Book Reviews"Margaret McMillan", Framework and Expansion of

Nursery Education, Bradburn, Elizabeth. DenholmHouse Press, U.K. 1976.

The flavour of the Scottish tradition of rigour, directnessand a high standard of moral values emerges from thisfascinating and scholarly review of the life and work ofMargaret McMillan by Elizabeth Bradburn. Margaret'ssocial conscience and inspired vision of what childhoodmight be and do for the children growing up in the slumsof Bradford and Deptford does not strike the seventiesreader as unreal. This was the period of optimisticstruggle for socialism. The provision of health andeducation services for the needy must make a difference- they did make a difference - fewer children died or~ufTered severe malnutrition, standards improved, theIdea of nurture as essential to childhood was accepted.

Elizabeth Bradburn brings out the view of MargaretMcMillan as a pioneer in Nursery Education - a greatfield worker. She sees her as the innovator of social andeducational intervention, the architect of the first childand family centre who devoted herself to the childrenand th~ parents. Margaret also found time to developeducational techniques based on children learningthrough experience and firmly believed in teachereducation.

Th.is ~istorical/sociological review is a timelycontnbution to the re-appraisal of nursery educationwhich will act as a fillip to those in the preschool fieldwho may have been unduly depressed by the 'knocker'of traditional nursery education. But the message is clear- Margaret McMillan would have been in the van of re­appraisal and development! Excellent historicalphotographs and valuable bibliography.

MARGARET ROBERTS (U.K.)

A Ch~d's World, Infancy through Adolescence, Papalia,Diane E. and Olds, Sally Wendkos. McGraw-Hill.1975. pp. 666. $11.95 or £12.40.

Diane Papalia is a Professor of child development at theU~iversity of Wisconsin and Sally Olds is a professionalwnter. The authors have an active concern for the needsof . the average student taking a course in childdevelopment and this book is an ideal student textbook,presented in a lively, realistic way. As a summary ofresearch in this field it is presented with clarity and in

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considerable depth. It bears evidence of very thoroughresearch, including some material not readily availableto students outside the United States, and excellentsuggestions for further reading at the end of eachchapter and in the extensive bibliography.

The book follows an imaginary child, Vicky, - "acreature drawn from a composite of information culledfrom research papers and from the skilled observation ofprofessionals", from conception to eighteen years of age.Her development is ski1lfu1ly worked in to give concreteiII~stration, at each stage of an individual, averagechild's development. The book is divided into sections ­the pre-natal period, birth to three years, three to sixyears, six to twelve years, twelve to eighteen years. Ineach age group there. are separate chapters on physical,mental and personality development.

It is a beautifully presented book and a joy to handle,illustrated with clear diagrams, an immense range of

photographs of American children - white and coloured- with incisive captions. There are reproductions ofwell known pictures depicting children seen through theeyes of early artists, and a range of well culledquotations from literature. For example: Part Four TheMiddle Years (ages six to twelve), Mental Develop:nent.In which Vicky's intellect advances her moraljudgement, reasoning and creativity: "About all thingswe must take care that the child, who is not yet oldenough to love his studies, does not come to hate themand dread the bitter.ness which he has once tasted, evenwhen the years of infancy are left behind. His studiesmust be made an amusement.' Marcus FabiusQuintilianus, c, A.D. 35 - c. 95".

Although this is a U.S. publication the writers havenot neglected the diversified environments of children inmany. cultures and have realistically assessed the impactof divergent cultures on a child's development.Disadvantaged children, learning disabilitieshyperactivity, and the development of adolescents aredealt with particularly well. '

Vicky is a very credible portrait of a child as thefollowing extract shows: "Vicky is now in second grade.She goes with the rest of her class to the auditorium,where they are to hear a guest speaker, the author of abook about the brain. After her talk, the speaker asksthe 200 or so assembled children whether they have anyquestions. Shyly, Vicky raises her hand and asks, 'Doheadaches come from the brain 7'

Ten years later, Vicky remembers that day with pain.'That lady laughed at me. The way she smiled and thetone of voice she used made me feel that I had asked the

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dumbest question in the world. I was really embarrassed.And I think that's one of the things that happened to mewhen I was little that made me the way I am today. Ihate to ask questions in class!' ".

This book would be a very useful addition to anylibrary used by both students and professionalsconcerned with children. It is unfortunate that its sizeand price will put it beyond the student's ownpurchasing power. The publishers are not at presentconsidering a cheaper, paperback edition.

ANN HALES-TOOKE (U.K.)

Living with Preschoolers, Abraham, Willard. O'SullivanWoodside & ce., U.S.A. 1976. pp, 145. $3.95.

