The impact of teachers' beliefs on the literacy experiences of young children: a New Zealand perspective

There has been a growing focus in New Zealand on the early literacy learning of young children. This emphasis has challenged early childhood teachers to ensure there are appropriate literacy events within their programme. The aim of this study was to identify early childhood teachers' knowledge and beliefs about literacy learning and examine how these translated into literacy practices. Four early childhood settings were chosen—two sessional kindergartens and two full‐day early learning centres. Eight early childhood teachers from four different centres were interviewed. All teachers held a recognized early childhood qualification and were working within the framework of Te Whaariki, the New Zealand early childhood curriculum. Five children in each setting were observed using narrative observations. All teachers were committed to providing meaningful and purposeful literacy experiences within a play‐based programme. However, although teachers had created rich early literacy environments, there was some tendency toward formal skills‐based interactions. The children themselves created many opportunities for authentic and rich literacy events.     

The impacts of an early mathematics curriculum on oral language and literacy

Competence in early mathematics is crucial for later school success. Although research indicates that early mathematics curricula improve children's mathematics skill, such curricula's impacts on oral language and early literacy skills are not known. This project is the first to investigate the effects of an intensive pre-kindergarten mathematics curriculum, Building Blocks, on the oral language and letter recognition of children participating in a large-scale cluster randomized trial project. Results showed no evidence that children who were taught mathematics using the curriculum performed differently than control children who received the typical district mathematics instruction on measures of letter recognition, and on two of the oral language (story retell) subtests, sentence length and inferential reasoning (emotive content). However, children in the Building Blocks group outperformed children in the control group on four oral language subtests: ability to recall key words, use of complex utterances, willingness to reproduce narratives independently, and inferential reasoning (practical content).     

Head Start teachers’ beliefs about language and literacy instruction

This study investigated the nature of Head Start teachers’ beliefs about early literacy and the teacher background factors that relate to these beliefs. Twenty-eight Head Start teachers were given the Preschool Teacher Literacy Beliefs Questionnaire (TBQ) and a background questionnaire. Reliable belief subscales reflecting code, oral language, book reading, and writing aspects of early literacy, as well as a reliable total literacy beliefs score, emerged from the TBQ. In general, teachers agreed with research-based practices related to oral language and book reading, but more variability was apparent around code-related and writing beliefs. Teacher experience was positively linked to agreement with evidence-based beliefs about oral language. The multidimensional nature of these beliefs, possible reasons for the absence of strong relations to background factors, and directions for future research on preschool teachers’ beliefs are discussed.     

Constructing cultural‐historical tools for supporting young children's concept formation in early literacy and numeracy

Over the past 10 years, early childhood professionals have been increasingly influenced by cultural‐historical theory. In order to support professionals evolving their practice, the Australian government commissioned a set of cultural‐historical resources specifically designed to build literacy and numeracy experiences for children from birth to the age of five years. This paper reports on an investigation of how teachers and families used the tools for supporting concept formation in literacy and numeracy and how they came to understand cultural‐historical theory. A sample of 349 people (families, and qualified and unqualified early childhood professionals) were either surveyed online or interviewed in relation to the resources. The findings indicate that teachers focused more explicitly on cognitive outcomes for children as a result of using the resources, and most families interacted differently with their children in everyday situations after having piloted the resources.     

Listening to learn: children playing and talking about the reception year of early years education in the UK

Recently in the UK there have been dramatic changes in the state provision of early years education and care, most notably the introduction of the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority's ‘early learning goals’ in 1999 and ‘curriculum guidance for the foundation stage’ in 2000. Outlining the context in which these changes came to take place, this research begins to consider how we might understand children's experiences of this policy in practice in their reception year. Valuing children's potential as participants in research, a play‐based activity was designed to ensure that the process of generating data would be meaningful to the children as well as to the researcher. Analysis of the discourse highlights themes of early education that were of importance to the children. Further discussion of these themes offers insight into how concepts of work and play might be linked to the role of the adult‐in‐charge, potentially undermining opportunities for learning; and how concepts of the individual, normalisation and the individualised academic curriculum promoted by national policy stand opposed to a notion of community on which the children place great emphasis.     

