Preschool behavior problems in classroom learning situations and literacy outcomes in kindergarten and first grade

Relations between classroom behavior problems early in the preschool year and elementary school literacy and language outcomes were examined for an entire cohort of four-year-old Head Start children (N = 2682). A cross-classified random effects model was used that controlled for the variance in literacy outcomes attributed to: (a) child-level demographics (age, gender, ethnicity), and end of the preschool year cognitive skills; (b) Head Start, kindergarten and first grade classrooms; and (c) kindergarten and first grade schools. Preschool behavior problems were assessed across structured learning situations, and during peer and teacher interactions at the beginning of Head Start. Preschool behavior problems in structured learning situations differentially predicted lower literacy outcomes across all time points. Findings extend previous research and underscore the importance of early identification of problem behavior using developmentally and ecologically valid tools within early childhood classrooms intentionally designed to foster literacy skills.     

Play and gender in Ontario kindergarten classrooms: implications for literacy learning

Research has highlighted the importance of early literacy development. In light of this, there has been a growing concern around boys’ underachievement on language and literacy assessments. Given the recent mandate for play-based learning in Ontario kindergartens, this paper examines children's literacy integration during play from a gender perspective. An analysis of 380 minutes of children's play revealed that girls and boys often played separately across the 12 kindergarten classrooms in this study. Importantly, the centres at which girls and boys played offered different literacy support. Our findings showed that gender played a salient role in children's play choices affecting the types of academic skills children practiced in their play. In this paper, we shed light on the need for gender awareness and sensitivity in policy mandates and teacher practice.     

Assessment in early childhood education: threats and challenges to effective assessment of immigrant children

Research indicates that early childhood professionals gather assessment information to monitor child development and learning, to guide curriculum planning and decision making, to identify children who may have special needs, to report and communicate with others, and to evaluate programmes. A review of literature indicates that immigrant children have low achievement assessment scores as compared with mainstream American children, also immigrant children enter kindergarten already behind their mainstream American peers. The current study explored early childhood teachers' perceptions of assessment measures used with immigrant children and the challenges faced when assessing immigrant children. Findings of the study reveal that there are several factors that make early childhood teachers fail to gather effective assessment information from immigrant children. Unless the factors are addressed, planning for effective curriculum for immigrant children using assessment data will continue to be a challenge for early childhood teachers. Factors that continue to affect gathering effective assessment data from immigrant children include language barriers, cultural clashes, socio‐economic factors, and culturally and linguistically biased assessment measures.     

Beyond the DAP versus standards dilemma: Examining the unforgiving complexity of kindergarten teaching in the United States

This article presents findings from a qualitative study of two kindergarten teachers’ responses to the professional demands posed by recent shifts in national and state education policies in the United States. Although the literature has framed the practical challenges resulting from these changing expectations in terms of curricular/instructional tensions between developmentally appropriate practices (DAP) and academic standards, study participants indicated adapting to the changing climate of kindergarten, managing the expectations of their students’ parents, and responding to the demands of the first grade teachers at their school site were their most significant challenges. These findings suggest looking beyond our current framing of the situation to examine the full range of complexities and opportunities facing kindergarten teachers will lead to deeper understandings of the ways in which practitioners experience and respond to the new demands and changing expectations shaping their work.     

Discipline and rules in four Hong Kong kindergarten classrooms: a qualitative case study

Classroom discipline is a topic of international interest and teachers are bombarded with advice regarding how to and why they should manage children’s behaviour in their classrooms. This paper draws on data related to classroom discipline gathered from a detailed classroom observation schedule, teacher interviews, and field notes with four purposively selected kindergarten teachers working in Hong Kong with children aged 5–6 years. The findings of this qualitative case study show that the teachers were concerned about disciplining children to ensure good behaviour. They expected all children to follow the rules and used characteristic discipline strategies such as stating expectations and ‘praising the opposite’ to maintain good behaviour. The paper discusses these findings in light of the Westernisation of kindergarten teaching practices in Hong Kong.     

