memorable eulogy in the New York Review of Books, “There has not been such a convincing, genuine, singular voice in our language since D. H. Lawrence.” He passionately criticized the institutions of American education, insisting against all contemporary trends that our colleges and universities should be the preserve of a “community of scholars.” A native New Yorker, he became widely known with the publication of Growing Up Absurd in 1956 and later addressed himself to questions of education in Compulsory Mis-education and The Community of Scholars. Although he lectured throughout the country and taught briefly at a number of colleges and universities, he never held a permanent faculty position at a major university. In the belief that people concerned with higher education should be reminded once again of the power of his indictments and the persuasiveness of his example, Change asked four people whom Goodman had deeply moved to discuss his beliefs and their influence: Nat Hentoff, staff writer for The New Yorker and author of Our Children Are Dying; Gloria Channon, a teacher in the New York public schools and author of Homework; George Dennison, author of The Lives of Children, an account of his experiences in a community free school on Manhattan's Lower East Side; and Wilbur Rippy, an adviser in the graduate program at the Bank Street College of Education. Their discussion ranged far beyond matters of higher education, as it had to if they were to be true to the richness and complexity of Paul Goodman's thought.

Children of Technology: Images or the Real Thing

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size Additional informationNotes on contributorsDorothy H. CohenDorothy H. Cohen is a member of the Senior Faculty, Graduate Program, Bank Street College of Education, New York City.

PERCEPTUAL TRAINING AND READING ACHIEVEMENT IN DISADVANTAGED CHILDREN

2 groups of second-grade inner-city Negro children were matched for reading achievement and perceptual ability. The experimental group was trained with a series of nonverbal perceptual exercises for one-half hour 3 times a week for a period of 15 weeks. The control group met for a comparable amount of time but was trained with a commercial reading program (The Bank Street Readers). Results showed that the experimental group made significantly greater improvement on word form and word recognition than did the control groups. The results are interpreted as supporting a perceptual activity analysis of the perceptual process in reading.

A Child Development Approach to Language in the Preschool Disadvantaged Child

The nature and extent of language deficit among the children of the disadvantaged is by now a well-known fact, increasingly documented and specified by ongoing research (Bernstein, 1960; Cohn, 1959; Deutsch, 1967; John, 1963; Raph, 1965). Though some have pointed out that the language of the inner city slums has it own vocabulary and richness (Riessman, 1962), it seems clear that children of this population are often less articulate than their more privileged peers and less able to use language effectively as a tool of thought, learning, and communication. Further, their deficits are noticeable at very young ages and tend to persist or become more apparent as the children move through the elementary grades. There are a variety of ways in which the deficits of these children can be conceptualized, and the preschool programs based on such conceptualizations are correspondingly varied. The point of view represented in this paper sets language and language deficit into the context of the child's more general psychological development. In essence, this viewpoint considers the growth of language to be part of the development of human communication on the one hand and part of conceptual development on the other. Further, this viewpoint considers the purposes of preschool education to be developmental in the broadest sense. In this context, the advancement of measurable language skills is an important goal for disadvantaged children, but not the only goal nor, in all instances, the primary one. The psychoeducational philosophy represented in this paper is not new. The authors wish to thank the supervisors, teachers, and staff members of Bank Street College of Education who are working with disadvantaged children and who gave us the benefit of their experience. Special thanks are due to Elizabeth Gilkeson, supervisor of the Bank Street Children's Programs; Ilse Mattick, who has been working with preschool children from disadvantaged multiproblem families in Boston; Priscilla Pemberton, Ruby Ramsey, Mildred Barnett, Jane Catchen, the late Renee Reens, Blanche Saia, Pamela Chamberlin, and other staff members of the Early Childhood Center and the Polly Miller Day Care Center-programs operated and supervised by Bank Street College.

Book Reviews

Abstract COMPARATIVE EDUCATION: Financing Soviet Schools by Harold J. Noah. New York: Teachers College Press, Columbia University, 1966. xxi + 294 PP. $8.50, $3.95 paper. International Christian UniversitY: An Adventure in Christian Higher Education in Japan by Charles W. Iglehart. Mitaka, Tokyo, Japan: International Christian university, 1964. 312 PP. 84–75 The Idea of A World University by Michael Zweig, edited with a foreword by Harold Taylor. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1967. 204 pp. $7.00. HISTORY AND PHILOSOPHY OF EDUCATION: On the Study Methods of our Time by Giambattista Vico, translated with an Introduction and Notes by Elio Gianturco. New York: Library of Liberal Arts, 1965. xxxvii + 98 pp. $1.45 paper. The Evolution of American Secondary School Textbooks by John A. Nietz. Rutland, Vt.: Charles E. Tuttle Company, 1966. 265 pp. $5.00. Philosophy of EducatioN: Learning and Schooling by Donald Arnstine. New York: Harper & Row, 1967. 388 PP. Persistence And ChangE: Benning-Ton College and ts Students After Twenty-Five Years by Theodore M. Newcomb, Katherine E. Koe-nig, Richard Flacks, and Donald P. Warwick. New York: John Wylie & Sons, Inc., 1968. 292 pp. $9.95. Education for Tragedy by Kenneth D. Benne. Lexington: University of Kentucky Press, 1967. 203 pp. $7.00. A History of Negro Education in the South from 1619 to the Pres-Ent by Henry Allen Bullock. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1967. 399 PP. $7.95 METHODS: Classroom Grouping for Teachability by Herbert A. Thelen. New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1967. 274 pp. $7.50. Teacher Education in A Social Context by Gordon J. Klopf and Garda W. Bowman. New York: Bank Street College of Education, 1966. 352 pp. ORGANIZATION AND SUPERVISION: Cooperative Curriculum Improvement by John R. Verduin, Jr. Engle-wood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1967. ix + 141 pp. $2.95. Supervision for Better Schools by Kimball Wiles, 3d Ed. Englewood Cliffs N.J.: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1967. 343 pp. $7.50. Professional Student Teaching Programs by Edward C. Merrill, Jr., Danville, III.: The Interstate Printers and Publishers, Inc., 1967. 157 pp. Paper. PSYCHOLOGY AND COUNSELING: The Exceptional Individuals Psychological and Educational Aspects by Charles W. Teleford and James M. Swarey. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1967. 482 pp. $7.95. Educational Psychology in the Classroom by Henry Clay Lindgren, 3d Ed. New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1967, 686 pp. $8.50. Public Education for Disturbed Children in New York City compiled and edited by Pearl H. Berkowitz and Ester P. Rothman. Springfield, III: Charles C Thomas, Publisher, 1967. 376 pp. $12.50. Career Information in Counseling and Teaciiing by Lee E. Isaacson. Boston: Allyn & Bacon, Inc., 1966. 430 pp. $8.50. The Role of the School in American Society by V. T. Thayer & Martin Levit, 2d Ed. New York: Dodd, Mead & Company, 1966. 589 pp. The Colleges and the CourtS, 1962–1966 by M. M. Chambers. Danville, III: Interstate Publishers, Inc., 1967. 326 pp. $6.50.