Teachers’ beliefs about literacy practices for young children in early childhood education and care settings

ABSTRACT

This study aimed to investigate the characteristics of early literacy beliefs held by early childhood education and care (ECEC) teachers in Japan by developing a novel scale. We believed that overviewing ECEC teachers’ beliefs about early literacy from ecological perspectives would contribute to understanding the underlying factors influencing the quality of early literacy instruction and involvement in ECEC. To this end, 349 ECEC and 45 primary school teachers were asked to complete a two-part questionnaire dealing with (1) ECEC teachers’ literacy beliefs and (2) teachers’ general pedagogical beliefs. Exploratory factor analysis extracted three sub-categories of literacy belief – Direct instruction, Natural development, and Social interaction – and two sub-categories of general pedagogical belief – Adult-centred and Child-centred – and the relations between these sub-categories and background factors were then discussed. The results implied that considering the ecological perspectives of ECEC teachers affords a better understanding of effective practices to facilitate the early literacy experiences of young children in ECEC settings beyond differences in their educational tradition concerning early literacy. These perspectives include the influence of the educational tradition in each region, how ECEC teachers differ from primary school teachers, and the values shared by a particular ECEC facility.     

Perceptions of gender in early years

This article presents an exploration of a group of Early Years Practitioners’ (EYPs) perceptions of gender that may provide some insight into the growing divide between boys’ and girls’ educational performance [Burusic, J., T. Babarovic, and M. Seric. 2012. “Differences in Elementary School Achievement between Girls and Boys: Does the Teacher’s Gender Play a Role?” European Journal of Psychology of Education 27 (4): 523–538]. I argue that the current media and educational interest in the gendered brain [Sax, L. 2005. Why Gender Matters: What Parents and Teachers Need to Know About the Emerging Science of Sex Differences. New York: Broadway Books] and the influences that surround the child [Eckert, P., and G. S. McConnell. 2013. Language and Gender. 2nd ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press], can result in children acquiring social expectations and attitudes to learning that are different for both sexes. The frequent dimorphic treatment of boys and girls is often based on assumed biological differences [Baron-Cohen, S., S. Lutchmaya, and R. Knickmeyer. 2004. Prenatal Testosterone in Mind: Amniotic Fluids Studies. Massachusetts Institute of Technology] that suggest that the sexes learn differently. This can result in the approaches to the care and education of children being established on their sex categories rather than their individual needs. My focus here is to explore practitioners’ expectations and understanding of children’s behaviour and learning in the nursery environment. The study is premised on the belief that practitioners’ perceptions of gender could, as argued by [Eliot, L. 2009. Pink Brain, Blue Brain: How Small Differences Grow into Troublesome Gaps – And what we can do About It. New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company], result in self-fulfilling prophecies being (re)produced and (re)created. The deployment of stereotypical assumptions and practices could, I suggest, limit children’s opportunities. The data used here are drawn from my doctoral study of the nature of gender as was understood by eight EYPs who took part in five discussion group sessions. An interpretative paradigm was adopted, where the EYPs’ discussed their experiences and understanding of gender from their practice. Following [Holloway, I., and S. Wheeler. 2013. Qualitative Research in Nursing and Healthcare. 3rd ed. West Sussex: John Wiley &; Sons Limited], the study explored experiences and perceptions in order to illuminate meaning and understanding. The findings indicated that there is a belief amongst the group of practitioners with whom I worked that gender is either innate or learned and that EYPs play no role in its development. The tentative conclusions suggest that changes to the education and training of EYPs are required in order to raise awareness of gender issues in nurseries. I suggest that there is a need to place gender back on the education and training agenda for EYP in order to support changes to practice that could, in turn, provide children with more equitable teaching and learning experiences.     

Hearing children's voices in the early years

In this article Hannah Mortimer explores how even very young children can be consulted and included when planning for their education and needs. This allows early years practitioners to ensure that the children they support have equal opportunities, feel involved and successful in their learning and play, and are given activities and interventions to suit their interests and strengths. Various approaches are described here for including young children with special educational needs (SEN) and other disabilities in their foundation stage education. These include observation and interpretation, talk‐through approaches, play‐based assessment and intervention, use of art‐work, role play and stories, welcome profiles and personal records, increasing all children's awareness of SEN and developing inclusive and enjoyable approaches for everybody.     

Personal action potency: early years practitioners participating in interprofessional practice in early years settings

This paper reports on case study research in the UK analysing the participation of early years staff in interprofessional practice to provide effective care and education for children, primarily those with special educational needs. Even though case study staff in different ‘outstanding’ settings had equivalent qualifications and similar years of experience, the ease with which they were able to marshal and deliver effective provision for children requiring input from other services varied depending on a complex set of factors. Social Practice Theory (Holland and Lave 2009) and the concepts of personal action potency in trajectories of participation (Dreier 2002, 2008) shed light on how and why this was the case. The findings indicate that structural arrangements, interpersonal relationships, history and contentions influenced the practitioners' participation in interprofessional practice, but were not entirely deterministic. Contributing to theoretical development, the paper argues that the potential for interprofessional practice is a shared rather than individual capacity in settings. There is scope for enhancing this capacity through attention to the features identified in the analysis.     

