Development of skills at the preoperational stage; A comparative study on Cognitive development of Urban and rural children

Abstract

The main aim of this study was to compare urban and rural school children
*on cognitive development at the preoperational stage. The main question
for getting the answer was “What was the level of difference among rural
and urban school children on language development, egocentrism,
understanding of the environment, locus of control, and block building”.
Ten teachers teaching class prep to three in rural schools and ten teachers
from urban schools and 25 students from each area were conveniently
selected for data collection. Interviews and observations were used to
collect data regarding cognitive development at the Piagetian
preoperational stage. It was found that urban students were better at
language development compared to rural school children. Rural school
students were more egocentric compared to urban school students, rural
school children were unaware of urban environments, but urban students
were aware of rural and urban environments. Urban students showed more
conservation compared to rural school children and urban students were
more skillful in making buildings. From this study, it was concluded that
children in urban schools showed better cognitive development. It was
recommended that more facilities and expert teachers may be provided to
students of rural areas for better cognitive development.