Compensatory Education.

Overview & Synopsis

This book owes its origin to a symposium on "Compensatory Education" which took place at the 1970 Annual Conference of the British Psychological Society. The opening chapter discusses the complex concepts of "disadvantage,""deprivation," and "compensatory education," with illustrations from work carried out both in the U.S.A. and Israel. Next, H. L. Williams describes the National Foundation for Education Research's project in Compensatory Education for nursery school children--a project which raises important questions, among others, about the value of the traditional nursery school curriculum for disadvantaged children. P. Williams follows with an account of the Schools Council Research and Development Project in Compensatory Education based at the University College of Swansea, which is concerned with the needs of infant school children who are at risk because of maternal or cultural deprivation. The fourth contribution, by P. Widlake, describes some aspects of the work carried out by Educational Priority Area Action Research Projects in several parts of the country. In the fifth contribution, G. Williams and D. Morton consider ways in which the education and training of teachers may be structured to help disadvantaged children. In the final paper, there is an attempt at distinguishing the most promising lines of action for the future. (Author/JM)