It is unusual to read a book that is provocative, and atthe same time provides a variety of practical approachesto understanding and living with preschoolers, whichmake it well worth reading. In Living with Preschoolers,Willard Abraham deals not only with the need for adultsensitivity to child development and growth butalso with the need to understand that a childand growth but also with the need to understand that IImust manifest certain behaviors, in order to be­come socialized into the adult value systems. Thebook conceptualizes a series of issues related to the dailycrisis, uncertain boundaries, continuous ambiguity, andproblems inherent in living with preschoolers. In thirty­six short but concise chapters, Abraham offersdown-to­earth and straight-forward advice to parents andpreschool teachers for understanding the growth motivesof young children.

The basic premise of the book is that a preschoolchild's growth motives are unpredictable to say the least,and challenging to adult sensitivity and understanding tosay the most. However, Abraham recognizes that it isnot always fun-and-games for either the parent or thepreschool teacher to understand and appropriatelyrespond to the child's curious, exploratory, inquiry, andtesting behaviors. The book therefore espouses the needto legitimatize the manifestation of those behaviorsnecessary for development and learning, in order for thechild to grow up and become enculturated into thesocial norms of adult society.

Abraham's basic argument is that the concern ofparents and teachers with the behavior manifestations ofa child, at ages ten or twelve, should only rarely be aproblem when a child is still very young. That is, "Theone thing we can be sure of with young children (andolder ones too) is that the unexpected is likely tohappen" (p. 5). The primary task of the adult is to seeand listen to what the child does and says, and discoverthe child's own meanings of the messages she/heconveys. Such conscious efforts help the adult tounderstand not only the behaviors manifested but also torespond to these behaviors in caring and interestingways. Thus, throughout the book, the apparentemphasis is on helpingparents and preschool teachers tounderstand and deal effectively with the growing child,

as she/he strives toward self-realization. HoweverAbraham cautions that this takes not only a little timeand practice but also a predisposition to tolerate thechild's growth motives.

Perhaps the strength of the book rests in itssimplicity. In its numerous examples, the focus is on therole played by an affective climate on the activities inwhich young children participate, in accordance withtheir interests, pursuits, questions, purposes, and play.The book also accounts for mechanisms of socialcontrol, uses of space and time, and the adult-child andchild-child interactional relation. In the process,Abraham appeals to parents and preschool teachers tocarefully examine the extent to which they can respondto young children's behaviours with compassion andunderstanding, without hurting. Nevertheless, Abrahamdoes not fail to recognize the fact that even parents andpreschool teachers, knowledgeable about andexperienced in livingwith young children, are at times illequipped to deal effectively with some behaviors, whenmanifested within the contexts of some situations.

Of particular importance to parents are thesuggestions for understanding and dealing effectivelywith such concerns as preschool readiness experiences,discipline and punsihment, sibling rivalry, the role of themale image in the family, the single-parent family,dealing with children with learning disabilities, safetymeasures, sex education, the gifted child, selectingtelevision programmes, the importance of play .andplaymates, children's fears, the role of toys, and theimportance of reading to young children. In addition,simple guidelines are offered for distinguishing thehyperactive child from a child who merely behaves inways that come naturally, for traveling with youngchildren, identifying the appropriate child careprogramme, and for dealing with conflicts betweenparental concerns, school expectations, and thepersonality-need-dispositions of young children.

Although written with compassion, simplicity, and aprofound understanding of the lives of young children,the book lacks coherency and orderly sequence. It is aseries of bits and pieces which form a smorgasbord ofevents in the lives of preschoolers and the adults wholive with them. Consequently, after reading the book, thereader may well be left with feelings of fragmentationand uncertainty. The reader may also be led to questionthe authority of one writer's suggestions for dealing withsuch a variety of issues. Otherwise, Living withPreschoolers is wellworth reading. It has obvious appealto both parents and preschool teachers, who live withchildren ranging from the terrible twos to the fascinatingfives.

JOHN W. HOLLOMON (U.S.)

Early Childhood Education, An InternationalPerspective, Austin, Gilbert R. Academic Press Inc.,New York. 1976. pp. 369. $17.50 or £12.40.

Having first met Gilbert Austin at the OMEP ResearchSeminar at Bedford College in 1972 I was aware that he

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was engaged in an ambitious cross-cultural study ofPreschool Education. I wondered then how he was goingto organize and present his data and how he would copewith the inevitabletime factor. Having studied his book Ican say that he has succeeded in organizing andpresenting the complex data he has collected from eightwestern countries over a five year period in a clear andhelpful way, albeit with considerable overlap,particularly when dealing with historical material, but hehas failed to deal with the almost impossible task ofpresenting up-to-date information on each country. Forexample, most of the material on U.K. is taken from theOMEP Research Seminar Report dated 1972. This wasvery early in the expansion programme for preschooleducation, and before the National Foundation forEducational Research, the Schools Council and anumber of University research projects got under way.A book as expensiveas this one should not be four yearsout of date! Perhaps it was asking too much to expectone author to keep in touch with developments in eightcountries over a period of five years?