Pedagogy and possibility thinking in the early years

Connecting to current work in the area of creative pedagogies, this paper reports findings of an exploratory study that sought to identify what characterises possibility thinking in young children's learning experiences and how teachers’ pedagogical practice fosters this critical aspect of creativity. It focuses in particular on pedagogy, seeking to demonstrate how approaches adopted facilitated children's possibility thinking. Possibility thinking has been conceptualised as being central to creative learning although its role, as manifest in the learning engagement of children and the pedagogical strategies of practitioners has not been fully illuminated. The co-participative research team involved in this study comprised staff in an early childhood centre, in an infant and a primary school, working collaboratively with three university-based researchers. The 12-month long segment of a longer study employed various data collection methods including video-stimulated review (VSR) to facilitate reflection, critical conversations, classroom observation, interviews and examination of planning documents. The paper illuminates the perspectives and embedded values that the teachers expressed whilst reflecting upon their practice, and highlights common pedagogical themes, including the practice of ‘standing back’, profiling learner agency and creating time and space. Particular strategies were employed by each of the teachers. These approaches appeared to foster possibility thinking in young learners. In addition, the paper considers the development of the teachers’ thinking through the phases of the research process and presents a model for conceptualising a pedagogy of possibility thinking.     

Quality improvement in early years settings in Hong Kong and England

With a growing awareness of the importance of early childhood education, the governments of Hong Kong and England have both increased investment through providing fee assistance to parents for buying services and providing funding to providers for offering ‘free’ places, respectively. Alongside the increased funding of early childhood education, a heightened interest in the quality of early years settings has arisen. This paper aims to develop a framework for comparative studies by addressing the similarities and differences in quality improvement of both systems. Three key issues are discussed: relevance of the quality criteria for assessment, interpretations of the quality improvement mechanism and its use in guiding practice, and the influence of contextual factors in terms of stakeholders' views of the quality process. It is argued that these key issues are fundamental to a framework for understanding different sociocultural contexts and dynamics in shaping the quality improvement of early childhood education.     

Parental writing support and preschoolers’ early literacy,language, and fine motor skills

The current study examines the nature and variability of parents’ aid to preschoolers in the context of a shared writing task, as well as the relations between this support and children's literacy, vocabulary, and fine motor skills. In total, 135 preschool children (72 girls) and their parents (primarily mothers) in an ethnically diverse, middle-income community were observed while writing a semi-structured invitation for a pretend birthday party together. Children's phonological awareness, alphabet knowledge, word decoding, vocabulary, and fine motor skills were also assessed. Results revealed that parents provided variable, but generally low-level, support for children's approximation of sound-symbol correspondence in their writing (i.e., graphophonemic support), as well as for their production of letter forms (i.e., print support). Parents frequently accepted errors rather than asking for corrections (i.e., demand for precision). Further analysis of the parent–child dyads (n = 103) who wrote the child's name on the invitation showed that parents provided higher graphophonemic, but not print, support when writing the child's name than other words. Overall parental graphophonemic support was positively linked to children's decoding and fine motor skills, whereas print support and demand for precision were not related to any of the child outcomes. In sum, this study indicates that while parental support for preschoolers’ writing may be minimal, it is uniquely linked to key literacy-related outcomes in preschool.     

Nonreaders and nonwriters in special education: Crossing new literacy thresholds

This paper reports on the way in which a teacher led the literacy development of two students who were nonreaders and nonwriters. The two students received instruction in a special education room for students with learning disabilities. The teacher implemented an integrated instructional program in reading and writing that was designed to: (a) embed literacy instruction in meaningful and purposive activities, (b) respond to the needs, capabilities and interests of learners, and reflect their zones of proximal development, (c) promote self-regulated learning, and (d) foster students' membership in a literacy community. This paper focuses on the strategies the teacher used to mediate reading and writing development and the effects of the strategies on the narrative and expository writing performance of her students.     

A longitudinal study of children's early literacy experiences at home and later literacy development at home and school

Studies of literacy attainment in the early years of school have identified various measures at school entry which predict later attainment. The study reported has sought not only to replicate earlier findings but to investigate significant home factors from a younger age. Literacy experiences of 42 children at ages 3, 5 and 7 were investigated, and the relationship of home factors to literacy development explored. Findings are reported concerning two outcome measures at age 7: children's reading level, as determined by the difficulty level of their school reading book, and whether or not children at age 7 were judged to have literacy difficulties. Significant factors included having favourite books at age 3; letter knowledge and parents reading to children at school entry; and at age 7, access to home computers, and parents’ knowledge of literacy teaching in school. Children with literacy difficulties owned fewer books, were less likely to read to themselves or their parents, and generally had less support for literacy at home. Implications for teachers, highlighting the relevance of home literacy, are discussed. The findings underline the importance of home factors for children's literacy development.     

