Effects of Home Literacy,Parents' Beliefs,and Children's Task-Focused Behavior on Emergent Literacy and Word Reading Skills

We examined the effects of home literacy (shared book reading, teaching activities, and number of books), children's task-focused behavior, and parents' beliefs and expectations about their child's reading and academic ability on kindergarten children's (N = 61) phonological sensitivity and letter knowledge and on Grade 1 word reading. The results showed that, after controlling for nonverbal IQ and vocabulary, home literacy instruction prior to kindergarten, parents' beliefs about their children's reading ability, and children's task-focused behavior were significant predictors of two or more of the dependent variables. Storybook reading did not account for unique variance in any of the dependent variables.     

Teachers' Responses to Children's Eye Gaze

When asked questions, children often avert their gaze. Furthermore, the frequency of such gaze aversion (GA) is related to the difficulty of cognitive processing, suggesting that GA is a good indicator of children's thinking and comprehension. However, little is known about how teachers detect and interpret such gaze signals. In Study 1 teaching interactions were analysed to determine teachers' responses to different patterns of children's eye gaze. In Study 2 a different group of teachers completed a questionnaire assessing their awareness of GA in determining children's thinking, understanding, and interest. Results showed that teachers did not typically respond to children's GA in predicted ways and did not associate GA with children's thinking. However, when asked explicitly about GA cues they made predictions relating to question difficulty and children's thinking in line with empirical work. We conclude that while teachers have an implicit understanding of GA cues, they typically do not make full use of such cues during classroom teaching.     

The Process,Pitfalls and Benefits of Implementing a Reciprocal Teaching Intervention to Improve the Reading Comprehension of a Group of Year 6 Pupils

The comprehension skills of junior-age children are not familiar territory for many educational psychologists. While many of the profession are associated with interventions to improve children's word-attack skills, whether reading or spelling, interventions to improve comprehension skills are little written about. This paper describes the Reciprocal Teaching Method (Palincsar, 1982; Palincsar & Brown, 1984) that has been positively evaluated as a means of developing children's comprehension skills. Its theoretical underpinnings are described and critiqued. The literature on comprehension skills training methods is surveyed and Reciprocal Teaching is critiqued against other research. The author describes her use of this intervention within the framework of the Literacy Hour to promote the use of strategies that allow children to enhance their inferential understanding at the text level, at the sentence level and at the individual word level. The approach also promotes children's independence by allowing them to follow the teacher's example and gradually adopt the teacher's role and style of questioning. Literature on consultation is also drawn on to describe the process of putting this intervention into place. The implications for the educational psychologist as an agent of change or consultant are discussed, as well as the implications for future research. This paper attempts to help the practitioner wishing to implement an intervention using the Reciprocal Teaching method to consider the processes, the potential pitfalls and the benefits of such an intervention.     

Golden times of writing: the creative compliance of writing journals

This paper examines the history, rationale, uses and abuses of writing journals in primary classrooms. We argue that writing journals form part of a pedagogy derived from an understanding of how children can be motivated to express themselves, independently of teachers. Moreover, they demonstrate the power of welcoming children's home cultures into the classroom. However, we also wish to argue that the use of writing journals is part of the teaching profession's ‘creative compliance’ that can still contribute to the marginalisation of effective educational practice. We document how, in some schools in England, writing journals have been reduced to token gestures towards creativity and independence and in effect collude with and support what is increasingly becoming a pedagogical hegemony.     

