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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.