Mathematical literacy of school leaving pupils in South Africa

This paper discusses some results of South African (SA) grade 12 pupils on an international test of mathematical literacy, administered in the framework of the Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) under the auspices of the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA). Three questions are addressed: (1) What are the strengths and weaknesses of SA school-leavers in mathematical reasoning and social utility from an international comparative perspective?: (2) What is the growth of SA pupils' mathematical literacy from grade 8 to 12? (3) What are the background variables that influence the level of mathematical literacy of SA school-leavers? Finally some implications of the results for SA education will be discussed.     

Using story dictation to support young children's vocabulary development: Outcomes and process

Creating opportunities for children to apply newly learned vocabulary in meaningful contexts is an important aspect of supporting vocabulary development. However, previous research has not adequately examined how this can be accomplished in preschool classrooms. To address this issue, we explored using story dictation to support preschoolers’ expressive vocabulary development. Thirteen children in a Head Start classroom were videotaped dictating a total of 38 stories. Scribed stories and videos of story dictation sessions were analyzed both qualitatively and quantitatively to examine the outcomes and process. Results indicated that children used and learned target vocabulary during story dictations, and that target word use increased in number and complexity over time. How the teacher supported story dictations and target word use is discussed.     

Ethnic group differences in early head start parents’ parenting beliefs and practices and links to children's early cognitive development

Data from the Early Head Start Research and Evaluation study were used to examine the extent to which several factors mediate between- and within-ethnic-group differences in parenting beliefs and behaviors, and children's early cognitive development (analysis sample of 1198 families). The findings indicate that Hispanic-, European-, and African-Americans differ significantly in their parenting beliefs and behaviors. Children also evidence significant ethnic group differences in 24-month cognitive development; these differences were fully accounted for by controlling for maternal cognitive skills, as measured by lexical knowledge. In comparison, maternal parenting behaviors were only a partial mediator of ethnic group differences in children's cognitive development. Structural equation modeling was used to examine, within each ethnic group, the extent to which measured parenting beliefs and behaviors mediate the effect of maternal cognitive skills on children's early cognitive development. Analyses show that the mediated path from maternal cognitive skills to child cognitive development, via “mainstream” parenting beliefs and behaviors, was stronger for European-American families than for Hispanic- and African-American families. The policy implications of increasing the schooling-related cognitive skills of low-educated parents are discussed.     

An ecological perspective on early years workforce competences in Italian ECEC settings

Based on an ecological perspective on competence, this study analyzed the attitudes, skills, and knowledge of practitioners in educational services for 0–6-years-old children in Italy, examining competence profiles in the Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) workforce. Our study considered three areas of competence, which previously have received less attention: relationships with children, relationships with families, and relationships within working groups or teams. Participants were 136 practitioners working in Italian ECEC services. Practitioners reported a greater need to acquire social skills for their relationships with children and families, especially in cases of psychosocial distress. They also reported the difficulty of development planning within their professional role. The article concludes with a discussion of the attitudes, skills, and knowledge required for professional development planning.     

Children's literacy environments and early word recognition subskills

First-grade children completed a battery of tasks that included standardized measures of word recognition and spelling, measures of phonological and orthographic processing skill, and a short indicator of exposure to print via home literacy experiences. Phonological and orthographic processing skill were separable components of variance in word recognition. Orthographic processing ability accounted for variance in word recognition ability even after the variance in three phonological processing measures had been partialed. Additionally, variance in orthographic processing ability not explained by phonological abilities was reliably linked to differences in print exposure. The print exposure measure was not, however, linked to the measures of phonological processing. This finding was unexpected but it is consistent with some previous research. The theoretical implications of this result are discussed.     

Two plus four dimensions of critical literacy

This paper presents a critical analysis of the four dimensions of critical literacy (FDCL), a framework widely known among the scholars and practitioners in the field of critical literacy. It begins with a literature review of critical literacy. Then each dimension of FDCL is described in detail through the use of a children’s book. In addition, the limitations of FDCL are discussed. Finally, this paper proposes that certain features of Jurgen Habermas’s theory of communicative action be appropriated to complement what is lacking in FDCL.