Integrating Multicultural Children's Math Books Into Kindergarten Through Sixth-Grade Classrooms: Preservice Teachers' Reflections

This case study of mathematics instruction using children's literature reports on the experiences 47 elementary preservice teachers had in their mathematics methods course while completing a microteaching assignment. As part of the microteaching assignment, preservice teachers were required to plan and teach mathematics lessons based on children's books that included both mathematics concepts and multicultural aspects. The preservice teachers audio-recorded their lessons, transcribed the audio, and wrote reflective essays to articulate their experiences. At the end of the assignment, the professor and two additional researchers interviewed the preservice teachers about their experiences. Themes that emerged were (a) teaching experiences, (b) teaching performance, and (c) learning purposes and tools for integrating multicultural children's math books. The Learning Purposes and Teaching Strategies for Integrating Multicultural Mathematics Picturebooks Framework was developed to demonstrate the intricate balance needed to ensure mathematics learning happens during instruction with multicultural mathematics picturebooks.     

Developmentally appropriate practices and children's perception of self-competence in Head Start classrooms

The present project studied the relationship between the use of developmentally appropriate practices and children's perception of self-competence in Head Start classrooms. Self-competence is defined as children's confidence in succeeding in certain tasks. Developmentally appropriate practices (DAP) as proposed by the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) are teaching practices that are age appropriate, individually appropriate and culturally appropriate. Seventy-two children attending six Head Start centres participated in the study. Trained researchers filled out the Rating Scale to assess the use Developmentally Appropriate Practices in Early Childhood Classrooms. The participating children's perceived self-competence was measured using the Pictorial Scale of Perceived Competence and Social Acceptance. Correlational analysis showed that some of the subscales assessing the use of developmentally appropriate practices were correlated with two of the subscales of the children's perception of self-competence. The above results provide some insight into the importance of the use of developmentally appropriate practices and their effects on children.     

The influence of early science experience in kindergarten on children's immediate and later science achievement: Evidence from the early childhood longitudinal study

This study explores the impacts of selected early science experiences in kindergarten (frequency and duration of teachers' teaching of science, availability of sand/water table and science areas, and children's participation in cooking and science equipment activities) on children's science achievement in kindergarten and third grade using data for 8,642 children from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study‐Kindergarten cohort (ECLS‐K). A theoretical model that depicts the relationships between the study variables was developed and tested using structural equation modeling. Results demonstrated that availability of science materials in kindergarten classrooms facilitated teachers' teaching of science and children's participation in science activities. Likewise, the frequency and the duration of kindergarten science teaching was a significant predictor of children's science activities but not of the children's end of kindergarten science achievement scores. Children's engagement with science activities that involved using science equipment also was not a significant predictor of their end of kindergarten science achievement. However, children's participation in cooking activities was. Children's prior knowledge, motivation, socio‐economic status, and gender were all statistically significant predictors of their science achievement at the end of kindergarten and end of third grade. Results of this study indicate that early science experiences provided in kindergarten are not strong predictors of children's immediate and later science achievement. Findings of the study suggest that the limited time and nature of science instruction might be related to the limited effect of the science experiences. Implications for teacher education programs and educational policy development are discussed. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 48: 217–235, 2011     

Encoding Effects on First-Graders' Use of Manipulatives

The effects of prior encodings of manipulatives (red and blue plastic chips) on children's ability to use them as representations of quantity were tested. First graders (N = 73) were assigned to four conditions in which the encoding of plastic chips was experimentally manipulated. All children then participated in an addition activity that relied on the chips' quantitative representations. Children who were given quantitative encodings were better able to use the chips with meaning relative to those who played with them during the encoding phase. Children who perceived the chips as toys after encoding were similarly hindered on their ability to use them as quantities. The findings suggest that prior encodings are predictive of children's quantitative representations of manipulatives.     

A study of the effectiveness of the primary education improvement program (science) in selected schools of Northern Nigeria

The Primary Education Improvement Program (Science) developed in Nigeria from 1970–1980 adopted a “process approach” to the teaching of science for children in Classes One and Two of primary school. In that insufficient formative data were available a study was organized to evaluate the attainment of the program's major objectives in terms of the children's ability to practice process skills. The study also attempted to measure children's interest, active participation and understanding of the lessons, as well as the availability of materials and ease of preparing and teaching the lessons for the teachers. Data were collected by means of teacher opinionnaires and a children's test to measure the attainment of process skills. The teachers who completed the opinionnaires rated the program as successful in terms of all the measured criteria. Children in the experimental and control groups were tested and their performances were compared. The results indicated that there were some significant differences in total test scores in favor of the experimental group after one year of primary school but none after two years. The program, though highly rated by teachers, did not produce the intended changes in children's behavior.     

