Pre-School Children and Their Teachers Newswise — New research suggests that pre-school students may gain more language and literacy skills if they have teachers with higher levels of confidence in their abilities. However, in some cases students only saw gains when their teachers also had classrooms that emphasized emotional support for the children. "Emotionally responsive relationships between teachers and children may be the way by which the self-efficacy of teachers can have a positive influence on children's literacy," said Ying Guo, co-author of the study and a postdoctoral researcher in education at Ohio State University. The new study was published in a recent issue of the journal Teaching and Teacher Education. Guo and her co-authors examined how teachers' confidence in their teaching abilities - what researchers refer to as "self-efficacy" - affected children's learning progression in language and literacy skills. The research involved a large, multi-state study that included 67 teachers and 328 of their students. Participants were followed over the course of 30 weeks. Teachers were given a short questionnaire that measured their self-efficacy on a scale from one to five. The survey asked questions like "How much can you do to get through to the most difficult students?" and "How much can you do to keep students on task on difficult assignments?" The level of emotional support in the classrooms was measured by trained coders who coded how teachers and students interact with each other from videotapes collected during an approximately two-hour standardized classroom observation. The coders rated the quality as low, mid, or high based on a numbering scale from one to seven. Students were given tests of language and literacy skills at the beginning and end of the 30 week period to assess improvement. Results indicated that students whose teachers had high self-efficacy showed gains in one measure of early literary skills called print awareness, in which students were asked questions like "Show me just one letter on this page." However, children only showed gains in vocabulary knowledge skills when they had a classroom that offered emotional support in addition to having a teacher with high self-efficacy. "Classroom quality is important, and students seem to learn more when they have emotional support in the classroom," Guo said. The study found that some of the factors that affected teachers' self-efficacy were certification degree and years of experience. Teachers who possessed an elementary certification had higher levels of self-efficacy than those who possessed a pre-school certification. While the data from this study can't explain why, the researchers speculate that the additional training needed for an elementary certificate may have led these teachers to be more confident in their teaching abilities than those with pre-school certification. An interesting result showed that teachers who had more years of pre-school teaching experience also had lower levels of self-efficacy. "It is not that uncommon," explained Laura Justice, co-author of the study and a professor in the School of Teaching and Learning at Ohio State. "Fresh teachers who are straight out of training think that they can change the world. Then, when they get into the work place they realize how serious and difficult their jobs really are. This is why we think self-efficacy may decline among some pre-school teachers through the years," she added. Some of the research Justice works on involves analyzing the factors that determine the quality of teacher instruction. One of her studies found that teachers' self-efficacy was one of the few variables that affected instructional quality. "This study looks more in depth at how teacher efficacy may contribute to classroom quality, which may contribute to children's academic achievement. This paper is bringing everything together." This research was funded by a grant from the U.S. Department of EducationContact: Laura Justice, (614) 292-1257; ljustice@ehe.osu.edu Media Contact: Pam Frost Gorder, (614) 292-9475; Gorder.1@osu.edu Written by Jessica Orwig
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Food Fun and Facts has over 900 pages. Use the Menu, or for a quick Search, use the Site Search Bar. Enjoy! Playful Learning and Teaching: Integrating Play into Preschool and Primary Programs Playful Learning, Playful Teaching presents a practical application of theory in preschool, kindergarten, and primary grade programs describing play in the total context of the entire early childhood curriculum. Using a constructivist, developmental approach, the book examines the role of play in the classroom and discusses how children learn through the process of active, social construction of information. The spiral organization helps readers build knowledge with each chapter. Concepts are introduced in early chapters, then revisited for elaboration and refinement throughout the book. It also analyzes the role of the teacher and explores many cultural and special needs issues in early education. Supportive discussions help new teachers prepare to address the frustrations they may face as they try to create playful programs in school systems that obstruct attempts to move beyond traditional teaching. Readers are presented with the latest perspectives regarding Developmentally Appropriate Practices (DAP) which are tied into suggestions for teaching and advocating for children. The insights and practical suggestions in this book will help empower young teachers to take a strong stance regarding teachers' need to advocate for children's right to play. For anyone interested in early childhood education. Preschool Prep Pack - 4 DVDs (Meet the Letters, Meet the Numbers, Meet the Shapes, Meet the Colors) (2009) Learning Has Never Been This Easy! A study of over 50 babies and toddlers, who watched Meet the Lettersresulted in over 90% of these children having complete upper and lowercase letter recognition. Many learned in less than two weeks! Numbers, shapes and colors can be learned in a few viewings. Preschool Prep Series DVDs have won over 25 national awards and are used in thousands of preschools across the country. You will be amazed at what your little one can learn! Top 100 Cooking Sites 
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