Comparison of two teaching methods on children's knowledge of their internal bodies

This study investigated the relationship of two teaching modalities used in the instruction of internal body parts for children aged 4 1/2 to 7 1/2 years, who used Piagetian preoperational thought patterns. Initially, all subjects' Piagetian cognitive levels were determined and their knowledge of their bodies pretested using a recall memory approach. Using stratified random assignment, 159 subjects were assigned by grade and class to one of three groups. Subjects in the first experimental group were taught about their internal bodies using a multisensory teaching method employing anatomic dolls. A cognitive-perceptual teaching method using two-dimensional drawings was used with the second group. The third group served as controls. Posttesting was done at 1 and 6 weeks postintervention using recall and recognition memory approaches. A multisensory teaching approach was shown to be significantly, p less than .001, more effective than a cognitive-perceptual teaching approach at both post-testings by both measurement methods. Memory retention of children enmeshed at varying levels of preoperational thought was not significantly different, regardless of teaching method used.