A conceptual framework for understanding children as agents in the transition from home to kindergarten

The transition from home to kindergarten, for most children, is the first and major ecological transition in their educational life. Kindergarten is the first educational setting in which children make sense about ‘school’ as a place to learn and about themselves as ‘pupils’. In this transition, children cross a cultural boundary from home to kindergarten and, in fact, they commute between the two cultural settings. In Vygotsky's view, children are active culture learners. How they cope with, and adapt to, the novel kindergarten is crucial to their ‘pupil career’ in their life‐long learning. Thus, this paper aims to provide early childhood education professionals with a framework to understand children as agents in the transition from home to kindergarten. This paper begins with a review of the concept of transition. It then presents a conceptual framework of the understanding of children as agents in the transition from home to kindergarten. Major elements of the conceptual framework are derived from sociocultural theory, and analyses of ‘rites of passage’ and ‘pupil career’. This highlights the relationships between layers of context, stages of transition, and adaptation outcomes.     

Pedagogical beliefs, activity choice and structure, and adult–child interaction in nursery classrooms

A qualitative analysis of four cooking activities undertaken in two nursery classes reveals relationships between the adults' pedagogical beliefs, the choice and structuring of activities, and the nature of adult–child participation. Four adults each planned and carried out separately, one cooking activity of their choice with a small group of children, as part of a normal nursery session. The activities were video recorded and transcribed, and a grounded theory approach was adopted to analyse the adult–child interactions. Semi-structured interviews were undertaken with the adults which provided insight into their pedagogical beliefs and rationale for their teaching approaches. Analysis of the data reveals a dichotomy in the cooking activity choices made by the adults between baking recipes which required a high level of adult control, and other cooking activities which required minimal adult intervention. Observations of the cooking activities demonstrate differences in the structure of the activities and the nature of adult–child participation. The interviews reveal how the teachers' pedagogical beliefs and intentions informed their choice and structure of the cooking activities. This study provides an illustration of the relationship between the adults' pedagogical beliefs, activity structure, and the interactions between the adults and children in one type of activity in a nursery setting. The appropriateness of the design and feasibility of the observation method is also considered.     

School and home connections and children's kindergarten achievement gains: The mediating role of family involvement

Children's home and school are the most influential contexts in which learning and development occur, especially during early childhood. This paper builds on Bronfenbrenner's ecological theory and Epstein's theory of overlapping spheres of influence to examine school and family connections and their relationships to family involvement and students’ achievement gains. We used a nationally representative sample of kindergartners (16,425 students from 864 schools) and found that schools’ efforts to communicate with and engage families predicted greater family involvement in school and higher levels of student achievement in reading and math at the end of kindergarten. We also found that, on average, family involvement at school and parents’ educational expectations were associated with gains in reading and math achievement in kindergarten. We discuss the implications of our findings for policy makers, researchers, and practitioners.     

情境创设在幼儿园语言教学中的运用

在当前的幼儿语言教学过程中,情境教学法是一种非常有效的教学策略。教学环境会直接影响到幼儿的语言学习状况,因此在幼儿语言教学活动过程中,语言教学情境的创设是至关重要的。通过教学情境的创设,能够有效感染幼儿,激发幼儿学习兴趣,培养幼儿语言学习能力。本文主要探讨了情境创设在幼儿语言教学中的有效运用策略。     

Differential exposure to early childhood education services and mother–toddler interaction

