Promoting social and academic competence in the classroom: An intervention study examining the contribution of the Responsive Classroom approach

This exploratory study examined the contribution of the RC Approach over a two‐year period. The RC Approach integrates social and academic learning in order to produce classroom environments that are conducive to learning by integrating social and academic learning. Two questions are addressed. First, how does teachers' use of RC practices contribute to children's academic and social growth? Second, how is the relation between teachers' use of RC practices and children's academic and social growth moderated by the presence of environmental adversity in the home? Participants included 62 teachers and 157 children at six schools. Findings showed that teachers' use of RC practices was associated with students' improved reading achievement, greater closeness between teachers and children, better pro‐social skills, more assertiveness, and less fearfulness, even after controlling for family risk and children's previous years' performance. Family risk did not moderate the relation between RC practices and children's performance. These findings suggest to the positive contribution of the RC Approach in relation to children's gains over a one‐year period. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Psychol Schs 44: 397–413, 2007.     

Readiness for school of children having attended language immersion kindergarten in their teachers' and parents' opinions

In multicultural societies, much attention is given to children's language learning possibilities. In Estonia, the early language immersion programme for kindergarten children was started in the year 2000. The programme, while considered to be successful, has raised the question of whether the children participating in it are adequately prepared for school. The objective of the present study is to observe the readiness for school of those children who have participated in the early language immersion programme, taking into consideration the objectives of the curriculum and their teachers' and parents' assessments. The method of this study was a questionnaire employed over a three-year period (2009–2011) involving the teachers and parents of those children who were beginning their primary school education. The results of the study revealed that, according to the assessments of their teachers and parents, the readiness for school of the children having completed the early language immersion programme was very good. Data prove that language immersion programmes provide children with enough preparation to make a smooth transition from kindergarten to school life.     

Caregiving Practices of Low-Income Adolescent Mothers and the Academic Competence of Their First-Grade Children

Objective. This study examines the relation between the caregiving practices of teenage mothers and the academic performances of their children in first grade. Design. The teenage mothers were involved in a family support program, and data were collected on the sample for 7 years (the prenatal period through first grade). The sample included 89 children who participated in the first-grade follow-up and who resided with their biological mothers. Children's school performance was assessed with an achievement test in the fall semester of first grade and with teachers' ratings of academic performance at the end of the spring semester. Caregiving practices were assessed by both the research team and the family advocates who worked with the young mothers during the 5-year family support program; mothers also reported on home support for academic achievement during the first-grade interview. Results. Measures of home environment, advocates' ratings of parenting, and mothers' self-report of support for achievement were positively correlated with children's achievement in first grade. Conclusions. Results from multiple regression analyses were consistent with the view that differences in parenting prior to school entry and in maternal support for achievement once the child enters school are predictive of individual differences in first-grade achievement among children born to low-income adolescent mothers.     

Classroom Quality and Academic School Readiness Outcomes in Head Start: The Indirect Effect of Approaches to Learning

This study used the FACES 2009 dataset to examine the possibility of an indirect effect of classroom quality on academic school readiness through teacher-rated approaches to learning in a large nationally representative sample of children served by Head Start. Research indings: Classroom quality did not directly predict gains in academic school readiness across the Head Start school year (β = -0.009, p = .844). However, classroom quality did predict gains in teacher-rated approaches to learning (β = 0.151, p = .040), which in turn predicted gains in academic school readiness (β = 0.105, p < .001), and there was a significant indirect effect of classroom quality on academic school readiness through approaches to learning (β = 0.016, p = .049). Although associations were generally small, this pattern of results suggests that approaches to learning may facilitate the relationships between classroom quality and academic school readiness. Practice or Policy: Educators should make targeted efforts to boost children’s approaches to learning as it may represent an important lever for academic success. In a society increasingly focused on high-stakes testing, we must not lose sight of the importance of domain-general skills that can help children achieve school and life success.     

OP-ED

There is a general consensus that too many US children are entering school without essential readiness skills. However, there is a lack of consensus as to what constitutes readiness and a corresponding lack of consensus as to the type of early childhood experience that is most likely to prepare children for academic success. This paper offers a perspective, grounded in theory and practice, on issues of readiness and education during the preschool and kindergarten years. This perspective involves a view of human development that stresses the role of adult involvement in young children's learning and emphasizes the preschool years as atime for building cognitive skills that will serve as essential foundations for later academic learning. Images drawn from practice in Korean early childhood classrooms illustrate how teacherdirected activities may foster preschool children's development of these essential cognitive foundations in a developmentally appropriate manner.     