Bilingual education teachers and learners in a preschool context: Instructional and interactional translanguaging spaces

This study explores how bilingual education teachers' flexible delivery of instructional translanguaging within a bilingual preschool in the predominately monolingual context of Turkey could provide children with a space for bilingual interaction. The research aim is to analyse the children's use of translanguaging in relation to translanguaging pedagogy of the teachers. These flexible practices involved two levels of translanguaging. One was teachers' design of the teaching materials, assigning either Turkish or English to each task as the instructional and interactional languages. The other was the facilitation of children's unenforced flexibility to alternate and shuttle between Turkish and English. Six co-teachers were interviewed online about their bilingual teaching experiences and their journals containing children's translanguaging utterances were obtained. Implications for teachers, teacher educators, and policy makers in bilingual education contexts are discussed.     

A new mathematics pedagogy for the early years: in search of principles for practice

The new English mathematics curriculum for three to five year olds requires adults to teach number. How this should be done is not clear: this article looks at current theory and research in order to recommend some teaching strategies. A new mathematics pedagogy is proposed, based on holistic principles and considering children's mathematical learning in terms of cognitive, physical, social and emotional aspects. A range of cognitive processes, an emphasis on large‐scale activity and multisensory learning, concern for children's self‐esteem and agency in their own learning, diverse home experiences and supportive pair and group situations are identified as key features. Teaching strategies therefore need to take account of these, for instance by avoiding direct questioning. This framework is then applied to two official English guidance documents, which are found to give mixed and conflicting messages, and inappropriate recommendations.     

‘Don't forget your leech socks’! Children's learning during an Eden Education Officer's workshop

This study looked at 30 primary aged children between 10 and 11 years old who were visiting the Eden Project, Cornwall and participating in workshops led and designed by the Eden Education Officers. The study attempted to directly test the effects of the Education Officers' workshops on children's learning. Personal meaning mapping, a constructivist approach was used to measure change in the children's understanding along four semi‐independent dimensions: extent, breadth, depth and mastery. The children's mastery of the subject regardless of ability was improved. Most of the workshop aims, such as ‘to recognise some plant adaptations in the humid tropics climate’ were shown to have been met. The research also highlighted areas to be reviewed, such as educating children about the way indigenous people use plants for their survival and also how children can transfer knowledge, so that they can understand the significance of plants in their own daily lives.     

Parent Praise to 1‐ to 3‐Year‐Olds Predicts Children's Motivational Frameworks 5 Years Later

In laboratory studies, praising children's effort encourages them to adopt incremental motivational frameworks—they believe ability is malleable, attribute success to hard work, enjoy challenges, and generate strategies for improvement. In contrast, praising children's inherent abilities encourages them to adopt fixed‐ability frameworks. Does the praise parents spontaneously give children at home show the same effects? Although parents' early praise of inherent characteristics was not associated with children's later fixed‐ability frameworks, parents' praise of children's effort at 14–38 months (N = 53) did predict incremental frameworks at 7–8 years, suggesting that causal mechanisms identified in experimental work may be operating in home environments.     

