The present study explored the bidirectional and longitudinal associations between executive function (EF) and early academic skills (math and literacy) across 4 waves of measurement during the ...transition from preschool to kindergarten using 2 complementary analytical approaches: cross-lagged panel modeling and latent growth curve modeling (LCGM). Participants included 424 children (49% female). On average, children were approximately 4.5 years old at the beginning of the study (M = 4.69, SD = .30) and 55% were enrolled in Head Start. Cross-lagged panel models indicated bidirectional relations between EF and math over preschool, which became directional in kindergarten with only EF predicting math. Moreover, there was a bidirectional relation between math and literacy that emerged in kindergarten. Similarly, LGCM revealed correlated growth between EF and math as well as math and literacy, but not EF and literacy. Exploring the patterns of relations across the waves of the panel model in conjunction with the patterns of relations between intercepts and slopes in the LGCMs led to a more nuanced understanding of the relations between EF and academic skills across preschool and kindergarten. Implications for future research on instruction and intervention development are discussed.
Im Rahmen der Schriftenreihe „Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen zur Arbeit der Stiftung ‚Haus der kleinen Forscher‘“ werden regelmäßig wissenschaftliche Beiträge von renommierten Expertinnen und ...Experten aus dem Bereich der frühen Bildung veröffentlicht. Diese Schriftenreihe dient einem fachlichen Dialog zwischen Stiftung, Wissenschaft und Praxis, mit dem Ziel, allen Kitas, Horten und Grundschulen in Deutschland fundierte Unterstützung für ihren Bildungsauftrag zu geben. Der elfte Band der Schriftenreihe mit einem Geleitwort von Rudolf Tippelt fokussiert die Zieldimensionen für Multiplikatorinnen und Multiplikatoren früher MINT-Bildung sowie einer frühen Bildung für nachhaltige Entwicklung. Olaf Köller und Esther Winther formulieren, basierend auf den Merkmalen erfolgreicher Lehrkräfte- und Erwachsenenbildung, ein Modell professioneller Kompetenz für Multiplikatorinnen und Multiplikatoren früher MINT-Bildung. Olaf Köller, Johannes Magenheim, Uwe Pfenning, Jörg Ramseger, Mirjam Steffensky, Christian Wiesmüller, Esther Winther und Bernd Wollring erörtern zentrale Zieldimensionen guter MINT-Erwachsenenbildnerinnen und -bildner wie die motivationalen Orientierungen und Überzeugungen, die selbstregulativen Fähigkeiten, die fachspezifischen und fachdidaktischen sowie die pädagogisch-psychologischen Zieldimensionen des Professionswissens. Sie geben zudem Empfehlungen für die Priorisierung der Zieldimensionen und für die (Weiter-)Entwicklung der Stiftungsangebote. Heike Molitor kommentiert diese Zieldimensionen aus Sicht einer Bildung für nachhaltige Entwicklung und beschreibt, welchen Anforderungen Multiplikatorinnen und Multiplikatoren im Kontext einer (MINT-)Bildung für nachhaltige Entwicklung begegnen. Das Fazit des Bandes beschreibt die Umsetzung der fachlichen Empfehlungen in die inhaltlichen Angebote der Stiftung „Haus der kleinen Forscher“ und gibt einen Ausblick auf die weitere wissenschaftliche Begleitung der Stiftungsarbeit.
Duncan et al. (2007)
presented a new methodology for identifying kindergarten readiness factors and quantifying their importance by determining which of children's developing skills measured around ...kindergarten entrance would predict later reading and math achievement. This article extends Duncan et al.'s work to identify kindergarten readiness factors with 6 longitudinal data sets. Their results identified kindergarten math and reading readiness and attention as the primary long-term predictors but found no effects from social skills or internalizing and externalizing behavior. We incorporated motor skills measures from 3 of the data sets and found that fine motor skills are an additional strong predictor of later achievement. Using one of the data sets, we also predicted later science scores and incorporated an additional early test of general knowledge of the social and physical world as a predictor. We found that the test of general knowledge was by far the strongest predictor of science and reading and also contributed significantly to predicting later math, making the content of this test another important kindergarten readiness indicator. Together, attention, fine motor skills, and general knowledge are much stronger overall predictors of later math, reading, and science scores than early math and reading scores alone.
The phenomenon of diverse families has expanded in recent years. Although it has important implications in the field of education, this issue has been largely overlooked in the research on early ...education in Israel. The aim of the present study is to examine the attitudes of Israeli kindergarten teachers towards diverse families and the practices they use in this context. For this purpose, we conducted a qualitative study, using in-depth, semi-structured interviews among 20 Jewish-Israeli state kindergarten teachers. The main findings are that, overall, the attitudes of kindergarten teachers towards diverse families are positive, and they use different practices for dealing with family diversity and integrate this issue in their routine educational activities. Despite this, due to various factors, the positive attitudes are not always implemented in practice. These findings highlight the need to guide kindergarten teachers to work with diverse families, preparing them to adapt to the changing society.