Attitude Towards Responsibility and Teacher Locus of Control: Further Evidence of Their Validities

In recent years, a growing number of studies have shown that teachers' sense of efficacy is a powerful predictor of teacher effectiveness. The construct of teacher locus of control or perceived teacher efficacy is defined as the teachers' beliefs or conviction that they can influence how well students learn and how they behave (Guskey, 1981; Rose & Medway, 1981; Taylor et al., 1981). It has also been found that teachers who place a high value on teaching tend to take greater personal responsibility for their own actions and their students' performance (Ames, 1982; Brookover & Lezotte, 1979). The concept of personal responsibility for student performance and behaviour may be extended to include responsibility for other aspects of school work and to attitude towards responsibility in general within the school context.     

Does early child negative emotionality moderate the association between maternal stimulation and academic readiness and achievement?

We investigated whether child temperament (negative emotionality, 5 months) moderated the association between maternal stimulation (5 months–2½ years) and academic readiness and achievement (vocabulary, mathematics, and reading). We applied structural equation modeling to the data from the Quebec Longitudinal Study of Child Development (N = 1121–1448; mostly Whites; 47% girls). Compared to children with low negative emotionality, those with high negative emotionality had higher levels of academic readiness (6 years) and mathematics achievement (7 years) when exposed to high levels of maternal stimulation (β = 3.17, p < .01 and β = 2.91, p < .01, respectively). The results support the differential susceptibility model whereby highly emotionally negative children were more susceptible to the influences of low and high levels of maternal stimulation in academic readiness and mathematics achievement's developments.     

The Nature of Social Practice Among School Professionals: Consequences of the Academic Pressure Exerted by Teachers in Their Teaching

The purpose of this study was to measure teachers' views about trust between teachers, trust between the principal and teachers, peer collaboration, positive attitudes towards the school and how these antecedents influence the academic pressure teachers put on pupils with respect to learning and learning intensity and performance. The methodology involved was a cross-sectional survey of 234 teachers from 11 Norwegian schools. The structural equation analysis indicated that principal-teacher trust has a moderately high impact on such constructs as “teacher-teacher trust” and “academic pressure” and that “teacher-teacher trust” has a moderately high impact on teachers' “peer collaboration”. “Peer collaboration” has a lower impact on “academic pressure”, while the impact of “positive attitudes towards the school” was moderately high. The article concludes with a discussion of the knowledge basis for understanding how social practice among teachers and school leaders in school communities is mobilised for a sustained focus on pupil learning. Implications for practice and directions for future research are discussed.     

Academic optimism of individual teachers: Confirming a new construct

Teacher sense of academic optimism is individual teachers' beliefs that they can teach effectively, their students can learn, and parents will support them so the teacher can press hard for learning. This new construct is grounded in the social cognitive and self-efficacy theories, social capital theory, work on school culture and climate and research on learned optimism. At the school level, collective academic optimism has been related to academic performance (Hoy, Tarter, & Woolfolk Hoy, 2006b). The analyses tested and supported the validity and reliability of the construct at the individual level with elementary school teachers in a confirmatory factor analysis using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM).     

Predicting teachers' achievement goals for teaching: The role of perceived school goal structure and teachers' sense of efficacy

The present study investigated contextual and personal factors associated with teachers' achievement goals for teaching. A total of 211 teachers completed an online survey. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses revealed that perceived school mastery goal structure and performance goal structure predicted teachers' mastery goals and performance-approach goals, respectively. Teachers' sense of efficacy moderated the effect of perceived school goal structures on achievement goals for teaching. Teachers with high teaching efficacy maintained personal achievement goals for teaching even when their schools emphasized conflicting goals. However, teachers with low teaching efficacy tended to assimilate the goals promoted by their schools.     