In spite of this criticism there is no doubt that thebook is a mine of information and that the information isclearly presented. It is a summary of a five year cross­cultural survey of early childhood education in eightwestern countries. It highlights issues of debate in thecurrent scene using an analytic-historical approach andprovides information on philosophical, political andsocial/cultural changes which have stimulateddevelopments in the provision of early childhoodeducation in each of the eight DECD countries: Englandand Wales, Canada, Sweden, France, Italy, Belgium,Germany and the Netherlands.

These reports are set within the context of theAmerican experienceof Early Childhood Education andthe final chapter summarizes implications for America.Data was collected by means of questionnairessupplemented by personal observational visits by theauthor. The organization of the data under specificheadings permits the reader to engage in his owncomparative study in the differentareas. Each country isreported under elevenheadings includingsuch topics as:

The Aims and Objectives of Early ChildhoodEducation; Teachers and Their Training; andFinancing Early Childhood Education.

As might be expected the greatest differences are to befound in organization and administrative patterns. Forexample, in Belgium and France responsibility is highlycentralized at the national level whereas in theNetherlands the government does not directly controlthe curriculum as parents have a constitutional right to afree choice of type of school and method of instruction.The Netherlands Government controls indirectlythrough the assumption of instructional costs.

Possibleheavy going for the reader is lightened by theinclusion of first-hand observational reports of visits toparticular preschools in each country. Here one isbrought face to face with the problem of the relationshipof theory and practice - the contrast between thetheoretical discussions on the relative merits ofstructured and spontaneous learning situations and theobserved practical situation is clear. In spite of stated

evidence indicating that specified objectives andstructured teaching leads to measurable progress, first­hand observation provides evidence to the contrary.

The most interesting sections are those dealing withIssues of Debate and Research Projects, though hereone again wishes for more recent reports. The problemof international collaboration in research, one ofDECD's goals, is clearly demonstrated in terms ofavailability of data and the time lag in publishing.Perhaps joint projects will be the answer in areas wherethere is common ground for debate. The areas mostclearly evident from this survey are: increased demandfor preschool provision; easing transition from home topreschool and preschool to primary; parentalinvolvement; compensatory and enrichmentprogrammes; structured versus spontaneous learning­innovatory projects; pupil-staff ratio-use of assistants;integration of health, welfare and education in acomprehensive service; evaluation and researchtechniques.

In view of the enormous variety of provision in theeight countries, not least of which is the age of entry tocompulsory schooling and the effectof this on preschoolprovision (five in U.K. and seven in Sweden), the bookrepresents an heroic effort in terms of a comparativestudy and will be a valuable source of referencefor thoseengaged in teacher education, research and policymaking. It will also provide important data for thestudent of comparative education. In addition, thosemaking brief educational visits to any of the countriesincluded in this survey will be able to equip themselveswith relevant background -dnformation and anintroduction to important ongoing issues.

Excellent bibliographies at the end of each sectionindicate the debt owed to OECD, UNESCO and theCouncil of Europe for much of the reference material.There is a useful subject index.

MARGARET ROBERTS (U.K.)

Register of Educational Research in the UnitedKingdom 1973-1976, National Foundation forEducational Research (N.F.E.R.) in England andWales. 1976. 2094 entries. £12.00.

In the Introduction the reader is told the story behindthe compilation of this extensive register of currentresearch in Education in U.K. It is the outcome of ameeting called in; 1972 of those responsible forsponsoring and organizing the conduct of researchtogether with representatives of teachers' organizationsand of library users, under the chairmanship ofProfessor John Nisbet. The major item for discussionwas 'Standardization in the presentation of abstracts ofeducational projects and results'.

At that time,there was no single comprehensivedata­bank recording of current educational research withinthe United Kingdom. Many registers wereknownto beinexistence but none of them was comprehensive, somewere restricted by topic, level of research or geographical

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area. Apart from the confusion caused to investigatorsand librarians, problems were compounded by theabsence of any complete index of those registers that didexist. At this meeting it was decided to investigate thepossibility of devising a common format for entries. Afeasibility study was set up and founded by theDepartment of Education and Science and the SocialScience Research Council in 1973 at the NFER toestablish a data bank. There were two phases to thefeasibility study. Phase 1 from 1973 to 1975 involvedapproaching some 30 institutions who compiled andproduced registers to request their co-operation. Astandardized questionnaire was then designed with aformat suitable for use by a variety of researchers andresearch institutions. This had two sections (1) basicdetails of name, title and address; (2) an abstract of thebackground, scope and method with, where appropriate,results and conclusions of the work.

