Leta hollingsworth biography templates

Hollingworth set out to prove that the extremes were culturally-based and not based on male genetic superiority. At the Clearinghouse for Mental Defectives she noted that even though a sex difference existed in absolute numbers of institutionalized males and females, the ratio of male to female admissions decreased as a function of age.

Hollingworth believed societal roles accounted for the differences, not innate differences. Tackling the issue of anatomical variability directly, she collected ten anatomical and seven cranial measurements for 1, male and 1, female infants at the New York Infirmary for Women and Children. She found that while males were slightly larger than females, if a difference in variability existed, it actually favored females.

Under Thorndike, Hollingworth completed her dissertation on the subject of women's supposed mental incapacity during menstruation, a belief called, at the time, "functional periodicity. Hollingworth concluded there was no empirical evidence linking decreased performance with phases of the menstrual cycle. Impressed with her work, Thorndike offered her a position at Columbia Teachers College after she received her Ph.

In addition to her teaching responsibilities at Columbia, Hollingworth also began focusing on the study of exceptional children. It is for her work with the "gifted" a term she coined that Leta Hollingworth is best known, although she worked initially with the "mentally defective" and came to believe many were of average intelligence but suffered from problems of adjustment.

Stanley Hall. Leta Hollingworth believed educational and environmental factors, not just inheritance, played a role in giftedness and focused on how to nurture giftedness and educate gifted children. The view in education at the time was that bright children could take care of themselves. Leta Hollingworth believed their needs were not, in fact, being adequately met.

She developed a method that focused on early identification of their giftedness, everyday contact, and not isolating them from other children. Her first experiment with the gifted began in with a group of 50 seven- to nine-year-olds with IQs over It served two functions. The first was to understand their family backgrounds, psychological makeup, and physical, social, and temperamental traits.

The second was to create a curriculum of benefit to them. Hollingworth's book, Gifted Childrendescribes the results of the study.

Leta hollingsworth biography templates

Her work with gifted children continued with the creation of Speyer School in which garnered much attention - not all of it good. Many saw her efforts to provide gifted children with an enriched curriculum as undemocratic. Near the end of her life, Leta Hollingworth began studying children with IQs over She found many adjustment problems stemming from lack of intellectual stimulation and from adults who assumed these children to be self-sufficient and, therefore, didn't pay them much attention.

Children Above IQ was Hollingworth's last publication and was completed after her death by her husband, Harry L. She became increasingly interested in educational psychology, especially exceptional children, and was an expert in intelligence testing. Ironically, given that when she first came to New York City she was not allowed to work as a school teacher, with her Ph.

Hollingworth used a group of fifty children, aged between seven and nine years old, who all had recorded IQs over They were studied over the course of three years, with two goals in mind. The first was to leta hollingsworth biography templates a better understanding of as many aspects of these children as possible. This included information on their backgrounds, family life and circumstances, their psychological states and makeup, and also their physical, temperamental and social traits.

The results of this study are published in her book Gifted Children She continued to stay in contact with the children long after the completion of the study. During the eighteen years that followed she added information about the spouses and offspring of the original participants to the study and results. Another experiment with gifted children took place in Children with educational problems from the Speyer School were used in the study.

The population was similar to her first study, yet special attention was paid to the racial mixture of the group. It was modeled after typical New York public school demographics. The school became known as, "Leta Hollingworth's school for bright children," and received a great deal of public attention. Hollingworth had devised it.

She discovered that the children wanted to explore the world around them. As a result, the curriculum consisted of learning about such things as food, clothing, shelter, transport, tools, time keeping and communication. The children made work units which were made up of learning materials each student had provided. This model of learning proved to be more beneficial to the gifted youth than simply introducing them to advanced subjects that they would later encounter in higher levels of learning.

It was a longitudinal study of twelve children with IQs higher than She witnessed a child scorewhich prompted her to seek out eleven other children with similar capabilities. The twenty three years following that initial inspiration were spent finding the children and attempting an in-depth study. Fully aware that she would never live long enough to see all of the children into their adulthood, Hollingworth meticulously attempted to build a framework upon which future research findings could be accomplished.

She noted that individuals "who test above IQ S-B ," i. They seldom volunteer information about themselves. They do not like to have attention being called to their families and homes. She laid the foundations for future studies of gifted children with this work. Adults would often ignore such children because they were thought to be self-sufficient.