How home gets to school: Parental control strategies predict children's school readiness

At-risk families’ control style (autonomy support and coercive control) was examined in relation to children's school readiness; children's social skills and mastery motivation were hypothesized mediating variables. In two different, low-income samples from diverse ethnic backgrounds, one preschool sample recruited from Head Start (N = 199) and a school transition sample composed of children entering elementary school (N = 344), parental control styles were related to children's academic readiness modestly but significantly in the preschool sample and weakly in the school transition sample. Children's social skills and mastery motivation skills (persistence and goal orientation) were significantly related to the academic measures of school readiness, and fully mediated the association between parents’ use of coercive behavioral control and academic readiness. Such mediation could not be tested for parental support of children's autonomy. The results indicate that a developmental cascade exists between parental control strategies and academic indices of school readiness, emphasizing the importance of family context models of school readiness. Furthermore, strong correlations between the domains of school readiness were found in both samples, reinforcing calls for a multidimensional approach to supporting school readiness in early childhood education programs.     

Validation of the Early Childhood Teacher Experiences Scale in Head Start

To address gaps in the availability of validated measures that assess early childhood teachers' workplace experiences, the current study examined the validity of the Early Childhood Teacher Experiences Scale (ECTES) for use in a diverse Head Start program. Mean differences in the ECTES dimensions of self-efficacy, job stress, and school support were examined across teachers' demographic characteristics and observed teacher–child interaction quality. Multilevel models examined associations between ECTES dimension scores and children's social-emotional and academic skills (N = 161 preschool teachers and N = 3,152 children). Findings support the reliability and validity of the three-factor structure of the ECTES in the diverse Head Start teacher sample. Higher teacher-reported self-efficacy and school support were associated with higher observed classroom emotional support, instructional support, and classroom organization. Higher teacher-reported self-efficacy was associated with fewer years of teaching experience. With respect to child outcomes, higher teacher self-efficacy and school support were associated with lower behavior problems and higher social-emotional skills but were not associated with academic skills. Implications of the findings, limitations, and future directions are discussed.     

The role of early childhood settings for 4–5 year old children in early academic skills and later achievement in Australia

Formal early childhood education programs have been shown to promote the early academic skills of young children. However, the academic benefits acquired through program attendance fade quickly in the early elementary school years. Using a nationally representative sample of Australian children, we describe the programmatic and teacher differences between different types of formal early childhood programs for children between 4 and 5 years old—pre-year 1, school-based preschool, standalone preschool, and center-based child care. We examine the child and family background characteristics that are correlated with selection into different settings and how these settings are associated with children's early academic skills and on their subsequent achievement. We focus on understanding if there are differential academic benefits accrued from each program type and whether or not these benefits persist into the early elementary school years. Results indicate that maternal employment and economic disadvantage are correlated with program participation and that pre-year 1 and preschool teachers have higher qualifications. Results also show that children who attended a pre-year 1 program held an initial, significant advantage in early academic skills compared to children enrolled in center child care. Center child care was associated with higher early math skills than preschools. Children who did not attend any early childhood programming lagged behind their peers in school readiness skills. By middle childhood, all the early skill advantages had disappeared, showing rapid fadeout of academic benefits acquired from these specific types of early childhood programs. Implications for policy and practice are discussed.     

Children's self‐regulated learning profile in language and mathematics: The role of task value beliefs

This study explored the self‐regulated learning (SRL) profile of upper elementary (fifth and sixth grade) school children who were differentiated in their task value beliefs (low and high) in language and mathematics. Students' SRL profile involved their teachers' ratings of achievement outcomes and SRL behaviors. The subscale of task value beliefs from the Motivational Self‐Regulated Learning Questionnaire (MSLQ) was administered to the children, and their teachers completed a battery of scales and measurements concerning students' achievement and SRL behaviors. The results confirm previous evidence indicating that SRL involves high levels of motivation, metacognition, and strategic action. Furthermore, the results support the domain‐specific character of task value beliefs. Differences in teachers' evaluations about the achievement outcomes and SRL behaviors regarding the two groups of students (low and high in task value beliefs) were found significant mostly in the domain of mathematics. Students with high value beliefs in mathematics were described as more cognitively, metacognitively, and motivationally competent learners as compared to students with lower value beliefs. The results suggest that future intervention studies should focus on strengthening task value beliefs in “threatening” school subjects, such as mathematics, from the elementary school years. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Modeling teacher empowerment: The role of job satisfaction

