Child-centered versus teacher-directed teaching practices: Associations with the development of academic skills in the first grade at school

Abstract

2 Research Highlights How do child-centered versus teacher-directed practices promote academic skills development? Child-centered practices contribute positively to academic skills development at school.  The effect of child-centered practices on academic skills did not depend on the initial skill level  Teacher-directed practices are negatively associated with average and high reading skills. AbstractThis study examined the extent to which child-centered versus teacher-directed teaching practices predicted the development of children's reading and math skills in the first year of elementary school. In addition, we investigated whether associations between teaching practices and children's academic skills development in Grade 1 differed among children who had low, average, or high initial academic skills at the beginning of school. The reading and math skills of 1,132 Finnish children from 93 classrooms were assessed at the beginning and end of Grade 1, and the Early Childhood Classroom Observation Measure (ECCOM) was used to observe teaching practices in 29 classrooms. The results of multilevel modeling showed, first, that better reading skills upon entering school were associated with a higher level of childcentered teaching practices in the classroom. Second, a high level of child-centered teaching practices predicted children's reading and math skills development during the first school year. Third, the results showed that child-centered teaching practices were equally beneficial for the academic skills development of children with varying initial skill levels. However, teacher-directed practices were found to be negatively associated with reading skills development, particularly among children who had average or high initial reading skills at the beginning of school. The results emphasize the importance of childcentered teacher practices in promoting children's academic skills development also after kindergarten in elementary school.Keywords: reading, math, child-centered practices, teacher-directed practices, Grade 1 5 Child-Centered versus Teacher-Directed Teaching Practices:Associations with the Development of Academic Skills in the First Grade at School A considerable body of literature indicates that early childhood education (ECE) classroom practices impact child outcomes (Burchinal et al., 2008;Burchinal, Peisner-Feinberg, Pianta, & Howes, 2002). The majority of this research has been conducted in preschools and kindergartens, but only a few studies have focused on the first school year in depth. For example, a wide range of documentation exists on the positive relationship between child-centered teaching practices and children's social skills and academic pre-skills at the preschool age (Stipek, Feiler, Daniels, & Milburn, 1995). However, children with poor academic skills seem to benefit from teacher-directed practices later on in kindergarten (Huffman & Speer, 2000) and at school age (Kikas, Peets, & Hodges, 2014). The present study examined the extent to which child-centered and teacher-dire...

Classroom interaction and literacy activities in kindergarten: Longitudinal links to Grade 1 readers at risk and not at risk of reading difficulties

“…Meanwhile, Morrison and Connor (2002) found that children identified (at the start of Grade 1) as being at risk of developing RD had higher decoding skills after explicit teacher-managed instruction. Because the impact of instructional variables depends critically on children's existing level of ability (Lerkkanen et al, 2016;Morrison & Connor, 2002;Rutter & Maughan, 2002), it seems that those children most at risk would especially benefit from frequent literacy activities such as phonemic awareness and letter recognition in kindergarten (Hatcher et al, 1994). Consequently, the present study investigated the extent to which the frequency of such literacy activities in kindergarten corresponds to reading skills in Grade 1, and how a risk of RD may be a moderating variable in this correspondence.…”

Reading comprehension from grade 1 to 6 in two shallow orthographies: comparison of Estonian and Finnish students

“…However, since word-level decoding reaches a high level of accuracy for most first grade students after only a few months of school (Lerkkanen et al 2004), students' commitment and motivation for reading to improve their fluency and comprehension is strongly supported already in first grade. Student gains and engagement in reading are encouraged, for example, through the availability of high-interest texts on multiple difficulty levels and by giving students the freedom to choose reading materials (Lerkkanen 2007;Lerkkanen et al 2016).…”

“…Hamre and Pianta 2010). Research has generally documented positive effects of childcentered (see a review by Cornelius-White 2007; Lerkkanen et al 2016) but also combined child-centered and teacher-directed Tang et al 2017) teaching practices on children's reading skills and motivation. However, using child-dominated teaching practices, characterized by giving too much freedom to children and too little guidance and support, tends to undermine children's reading and motivational development Tang et al 2017).…”

Second Language Reading Comprehension Strategies in Brunei Darussalam’s Primary Schools

“…Previous research has indicated that the development of reading skills is associated with a high level of child-centred teaching practices in the classroom (Lerkkanen, et al, 2016). Hence, teacher directed practices limited the opportunities for students to explore more than the low level cognitive strategies (such as memorising and translating to L1) in the classes that were observed.…”

“…Nur played the main role (Lerkkanen, et al, 2016). This type of teaching style is dominant in Brunei, which may be due to social-cultural expectations and roles.…”