Are teachers’ education, major, and credentials related to classroom quality and children's academic gains in pre-kindergarten?

Early, Diane M.; Bryant, Donna; Pianta, Robert C.; Clifford, Richard M.; Burchinal, Margaret; Ritchie, Sharon; Howes, Carollee; Barbarin, Oscar A.

doi:10.1016/j.ecresq.2006.04.004

Cited by 280 publications

(156 citation statements)

References 23 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

138

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…Our findings converge with recent research finding few associations between teachers' education, major, and credentials and global measures of instructional quality in preschool classrooms (Early et al, 2006). In the present work, only two predictors of higher quality language instruction were identified, namely that holding an advanced degree was a negative predictor and the number of language and literacy development workshops teachers had attended was a positive predictor.…”

Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 48%

Quality of language and literacy instruction in preschool classrooms serving at-risk pupils

Justice

Mashburn

Hamre

et al. 2008

Early Childhood Research Quarterly

Self Cite

510

298

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Policy-makers, administrators, researchers, and teachers are increasingly vested in ensuring the quality of preschool instruction, particularly in the areas of language and literacy. This research was conducted to characterize the quality of language and literacy instruction in 135 publiclyfunded preschool classrooms serving at-risk pupils. As all teachers in these classrooms were implementing the same language and literacy curriculum, we also studied the interrelationships among procedural fidelity to a prescribed curriculum and the quality of language and literacy instruction, determining whether procedural fidelity is associated or disassociated with quality instruction. Results showed that the quality of language and literacy instruction in classrooms was low, with few teachers delivering high quality instruction. Although teachers were able to implement a prescribed language and literacy curriculum with a high degree of procedural fidelity, this was not associated with quality instruction. Few structural characteristics of classrooms of teachers were systematically associated with quality of instruction. Findings have important implications for professional development of teachers by suggesting a need for a sustained and coherent focus on the process of instruction to elevate instructional quality in language and literacy.Two-thirds of 4-year-olds currently participate in early education programs, and this figure is growing annually in light of many state-level initiatives to expand enrollment or provide universal access to preschool for 4-year-old children (Barnett & Yarosz, 2004). Complementing these initiatives are movements to improve the quality of instruction within preschool programs, particularly in the area of language and literacy. As an example, the U.S. Department of Education's Early Reading First program provides funds to preschool programs to support their achievement of "excellence" in programming, particularly the provision of high-quality instruction in literacy and language through improved classroom print richness, professional development for staff, and implementation of scientificallybased curricula. The anticipated outcome of such proactive and prevention-oriented initiatives is that more children will enter school with the skills and competencies needed to succeed in early and later reading instruction.Educational-policy initiatives that seek to improve the quality of early education, particularly in the area of literacy and language instruction, are grounded in developmental theory and empirical evidence emphasizing the continuity between children's early literacy and language development and their later achievement of skilled reading (e.g., Catts, Fey, Zhang, & Tomblin, 2001;Lonigan, 2006;Storch & Whitehurst, 2002;Whitehurst & Lonigan, 1998). Evidence shows that children with well-developed language and literacy Publisher's Disclaimer: This is a PDF file of an unedited manuscript that has been accepted for publication. As a service to our customers we are providing this ear...

show abstract

Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 48%

Quality of language and literacy instruction in preschool classrooms serving at-risk pupils

Justice

Mashburn

Hamre

et al. 2008

Early Childhood Research Quarterly

Self Cite

510

298

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…The ECERS-R has been used in many national large-scale studies to measure program quality (Burchinal, Howes, & Kontos, 2002;Buysse et al, 1999;Early et al, 2006;Lambert, Abbott-Shim, & McCarty, 2002;La Paro, Sexton, & Snyder, 1998;Phillips, Mekos, Scarr, McCartney, & Abbott-Shim, 2000) and effectiveness of professional development (Campbell & Milbourne, 2005;Fukkink & Lont, 2007;Mathers et al, 2007). Many countries like Canada, England, Finland, Hungary, Greece, and Germany are using this instrument widely for purposes of research and program improvement.…”

Section: Instrumentsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Exploring the Quality of Early Childhood Education in China: Implications for Early Childhood Teacher Education