This article reports on the study of differential change trajectories for early childhood approaches to learning. A large sample (N = 2,152) of Head Start children was followed through ...prekindergarten, kindergarten, and first grade. Classroom learning behaviors were assessed by teachers through the Preschool Learning Behaviors Scale twice in Head Start and through the Learning Behaviors Scale twice in both kindergarten and first grade. Item response theory was applied to form continuous scales of Competence Motivation and Attentional Persistence, using multiple-group calibration with linking items and Bayesian score estimates. Cross-classified multilevel growth models demonstrated that the new vertical scales are able to detect distinct linear and higher order change patterns for Competence Motivation and Attentional Persistence across the transition years and to differentiate change trajectories emblematic of eventual second-grade academic proficiency versus nonproficiency in reading, vocabulary, language, mathematics, and science.
Relatively little attention has been given to understanding different social and emotional behavior (SEB) profiles among students and their links to important educational outcomes. We applied latent ...profile analysis to identify SEB profiles among kindergarten students based on five SEBs: cooperative, socially responsible, helpful, anxious, and aggressive-disruptive behavior. In Study 1, we identified SEB profiles among the population of students who attended kindergarten in New South Wales (NSW; Australia's most populous state comprising Australia's largest education jurisdictions), Australia in 2012 (N = 100,776). We also examined whether profile membership was differentially associated with students' socioeducational characteristics (gender, age group, language background, neighborhood socioeconomic status, and learning disability status). Results revealed four different SEB profiles: social-emotional prosocial (SE-Prosocial), SE-Anxious, SE-Aggressive, and SE-Vulnerable groups. Profile membership was associated with the socioeducational characteristics in different ways (e.g., female and older students tended to be in the SE-Prosocial profile). In Study 2, we undertook replication with a different sample of children who attended kindergarten in 2009 in NSW (n = 52,661). We also examined whether the SEB profiles were associated with academic achievement in Grades 3 and 5 using standardized test scores. Results revealed the same four profiles as Study 1 and similarities in how profile membership was associated with the socioeducational characteristics. Moreover, profiles were associated with significantly different levels of achievement in Grades 3 and 5-highest for the SE-Prosocial and lowest for the SE-Vulnerable profiles. Together, the findings have implications for healthy student development and academic intervention.
Educational Impact and Implications Statement
It is well-established that children's social and emotional behaviors (SEBs) are linked with school readiness and healthy development. However, less is known about the ways in which different SEBs simultaneously manifest within children and the implications of such combinations for children's academic outcomes. In this investigation, we conducted two studies that identify SEB profiles among kindergarten children based on five SEBs: cooperative, socially responsible, helpful, anxious, and aggressive-disruptive behaviors. Results revealed four different profiles that were replicated across two studies. In addition, the profiles were differentially associated with children's background characteristics and academic achievement in Grades 3 and 5. The findings have implications for efforts to promote adaptive SEBs among students and, in particular, the development of interventions that are appropriately targeted to each child's unique needs.
Significant attention and legislation have been directed to assessment intervention for students with word-level reading disability (WLRD; i.e., dyslexia). Scholars have called for similar attention ...to prevention-oriented approaches in which intervention is provided to students at risk for WLRD from the earliest grades. Progress monitoring is a key aspect of early intervention, and although numerous measures exist for monitoring kindergarten reading development across foundational skill areas, little evidence indicates which measure(s) provide data that best reflect progress toward successful reading outcomes or significant word reading difficulties. In this study, a sample of 426 ethnically and linguistically diverse kindergarten students, considered at-risk for reading difficulties at the start of kindergarten, were monitored across kindergarten with seven measures that included tests of letter name and sound fluency, phoneme segmentation, word and pseudoword reading, and a computer adaptive test. Students' word reading skills were assessed at the end of kindergarten and first grade with standardized tests of word reading, pseudoword decoding, and oral reading. Analyses that included latent variable growth modeling (controlling for emergent bilingual status) and latent profile analyses found that growth in letter-sound fluency during the fall of kindergarten, and word reading fluency during the spring, were the most strongly related to subsequent word reading skills and most clearly distinguished a subgroup of students who demonstrated significant word reading difficulties by the end of first grade. These measures may be ideal indices of progress for low-performing kindergarteners and for signaling a need for intervention intensification within a prevention-oriented framework.
Educational Impact and Implications StatementProgress monitoring can provide data to inform the need to intensify instruction for students at risk for word reading difficulties. Although a large number of options exist for monitoring reading progress in kindergarten, monitoring progress with a measure of letter-sound fluency during the fall and a measure of word reading fluency during the spring may provide the strongest indications of a need to intensify preventative interventions.
