Education and Environment

"Inside Front Cover: The fundamental problem of whether environment or heredity plays the greater part in determining ability is age-old. This study describes an investigation carried out by the Manchester School of Education to determine the relationship between educational attainment and social and environmental factors. The investigation was based mainly on two extensive surveys conducted in 1951 and 1957 among secondary-school children between 14 and 15 years of age in the Manchester conurbation. Tests were given in reading comprehension, mechanical arithmetic and intelligence. The results were then correlated with environmental factors: family, social group, neighborhood, health, type of school, and character of education. The report also incorporates the research carried out by Dr. F. W. Warburton in 48 schools in Salford, concerned with the relationship between brightness and backwardsness and the school environment. The results of all 3 researches shows that scholastic performance is strongly associated with social factors, particularly those concerned with the family and the home. One of the surprising findings was that social factors, in this context, appear to have a stronger connection with the intelligence test than with the reading and arithmetic tests. Other findings demonstrate the vital importance of the mother of the family and of the social group in which the pupil moves. It is shown, too, that social factors appear to affect brightness and backwardness differently. Differences are also shown between reading and arithmetic. In the final chapter the significant findings of the inquiry are discussed within a wider context and their implications for future research are considered."