This study examined the associations of exposure to early childhood education (ECE) services upon 2.5-year-old children's task persistence and enthusiasm and their mothers’ authoritative and authoritarian behavior and support stimulation. Families participated in the Infant Health and Development Program, an eight-site randomized comprehensive ECE to enhance the development of low birth weight, premature infants. Exposure was measured for 269 families who received at least one home visit and 1 day at the Child Development Center (CDC): 131 with lower exposure (64 ± 11.6 home visits and 206 ± 53 CDC days) and 138 with higher exposure (67 ± 9.2 home visits and 301 ± 21 CDC days). These two groups were compared to the follow-up group (540 with no exposure). Compared to no exposure, high exposure was associated with greater child enthusiasm and persistence and maternal support stimulation. Infant and mother test scores and temperament/depression scores, child's sex, and ethnicity were examined as moderators. Compared to no exposure, high exposure was related to maternal authoritative behavior toward girls, less authoritarian behavior for mothers with lower PPVT scores, and greater task enthusiasm from Black children.     

Learning with immigrant children,families and communities: the imperative of early childhood teacher education

Abstract

This article reports on a longitudinal study spanning over 5 years, involving the design and implementation of an early childhood teacher education program model that engages a critical-ecological theoretical approach, a funds of knowledge perspective, and design-based methodology. This project aimed to promote equitable education for all children, and especially for young immigrant children encountering situations of oppression within the national and local educational contexts in Arizona. In this teacher education program, families, community members, researchers, pre-service teachers and teachers worked together to develop new modes of curricular activity, new spaces, new relationships, and new forms of movement among participants, as well as new circulations of literacy artefacts.     

Cultural diversity in teachers’ group-centered beliefs and practices in early childcare

The present study examined the relation between teachers’ cultural backgrounds, their beliefs regarding group processes, their actual support of group processes, and children's behavior in center-based childcare in the Netherlands. For this purpose, 57 teachers of native Dutch and immigrant Moroccan-Dutch, Turkish-Dutch, Surinamese-Dutch, and Antillean-Dutch backgrounds were interviewed about their teaching beliefs and observed while engaging in a constructive play activity with small groups of children. Clear cultural differences in beliefs and corresponding behavior were found. In the interviews, the Turkish-Dutch and Moroccan-Dutch teachers mentioned concepts relating to group processes more often than the Dutch and Surinamese- and Antillean-Dutch teachers did, and they showed higher support of group processes during play. Moreover, the degree to which teachers expressed beliefs in group processes was significantly correlated with support of group processes by the teacher and with levels of collaboration and cognitive engagement in children's play. Structural equation modeling was applied to test direct and indirect effects, confirming the hypothesis that comparatively elaborate beliefs of teachers on group processes result in practices supporting group processes as well as more collaboration and cognitive engagement in children's play.     

Chinese parents’ goals and practices in early childhood

We review the literature on Chinese parents’ views and practices through the lens of Confucianism. Confucianism advances seven developmental goals for children – knowledge, social norms, modesty, shame, self-restraint, filial piety, and harmonious relationships – and unique beliefs about parents’ role in children's development (Guan). We examine how these goals and beliefs are reflected in parents’ socialization of their young children, and how they play out in associations between parenting and children's development. We close with a contextualized, dynamic approach to the study of parenting goals and practices by describing historical shifts in China's economy, policies, and the global context that have led to marked changes in Chinese parenting.     

Preservice teachers,caring communities,and parent partnerships: Challenges and possibilities for early childhood teacher education

Abstract

The creation of caring classroom communities and a heightened focus on the central importance of partnerships between teachers and parents are two significant features of the revised guidelines for developmentally appropriate practices [Developmentally Appropriate Practice in Early Childhood Programs, revised ed., National Association for the Education of Young Children, Washington, DC]. This article reports findings from a study of preservice primary grade teachers’ understandings of caring in which participants developed negative, adversarial beliefs about parents during their initial field placement period. The findings in this study indicate that in order to prepare preservice teachers to meet our expectations for high quality early childhood teaching practices, we must create teacher education programs and coursework specifically aimed at developing commitments to caring community and to parent partnership.     