Myths that exceptional children were clumsy, fragile and eccentric were dismissed by the findings as well. She was the first to write a comprehensive book on them, as well as teach a college course about gifted children. She, thus, began to focus more directly on that group. Regarding the above mentioned topics she wrote the following books: The Psychology of Subnormal ChildrenSpecial Talents and Defects and The Psychology of the Adolescentwhich became the leading textbook in the field for the next two decades, replacing the one written by G.

Stanley Hall. Several popular magazines published excerpts from the chapter entitled "Psychological Weaning". Hollingworth described this as similar to the "physical weaning from infantile methods of taking food, it may be attended by emotional outbursts or depressions, which are likely to come upon people whenever habits have to be broken" p.

The book gives several instances in which this process is successfully completed in order to serve as a guide for puzzled parents. Additional volumes on the subject of "defective children" are The Problem of Mental Disorder and Psychology of Special Disability in Spelling With her monumental energy she was able to provide her own textbooks for her university classes at Columbia while teaching full-time and continuing her clinical practice.

In the early 's Leta Hollingworth began in earnest her research on gifted children. She was concerned that the proper educational opportunities did not exist for them. The opinion of educators at that time was "the bright can take care of themselves" H. She developed a process for working with gifted children which stressed the importance of maintaining contact with them everyday, identifying them early in life, not isolating them from other children and realizing that their needs were not being met by the regular school structure.

Her first long- term experiment with the gifted began in at P. A group of fifty children ages seven to nine with IQ's over were studied for a three- year period. The experiment served two purposes. The first was to study as many aspects of these children as possible, including such things as their backgrounds and family circumstances, their psychological makeup, as well as physical and social and temperamental traits.

The second purpose was to identify a curriculum that would prove beneficial to these exceptional children. The results of this study are contained in her book entitled Gifted Children Hollingworth continued to stay in contact with this group for the next eighteen years adding to her study the spouses and children of the original participants. In an opportunity for a second experiment with gifted children presented itself with the establishment of Speyer School P.

Children with special educational problems were also included in the study. Again a group of gifted seven to nine year olds was gathered only this time special attention was paid to keeping the racial mix similar to that of the other New York public schools. The school affectionately known as "Leta Hollingworth's school for bright children" received much public interest.

The curriculum devised was called the "Evolution of Common Things". It was discovered that the minds of children wanted to explore their world. Thus, their enrichment curriculum consisted of learning about such things as food, shelter, clothing, transport, tools, time keeping and communication. The children themselves gathered their own learning materials supervised by Dr.

Hollingworth, and made them into work units. This type of learning proved to be more beneficial to the gifted students than introducing them to advanced subjects that they would later meet in college H. It is based on a longitudinal study of twelve exceptional children, which began in when her interest in high intelligence was stimulated by a demonstration of an IQ that measured Among her findings was the fact that many exceptional children suffered from adjustment problems due to two things: inept treatment by adults and lack of intellectual challenge.

Often, adults ignored them because it was thought that they were self-sufficient. Results of Dr. Hollingworth's studies served to dispel the myth that exceptional children were fragile, clumsy and eccentric Benjamin and Shields, The above mentioned details of her life and leta hollingsworth biography templates merely scratch the surface of the truly outstanding accomplishments she achieved in such a short time.

Five years after receiving her doctorate, she was listed in "American Men of Science". Her importance in psychology is evidenced by her inclusion in Robert Watson's Eminent Contributors to Psychology She was one of only fourteen women to be so recognized Benjamin and Shields, Looking back over her brief but illustrious career, it is possible to see a thread of continuity.

From the very beginning Leta Hollingworth was concerned with the subject of variability. She saw that males had the opportunity to develop their abilities to a much greater extent than did women, and determined that the reason for this was not due to inherent inferiority on women's part, but to societal restraints placed upon women. Women were not permitted to realize their full potential, as they were confined to the roles of child rearing and housekeeping.

Thus, statistical results showed that they did not vary as much as men; that they were not as individual. Her next endeavor with the gifted as well as the mentally deficient also stemmed from her recognition that the individuality of these exceptional children was being grossly overlooked. Education at that time was focusing on the norm - the middle of the group, rather than on either end of the intellectual spectrum.

She made it her life's work to make sure that these neglected individuals were given the opportunity to realize their fullest potential. In doing her work, she was extremely concerned with the quality of her research. She, unlike her peers in the testing profession, stressed the importance of direct contact with her subjects.