Behavioral self-regulation supports young children's learning and is a strong predictor of later academic achievement. The capacity to manage one's attention and control one's behavior is commonly ...measured via direct assessments of executive function (EF). However, to understand how EF skills contribute to academic achievement, it is helpful to investigate how EF manifests in the classroom context and in children's overt behavior. The current study observed 172 kindergarteners for a single school day and captured the total proportion of class time children were off-task in the classroom. This behavior was further classified into specific subtypes to assess whether these categorizations differentially predicted components of EF and academic achievement in first grade. Results indicated that children with lower response inhibition spent statistically significantly more time in one type of off-task behavior (i.e., off-task actively engaging with other materials), and children with lower working memory spent significantly more time in another type of off-task behavior (i.e., off-task passively disengaged). Higher proportion of class time spent off-task passively disengaged in kindergarten further statistically significantly predicted fewer gains in reading comprehension in first grade. These findings illustrate the utility of measuring children's EF in a classroom context, and how fine-grained observation systems can shed light on the specific classroom and child processes that influence learning.
Educational Impact and Implications Statement
In this study we find that executive functioning can be captured in the kindergarten classroom context by observing subtypes of off-task behavior. The implications of this study suggest that focusing on how children go off-task in the classroom may offer insight into specific response inhibition and working memory deficits kindergarteners may have, and how this behavior may later predict later academic achievement. For example, we find that going off-task with a peer and going off-task by engaging in other, more appealing activities (e.g., playing with instructional materials) is not particularly detrimental to a child's later academic achievement. Whereas going off-task by disengaging altogether (e.g., mind wandering) may be more deleterious for a child's academic outcomes. In effectively identifying these classroom behaviors, efforts can be made to further elucidate the mechanisms by which these behaviors lead to fewer gains in academic achievement and the steps teachers can take to mitigate the consequences of certain types of off-task behaviors in their classroom.
A longitudinal study was conducted to identify unique sources of individual differences in later understanding of the equal sign as a relational symbol of equivalence (i.e., formal understanding of ...mathematical equivalence). The sample included 141 children from a mid-sized city in the Midwestern United States (Mage = 6 years, 2 months in kindergarten; 88 boys, 53 girls; 71% white, 8% Hispanic or Latine, 7% Black, 3% Asian, 11% multiracial or other race/ethnicity; 42% qualified for free/reduced lunch). Children were assessed on three categories of skills in kindergarten including number knowledge, relational thinking, and executive functioning. These skills were hypothesized to provide a foundation for a formal understanding of mathematical equivalence (assessed in second grade) by preventing a specific, narrow misunderstanding of the equal sign that hinders learning. Results showed that kindergarten relational thinking, particularly tasks assessing nonsymbolic equivalence understanding, uniquely and positively predicted formal understanding of mathematical equivalence and negatively predicted the specific misunderstanding of the equal sign in second grade, controlling for IQ, gender, and free/reduced lunch status. Exploratory analyses unpacking the categories of skills into individual tasks also indicated specific areas of kindergarten instructional focus that may help children construct understanding of mathematical equivalence in future years.
Public Significance Statement
Understanding the equal sign as a relational symbol of equivalence is a foundational pre-algebra concept. We found that children who had higher relational thinking skills in kindergarten had a better understanding of the equal sign by second grade than their peers with lower relational thinking skills in kindergarten. Our findings identify early relational thinking as a potential topic of interest for future research on kindergarten instruction aimed at improving later pre-algebraic learning.
Oral language proficiency in kindergarten can facilitate the acquisition of reading and writing. However, in diglossic languages, like Arabic, the large gap between the spoken and the formal, modern ...standard (MSA) varieties of the language may restrict the benefits of oral language proficiency to subsequent literacy skills. Here, we tested, in a randomized controlled study, whether an intervention program, implemented in kindergarten, that familiarized the children with rhymes presented in MSA through recitation, facilitated reading and spelling in first grade. We also tested whether engaging the children in recitation affords an advantage over repeated listening by itself and whether rhymes directly referring to the alphabet impart additional advantages. The children were assigned to one of four intervention conditions (10 sessions, 2 months) wherein they either recited or repeatedly listened to nursery rhymes that were either related or unrelated to the alphabet, or engaged in nonlinguistic activities (control). A year later, all intervention groups read faster compared to a control group (nonlinguistic activity). The two recitation groups gained in reading accuracy, reading efficiency, and spelling; spelling gains were found also in children who only listened to alphabet-related rhymes. The reciting groups were superior to the listening groups in all study measures (reading and spelling). The results suggest long-term contributions from structured interventions based on oral rhyme repetition, in kindergarten, to reading and spelling in first grade. Vocal recitations in kindergarten can benefit the mastering of literacy skills even in a language that differs from the one spoken in the child's home.