By coincidence at this time the Council of Europethrough their European Documentation andInformation Systems in Education (EUDISED) wereengaged in a similar exercise for Europe usingcomputers. Co-operation was clearly essential and thestandard questionnaire was modified to allow foreventual computerization of the data, arrangementsbeing finalized with the British Library. By the end of 18months, 1,000 entries were held in the register. Phase IIaimed to publish the register utilizing all the informationrecorded and held at NFER. A steering Committeeunder the chairmanship of Professor Noel Entwistleadvised the project team on the requirements of potentialusers. A second sweep of all university departments ofeducation and related fields was undertaken to see if anyrelevant research had been missed. Similarly allpolytechnics, colleges of education and local educationauthorities were circularised; about 1,000 further entrieswere included. The present register is the culmination ofPhase II of the project.

Phase III aims to follow up the first issue of theregister with two further issues modifying the presentregister format according to user re-action. A form isincluded at the back requesting critical comments from aWide range ot users on all aspects of the register. A pre­paid adhesive label is enclosed for return of thequestionnaire. Full marks for this service and for theclear explanation of the organization and objectives ofthe register.

My first reaction on studying the register was one ofadmiration for such an ambitious venture. Having hadexperience in a very much smaller way of producing aselect annotated review of research in the field of earlychildhood for the 1972 OMEP Research Seminar inLondon I have some idea of the immense amount ofwork involved in attempting the gathering of accurateinformation and presenting it in a standarized format.Add to this the comprehensive nature of a registercovering current research in Education in UK and thetask is seen to be gigantic.

In order to assess the value of the register one has touse it and to do this one's first inclination is to turn tothe Subject Index. This is based on Key Words whichappear at the end of each entry and each entry is listed

against all of its key words. This cross-referencingproves very effective in use. The main register entries arearranged alphabetically according to the name of theinstitutions at which the research was carried out.Within each institution the entries are arrangedalphabetically and there is an author index. Institutionsare arranged alphabetically at the beginning with fulladd~ and~ lTlIIIIbers-no mea:n feat in I1:self.The register is clearly a mine of information for thosewho need accurate data on current research in educationor who wish to contact fellow investigators; it shouldcertainly find a place in all libraries concerned witheducation. The hope is that it will be kept up to date andthat the UK register will help in the creation of astandard format and c1asification for use within aEuropean context - a tremendously ambitious projectwhich will undoubtedly require some kind of evaluation?f the quality and level of research projects, to bemcluded.

MARGARET ROBERTS (U.K.)

A First Language: The Early Stages, Brown, Roger.George Allen & Unwin Ltd., London. 1973. pp 437.£5.95.

In this book Brown has undertaken a systematicdelineation of the creative acquisition process of thechild's learning of his native language. The young childcannot be said to acquire a repertoire of sentences,however large, but rather must somehow elaborate arule system which enables the generation of an infinitevariety of sentences, most of them unprecedented withinhis own experience. Evidently, then, the childextrapolates from the restricted corpus o( utterances towhich he is exposed a set of construction rules,remarkably abstract and exhibiting close conformity torules recently made explicit in linguistics, Activeimplementation of these rules then accounts for thecharacteristically abundant productivity of childlanguage.

But the metamorphosis is not effected overnight.Indeed, it is Brown's most signal feat to have discernedand described in depth five stages within the acquisitionprocess. As its sub-title indicates, the present volume isconcerned solely with the early stages (I and II) of thefive (I through V) which Brown expounds in hisintroduction. Differentiation between stages isaccomplished in accordance with a dual criterionderived from utterance length, MLU (mean length ofutterance) and upper bound (maximum length ofutterance attained). This convention provides an indexsuperior to chronological age whereby the data ofdiverse children, studies and even languages may berendered comparable. It also affords a reliable index ofgrammatical development, since almost every new kindof knowledge the child acquires is reflected in aconcomitant increase in the average length of hisstandard utterances.

The approach centres on the method of "richinterpretation", whereby samples of the child's

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spontaneous speech are scrutinized with reference to theextra-linguistic context which inevitably envelopes theirproduction. This strategy permits analysis in terms ofboth syntactic and semantic complexity, the latter sincethe investigator's attention is directed towards children'sintended communications in specific behaviouralsettings.

