A classroom-observation study of reading instruction in kindergarten instruction in kindergarten

Matching Classroom Instruction with Reading Abilities

“…During the previous year, two assistants and I observed each of 42 kindergarten classes on two successive days in order to learn what was being done either to prepare kindergartners for reading or to teach reading itself (Durkin, 1987a(Durkin, , 1987b. As it turned out, teaching reading in all the classes was equated with teaching phonics.…”

Motivation and School Readiness: What Is Missing From Current Assessments of Preschooler's Readiness for Kindergarten?

“…This approach minimizes the emphasis on basic skill attainment by embedding the concepts in everyday learning activities that are more meaningful to children, such as building with blocks or reading stories. In contrast, others recommend the use of more didactic, direct instructional practices using paper-and-pencil tasks and commercially prepared materials (Durkin, 1987;Kinder & Carnine, 1991).…”

Children not ready to learn? The invalidity of school readiness testing

“…However, the escalation of academic demand was seen to be detrimental by almost all experts in both early childhood education and subject-matter specialists because the escalation was focused narrowly on isolated pre-reading and numeracy skills without opportunities for conceptual learning and because it fostered teaching methods that are incompatible with how young children learn. For example, in her study of a sample of kindergartens in Illinois, Durkin (1987) found that children were being drilled on letter sounds, "B says buh," but were not using phonics to understand what words "say. "…”