The Trees of Preschool Ecology: Where Is the Forest?

Reviews the book, The Ecology of Preschool Behaviour by Peter K. Smith and Kevin J. Connolly (1980). The authors attempt to combine rigorous experimental design with descriptive ethological methods in a series of studies on how the organization of preschool environments influences children's behavior. The research, and therefore the book, both succeeds and fails. It succeeds in demonstrating the compatibility of the two methodologies and the utility of careful observational study in providing a wealth of data about daily practice. There are many interesting small findings in the report, including a number of intriguing observations about children's social organization and friendship formation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)