A Study of Cognitive Abilities of Lower Primary School Pupils, in Igembe Central Division of Igembe District, Kenya

Abstract

The learning environment and childhood experiences of children from rich and poor families are never the same. This is because they come from different home environments and attend different schools that have different facilities, and therefore exposed to quite different experiences. The children from rich families attend private primary schools whose learning environment is conducive and stimulating, while those from poor families attend public primary schools, which are often crowded and with poor facilities. At home boys and girls are exposed to different activities due to the dictates of the culture and their gender roles. Researches done by developmental psychologists on the cognitive abilities of children of different cultures and environment sometimes give different results. Kiminyo (1988) conducted such a study among Akamba children in Kenya, of ages between 7-8, 9-10 and 11-12 years. It involved deforming one plasticine ball, and then children were asked if the mass of the deformed “ball” was the same as that of an un-deformed one. The results that the younger children did not notice the contradiction posed by the question, but the older children were quick to point out that there was nothing added or subtracted, therefore the mass remained the same. His study aimed at establishing the age at which Akamba children conserve the cognitive task of mass. The study aimed at finding out whether the environment, gender, and age difference of two years among concrete operational children of Meru of Kenya play any role on conservation of cognitive tasks of length, mass, substance and volume.

DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2014.v5n5p175