DEVELOPMENTALLY APPROPRIATE PRACTICES IN TEACHER EDUCATION: LESSONS FROM ONE SEMESTER

Abstract

A major challenge for teacher preparation programs and future teachers is learning to work skillfully with the diversity of children in American classrooms. This paper describes a tool developed to address this challenge: the Learning and Teaching Assessment System (LTAS). The LTAS is a performance‐based, curriculum‐embedded assessment tool designed to uncover young children's strengths in different curricular areas as well as their approaches to learning. Developed for use with children 3–8 years of age, the LTAS helps teachers understand what children know in relation to key concepts in the different disciplines as well as how they learn in order to further their learning in subsequent days and weeks of teaching. The development of the LTAS is based primarily on two theoretical frameworks: Leont'ev's activity theory and Gardner's theory of multiple intelligences. To examine the efficacy of the LTAS in its proposed objectives, a pilot study was conducted; results point to the potential of the LTAS for helping student teachers uncover new information about children to guide future instruction.     

Does intensity matter? Preschoolers’ print knowledge development within a classroom-based intervention

The present study examined the extent to which two dimensions of intervention intensity, (dose frequency and dose) of a 30-week print-referencing intervention related to the print knowledge development of 367 randomly selected children from 55 preschool classrooms. Dose frequency refers to the number of intervention sessions implemented per week; teachers were randomly assigned to either the high-dose frequency condition (four intervention sessions per week) or the low-dose frequency condition (two intervention sessions per week). Dose refers to number of print-referencing teaching strategies used per intervention session and was a naturally varying variable across classrooms. Structural models of children's spring print knowledge showed a significant interaction of dose and dose frequency in relation to children's outcomes. Follow-up analyses showed that the benefit of providing four versus two print-referencing sessions per week disappeared when teachers were providing a relatively intense number teaching strategies within sessions (i.e., the dose was high). Considered differently, findings also show that increasing the number of print referencing teaching strategies within a session (i.e., the dose) related positively to children's print knowledge development, but only when the weekly number of intervention sessions were low (i.e., two intervention sessions weekly). Overall, findings show that there is a benefit to increasing the dose or dose frequency of the print referencing intervention, but increasing both aspects of intervention intensity appeared to have a diminishing benefit to children's learning. Findings empirically support the multi-dimensional nature of intervention intensity and implications for research and practice are discussed.     

Taiwanese science and life technology curriculum standards and earth systems education

This research examines whether UK primary teachers are aware of the potential of highly able young 'scientists' and whether they differentiate their teaching accordingly. The support that the National Curriculum gives to highly able children is also examined. A questionnaire was chosen for initial data collection, followed by a semi-structured interview with teachers who sent children to master classes. Analysis would indicate that teachers recognize that children who are scientifically highly able have the capacity to use higher order thinking to perform all aspects of science investigations. There does, however, seem to be a mismatch between theory and practice. The data from the questionnaires suggest that teachers do use a variety of methods to differentiate their science teaching. There was, however, no correlation between teachers' opinions related to scientifically able children's investigative skills and the associated methods of differentiating their teaching. The interview data reinforced this further as many able children had been given limited experience of science investigations in mixed ability groups.     

Interaction between Children with Developmental Delays and their Mothers during a Book‐sharing Activity

Mothers and their preschool children with developmental delays participated in a storybook activity. Data analysis focused on the relations between maternal and child behaviours in the activity. Several aspects of mothers’ behaviour were related to children's engagement and responsiveness during the task. The more responsive and engaged the child, the more the mother attempted to involve the child in the book activity. Interviews indicated that children's positive attitude towards reading was associated with frequency of reading activity. We conclude that mothers were sensitive to their children's developmental levels and organized the activity in ways appropriate to the child's ability and willingness to participate.     

Compatibility Effects in Young Children's Tool Use: Learning and Transfer

An inherent component of tool-use actions is the transformation of the user's operating movement into the desired effect. In this study, the relevance of this transformation for young children's learning of tool-use actions was investigated. Sixty-four children at the age of 27–30 months learned to use levers which either simply extended (compatible transformation) or reversed (incompatible transformation) their operating movements. Data revealed a compatibility effect as well as transfer effects originating from the two different types of transformations. Furthermore, results suggest that young children's tool-use learning is not a uniform process, but has to be regarded individually depending on the type of transformation.