Citation

Seefeldt C, Galper A, Denton K. Early Child Res. Q. 1997; 12(4): 387-406.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1997, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/S0885-2006(97)90018-1

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

This study examined children's conceptions of and expectations for their future schooling, determined whether participation in a Transition Demonstration could affect these, and explored how these are related to children's academic achievement. Two cohorts, 151 former Head Start children completing kindergarten, and 171 children completing Head Start, were assessed. Two major themes in children's conceptions of school emerged: play and the cognitive or learning environment. Children realistically talked about the work of school becoming less play centered, more difficult, and more centered on academics as they moved from grade to grade. Children in the Demonstration group in both cohorts gave significantly more responses to the questions than those in the Comparison. Children's expectations for their future schooling were optimistic. There were several small but significant correlations between children's conceptions and expectations for school and their academic achievement as measured by subtests of the Wood-cock-Johnson-R.