The method has helped to expose impressivedevelopmental universals. Brown's essential contentionis that linguistic constructions and the meaning theyencode emerge correlatively in an almost invariantorder. The relative syntactic complexity of any givenlanguage qualifies the rate, not the sequence, ofdevelopment within it. As yet the thesis has received butlimited empirical support.

The primary determinant of the observed, near­invariant order of acquisition is, according to Brown, therelative semantic and grammatical complexity of theconstructions involved - not frequency of exposure tocognate adult usages nor parental "shaping" reactions tothe child's own exploratory utterances. The presence ofsome intrinsic form of knowledge is evinced, one whichis efficiently implicated in the child's sentenceprocessing, production and comprehension. Specifically:the forms of grammar and the meanings therebyencoded. Semanticity and the syntactic devices availablefor its transmission are for Brown of paramountimportance, the source of the child's astonishinglinguistic productivity. Hence the urgency of his concernwith the development of construction forms as revealedby careful monitoring of the ontogenesis of nativelanguage ability.

Of the five stages Brown distinguishes, only the firsthas been shown to have validity for many differentlanguages. Stage I is arbitrarily defined as the periodfrom when the child's MLU first rises above 1.0. i.e, theperiod when syntax (combinations of words ormorphemes) is first observed, until it reaches 2.0. Theintra-sentential semantic relations between noun phraseand verb evidently universally encoded within this stageare said to constitute the linguistic expression of Piaget'ssensori-motor intelligence. Grammatically, Stage Ispeech is limited to a tacit acknowledgement of thedistinct (semantic) roles occupied by noun phraseswithin sentences. The principal roles Browndifferentiates include agent, patient, experiencer,beneficiary, instrument and location. Brown notes thatthe roles are determined by the relation in which thenoun phrase stands to the verb. It is yet uncertainprecisely which semantic relations have a functionalpsychological reality and final specification of the rolesremains unsettled but the major ones apparently occurin all known languages. Unwitting confirmation of thisfact is found in Stage I speech samples, where thesyntactic devices employed are confined exclusively toeombinations of the semantically related forms (e.g.agent-action: "Daddy sit") under one sentence contour.

When necessary for faithful transmission of semanticintent, appropriate word order is also observed.

Stage II is defined as the interval extending from theMLU values of 2.0 to 2.5. It treats of the emergence offourteen functional morphemes, principally: the Englishnoun and verb inflections, the copula "be", theprogressive auxiliary "be", the prepositions "in" and"on", and the articles "a" and "the". Thus, if stage Iconcerns basic relations or roles within the simplesentence, then Stage II concerns modulations of thatbasic meaning; modulations such as the inflection of thenoun for plural number or of the verb for tense andaspect. Consequently, developments within dUs latterstage represent a "trimming" on the basicfemanticrelations realised in the former. These modulations - fornumber, time, aspect and specificity, together wi¢ thegrammatical morphemes (inflections, prepositions,articles etc). - are almost entirely lacking in a Stage Icorpus. Once again, order of emergence is predicted notby morpheme frequency in adult speech but rather bythe relative grammatic and semantic complexityinvolved in the child's own utterance. Moreover, gradualacquisition of the forms in question is implied by theslowly increasing probability which limits theiroccurrence.

Sentences produced by the Stage I or Stage II childare typically both declarative and affirmative. Yet thesecan be mapped, as wholes, into other sentencemodalities - the same set, apparently, in all languages:yes-no interrogatives, constituent interrogatives,imperatives and negatives. These "modalities of thesimple sentence" comprise the definitive achievement ofStage III, while Stage IV deals with the embedding ofone simple sentence within another, either as agrammatical constituent or in a semantic role. Finally,Stage V concerns the co-ordination of fully or partiallyidentical but distinct sentences with appropriate deletionof overlapping features. Although formal exposition ofthese latter stages - the subject of a promised sequel ­is merely prefigured in his 1973 text, Brown nonethelesssuggests that the five processes together comprise thecore of English sentence construction, and, withallowances for variation in syntax and meaning, oflanguage generally.

In carefully marshalling the arguments for his caseBrown scrupulously reviews all available researchevidence and the theoretical issues which these data haveinspired. Presentation of Brown's own longitudinalresearch constitutes the book's empirical core. For thesereasons alone, it deserves the attention it is currentlyreceiving. Otherwise, as Brown remarks, "the wholebook is the conclusions", which should not preclude itsserving as an invaluable point of departure for theprolific research activity it seems destined to provoke.Should this derivative corpus maintain the integrity ofBrown's precedent then further break-throughs in thisfield are almost certainly forthcoming.

JOHN GRAHAM (IRELAND)