RECENT PROGRAMS FOR IMPROVING CHILDRENS T HINKING - ARE THEY MORE EFFECTIVE THAN TRADITIONAL EXERCISES OF VISUAL-PERCEPTION

Recently, programs to improve children's thinking and intelligence wer e provided in Germany supporting a revival of the educational optimism of the sixties. Two of these programs, Klauer's (1989) ''Denktraining I'' and ''DenkMit'' (Sydow and Meincke, 1994) were evaluated with a s ample of developmentally retarded seven-year-olds. To estimate the pra ctical effectivity of both programs an additional training group was r ealized with traditional perceptual exercises from Frostig's developme ntal program in:visual perception. Psychological hypotheses concerning the claimed benefits of the thinking programs were tested as well as assumptions concerning improvements in perceptual speed and perceptual power. The programs ''Denktraining I'' and ''DenkMit'' were found not tb be superior to the perceptual exercises with regard to both thinki ng and perception. The results provide more reasons to be sceptical th an to be optimistic abort the practical surplus of those recent traini ng programs.