Szente

2009

Journal of Early Childhood Teacher Education

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The following article introduces an exploratory study that was designed to measure the quality of early childhood education within its ever changing sociocultural context utilizing the Early Childhood Learning Environment Rating Scale-Revised (ECERS-R) in 40 classrooms in Beijing, China. Implications for early childhood teacher education, including the education of children with exceptional needs are addressed along with recommendations for future research.The development of Chinese early childhood education is following a distinctive trend of integrating Western educational philosophy into national curriculum guidance for classroom practices. This integration process encountered many challenges due to strong influences by unique Chinese cultural and economic characteristics and requires investigation in terms of what constitutes a high quality early childhood program in mainland China. Research on the global quality of early childhood education to help international scholars and practitioners understand philosophical change in classroom applications in China is scarce. Therefore, the main purpose of this article is to present an exploratory study conducted in public kindergarten classrooms using the Chinese version of Early Childhood Environment Rating Scales-Revised and provide implications for teacher education. Introduction to the Early Education System in ChinaThe population in China exceeds 1.3 billion people representing 56 national tribes from 23 provinces, 5 autonomous regions, and 4 municipalities (National Bureau of Statistics of China, 2006). Beijing, as the capital city and municipality, has over 13 million people, which is more than the number found in New York City. In order to reduce the overwhelming population density China has enforced a one-child-per-family policy throughout the nation since 1978. Being an only child, a Chinese child faces great parental expectations regarding academic achievement starting in the early years. The limited years of compulsory education provided by the Chinese government apply to children from Grades 1 to 9 in both urban and rural areas. Prior to first grade, children usually attend early childhood programs called kindergartens, which are full-day programs serving children ages 3 to 6. Facilities for children before age 3 are considered nursery schools. Traditionally, children under 3 are more likely to stay home with grandparents. In this article we focus on kindergarten programs and the corresponding early childhood teacher education programs. Public Versus Private KindergartensKindergartens in China can be divided into two categories: private and public based on funding sources. Public kindergarten means the government-whether at the federal, province, city, or local town level-has full ownership of the school. There are generally three types of public kindergartens: (1) department of education related, (2) state organization or corporation related, and (3) local town or county related (Pang, Liu, & Hu, 2008). More than half of the Chinese people reside in rur...

show abstract

“…Studies of Early et al (2006; and Justice et al (2008) point to the fact that teacher's qualifications, academic majors and general credentials have no association with improved classroom quality or student academic achievement. Justice et al (2008) and Guo et al (2010) found that teacher's sense of efficacy is associated with higher quality of classroom instructions and increased student achievement.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

THEY ARE TRAINED TO TEACH, BUT HOW CONFIDENT ARE THEY? A STUDY OF STUDENT TEACHERSâ SENSE OF EFFICACY

Bakar¹

2012

Journal of Social Sciences

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The objective of the study was to assess student teachers' efficacy in one of the teacher training institutions in Malaysia, with specific reference to the aspects of student engagement, instructional strategies and classroom management. The sample size was 675 final-year teacher education students. The findings suggest that a majority of the respondents had a high level of teaching efficacy (M = 3.98; SD = 0.36). They were also highly efficacious in student engagement (M = 4.01; SD = 0. 41), instructional strategies (M = 4.01; SD = 0. 39) and classroom management (M = 4.00; SD = 0.45). A significant correlation was found between teaching efficacy and academic achievement C (r = 0.15, p<0.05). The study also revealed that teaching efficacy differed as a function of gender (t = 6.47, p<0.05), career choice (t = 6.04, p<0.05), educational aspiration (t = 2.02, p<0.05) and content major (F 3,668 = 9.86, p<0.05).

show abstract

Are teachers’ education, major, and credentials related to classroom quality and children's academic gains in pre-kindergarten?

Cited by 280 publications

References 23 publications

Quality of language and literacy instruction in preschool classrooms serving at-risk pupils

Quality of language and literacy instruction in preschool classrooms serving at-risk pupils

Exploring the Quality of Early Childhood Education in China: Implications for Early Childhood Teacher Education

THEY ARE TRAINED TO TEACH, BUT HOW CONFIDENT ARE THEY? A STUDY OF STUDENT TEACHERSâ SENSE OF EFFICACY

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About

Are teachers’ education, major, and credentials related to classroom quality and children's academic gains in pre-kindergarten?

Cited by 280 publications

References 23 publications

Quality of language and literacy instruction in preschool classrooms serving at-risk pupils

Quality of language and literacy instruction in preschool classrooms serving at-risk pupils

Exploring the Quality of Early Childhood Education in China: Implications for Early Childhood Teacher Education

THEY ARE TRAINED TO TEACH, BUT HOW CONFIDENT ARE THEY? A STUDY OF STUDENT TEACHERSâ SENSE OF EFFICACY

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About

THEY ARE TRAINED TO TEACH, BUT HOW CONFIDENT ARE THEY? A STUDY OF STUDENT TEACHERSâ SENSE OF EFFICACY