Keeping their attention: Classroom practices associated with behavioral engagement in first grade mathematics classes in China and the United States

This study investigated variation in students’ behavioral engagement across mathematics classes in China and the United States. Student behavioral engagement was examined along with two aspects of the classroom (group size and teacher instructions given about classroom behavior). Video observational data were collected and coded over 1051 time intervals in 35-minute mathematics sessions in Chinese classrooms (n = 8) and comparable American classrooms (n = 7). Latent growth analyses revealed that overall, behavioral engagement declined over time, although the drop-off was dramatically sharper in American classrooms relative to Chinese classrooms. In addition, larger group size and the timing of teacher instructions (given before versus after the behavior) were significantly associated with increased engagement. This study revealed compelling cultural differences as well as patterns in student and teacher behaviors associated with students engaging in on-task behaviors in the classroom. Implications for ways to promote effective classroom behavior are discussed.     

Developing fundamental principles for teacher education programs and practices

Traditional approaches to teacher education are increasingly critiqued for their limited relationship to student teachers’ needs and for their meager impact on practice. Many pleas are heard for a radical new and effective pedagogy of teacher education in which theory and practice are linked effectively. Although various attempts to restructure teacher education have been published, no coherent body of knowledge exists about central principles underlying teacher education programs that are responsive to the expectations, needs and practices of student teachers. By analyzing effective features of programs in Australia, Canada, and the Netherlands, this study contributes an initial framework of seven fundamental principles to guide the development of responsive teacher education programs that make a difference.     

Teaching the Standards is Developmentally Appropriate Practice: Strategies for Incorporating the Sociopolitical Dimension of DAP in Early Childhood Teaching

Many early childhood practitioners in the U.S. are experiencing tension between their desire to offer students developmentally appropriate learning experiences and their obligation to teach the academic knowledge and skills mandated by their states. However, careful examination of the DAP guidelines’ definition of culturally appropriate practice reveals a significant sociopolitical dimension that has been obscured by the field’s tight focus on the sociocultural dimension. Because standards-based education is an explicit feature of the sociopolitical landscape of U. S. public education, teaching the standards is developmentally appropriate practice. Implementation of this broadened understanding of DAP adds new complexity to early childhood teachers’ work. This article offers ideas drawn from Bronfenbrenner, Vygotsky, and Dewey as sources of theoretical support and provides examples of strategic decision making—illustrated with examples drawn from Texas kindergartens—that can assist teachers in managing the curricular and instructional complexities that accompany the broadened understanding of DAP.

Beginning to read in Vietnamese: kindergarten precursors to first grade fluency and reading comprehension

Reading and Writing - Measures of decoding and oral language have been shown to predict early reading comprehension across a wide variety of languages, though the timeframe and strength of the...     

Early Head Start and African American families: Impacts and mechanisms of child outcomes

Persistent disparities exist between African American children and their European American counterparts across developmental domains. Early childhood intervention may serve to promote more positive outcomes among African American children. The current study examined whether and how the Early Head Start (EHS) program benefited African American children at the end of the program, when they were 36 months of age, as well as the parenting these children experienced and how this affected their developmental outcomes. The data show a wide and strong pattern of impacts of EHS for African American children and families. Path analysis yielded findings that suggested a direct effect of EHS on specific child outcomes and parenting processes within this group of African American families. Parental supportiveness and cognitive stimulation emerged as important direct influences on African American children's outcomes and as pathways through which Early Head Start benefits these children. These findings are discussed in the context of early childhood intervention practice.     

Effects of Video Interaction Guidance on early childhood teachers

An experimental study showed that a video feedback intervention improved the interaction skills of early childhood education and care teachers. The teachers who had received the Video Interaction Guidance training appeared more stimulating in their behavior, were more sensitive and more verbally stimulating than teachers from the control group. The training results were still apparent three months after the training. An analysis of the behavior of teachers at micro-level also revealed positive outcomes. These findings show that video feedback training for early childhood educators is a promising method to increase their socio-emotional support and verbal stimulation in childcare practice.