Empowerment is defined and measured in terms of teachers' power to participate in decision-making about teaching and learning conditions. Job satisfaction refers to the level of teacher satisfaction by matters related to these conditions: student achievement, decision-making ability, self-growth, and so on. This research considers the relationship between job satisfaction and teacher empowerment, which includes dimensions of job satisfaction that contribute to teacher empowerment. In particular, it examines the levels of teacher satisfaction in four dimensions (professional growth, decision-making, promotion, and status) and their contribution to the sense of teacher empowerment among Cypriot teachers. The results support the importance of job satisfaction in the construction of teacher empowerment. Specifically, (1) teachers' level of job satisfaction varies depending on the dimension of school life that is focused; (2) teachers' job satisfaction is related to teacher empowerment.     

Sense of School Community for Preschool Teachers Serving At-Risk Children

Research Findings: Challenging the development of high-quality preschool education is the instability of the preschool teacher workforce, blamed in part on workplace conditions including isolationism, perceived lack of career reward, and lack of preparation. Little attention has been given to whether a preschool's organizational climate can mitigate these challenges, despite demonstrated workplace climate effects on teachers' attitudes, commitment, and practices in kindergarten–Grade 12 teachers. This study investigated preschool teachers' perceptions of a positive workplace climate (i.e., sense of school community); predictors of these perceptions (teacher qualifications and organizational features); and relationships among teachers' sense of community, classroom teaching quality, and attitudes toward teaching in a sample of 68 preschool teachers serving at-risk 4-year-olds. Overall, teachers provided high ratings for their sense of school community, although moderate interprogram variability and moderately large to large intraprogram variability existed. Teacher qualifications and preschool affiliation did not predict teachers' sense of community, but preschool size predicted perceptions of collegial support. Perception of collegial support and program influence was significantly related to positive attitudes toward teaching; only perceptions of program influence were related to classroom quality. Practice or Policy: We discuss the potentially important role of work environment in bolstering the quality and stability of the preschool teacher workforce.     

Teachers' Attitudes Toward Technology in a Two-Way Dual-Language Program

This study examined the attitudes of nine teachers in a two-way dual-language program in regard to using technology to support the linguistic and academic development of emergent bilinguals. Using a phenomenological, multiple case-study approach, teachers' perceptions about using technology in education and the potential of technology to advance the students' bilingualism and biliteracy were analyzed. Results showed that teachers had a positive outlook about the potential of technology as a tool to support the academic and linguistic growth of the students. However, several significant challenges were identified, most notably among them the scarcity of technological hardware at the school and the shortage of Spanish-language educational resources. The teachers' perception was that a greater availability of digital technologies, including resources in the Spanish language, would greatly enhance student learning.     

Inclusion and the practice of repeating Kindergarten in Australia

Abstract

International evidence indicates there may be little or no academic benefit for children who are retained, and the possibility of negative long term socio-emotional outcomes for these children. Drawing on data from the nationally representative Longitudinal Study of Australian Children (n = 4464), this paper provides an Australian perspective on the practice of grade retention, specifically investigating repeating the Kindergarten year. Our results indicated that nearly half of grade retention occurring by Year 6 occurs in the Kindergarten year, the main reasons being related to learning and behavioural difficulties. The analyses identified a number of child and family factors associated with grade retention, the strongest predictors being maternal mental health and parental receptive language concern, with school readiness, receptive language skills, and child hyperactivity also relevant factors. The paper considers implications for early intervention to support children’s academic trajectories through school.     

Modelling the determinants of school leaders' perceptions of beginning teachers' efficacy

The school and especially the school leader's perceptions of a teacher's efficacy have influence on aspects of teaching ratings and performance, and this may facilitate or hinder beginning teacher success. This study examines the school leaders' perceptions of their beginning teachers' efficacy. The study's scope of teacher efficacy is multidimensional to include the beginning teachers' Teaching Competencies, sense of Professionalism, and Professional Identity. Of interest is the interconnectedness of these variables that contribute to the school leaders' perception. A total of 256 school leaders responded to a survey on beginning teachers' efficacy. A hypothesized model was tested. According to the analysis, while Teaching Competencies and Professional Identity did not have a significant direct impact, they each did have a significant indirect effect on perceived efficacy.