Transition to Primary School of Children in Economic Disadvantage: Does a Preschool Teacher Training Program Make a Difference?

Abstract

Transition to school may be experienced as a critical event for both children and their families. Within an ecological framework of transition, the scope of the concept of school readiness in recent years has decentered from the child to the environment, including the readiness of (pre)school education to develop core skills in children. This study aims to understand the extent to which a preschool teachers completion of training in the Incredible Years® -Teacher Classroom Management program (IY-TCM) during children's last preschool year has an impact when children transition to primary school, and contributes to reducing differences between children with and without economic disadvantage. Forty-four teachers from classes with a high percentage of students in economic disadvantage completed questionnaires about 192 five/six-year-old children. Results from cross-sectional analyses showed that children whose preschool teachers attended the IY-TCM program, when compared to children whose teachers did not, were significantly higher in social skills, adaptation to school and school achievement at the end of the first term, and had parents more involved in education but with a lower bonding with the teachers (medium to large effect sizes). Although not statistically significant (p = .08, Hedge's g = .29), results of longitudinal analyses are trending in the expected direction, suggesting that the IY-TCM could help to reduce socio-economic disparity.Results are discussed bearing in mind the importance of a preschool education that addresses the development of self-regulation and social skills in children, and the value of both initial and continuous training for preschool teachers.

Transition to school process of children with disadvantages: A literature review

“…Children with disadvantages may have a lack of appropriate social skills for different reasons, such as insufficient experience with their peers (Frostad & Pijl, 2006). Therefore, interventions that address all these factors holistically are needed, and it is thought that it will help reduce the inequality of opportunity created by disadvantages (Seabra-Santos et al, 2021).…”

The Effects of the Creator’s Situation on Creativity Evaluation: The Rater’s Cognitive Empathy and Affective Empathy Matter in Rating Creative Works

“…Research shows that disadvantaged groups usually have inadequate creativity development. For example, people who grew up in disadvantaged families tended to have less stimulating home environments, insufficient parental involvement, and experienced maladaptation at school, resulting in inadequate personal development ( Rothe et al 2014 ; Seabra-Santos et al 2021 ; Skopek et al 2017 ). Due to inadequate development, the creative performance of people in disadvantaged situations cannot be compared with people in advantageous situations ( Xu and Pang 2020 ).…”

“…The literature shows that one effective protective factor of inadequate development is the teacher’s positive behavior (e.g., specific praise and encouragement). Specifically, Seabra-Santos et al ( 2021 ) found that teachers give more specific praises when they follow a training program that both promotes the students’ development and reduces the effect of student’s socio-economic disparity. Similarly, van der Zanden et al ( 2020 ) summarized that encouraging adolescents to express their ideas is beneficial to their creativity development.…”

“…People evaluate creative work by measuring the creator’s knowledge, life experience, and thinking style by taking the creator’s perspective ( Han et al 2017 ). Based on prior research ( McLoyd 1998 ; Seabra-Santos et al 2021 ), the four typical disadvantaged groups which we explore in this study are all characterized by lagging personal development and vulnerable mental states. Then, because of the rater’s potential low expectations toward disadvantaged groups ( Bullock 1999 ; Cozzarelli et al 2001 ; Woods et al 2005 ), raters may be more likely to provide higher satisfaction rates toward products created by disadvantaged groups as an expectation effect ( Cardozo 1965 ).…”

Percepción de las educadoras de párvulos con relación a su conocimiento técnico pedagógico del contenido (TPACK) cuando integran tecnologías de la información y la comunicación en tiempos de COVID-19

“…El contexto actual, caracterizado por la alta demanda de la tecnología para la enseñanza a raíz de las condiciones sanitarias producidas por la pandemia del COVID-19 afectando la educación presencial a nivel mundial, ha evidenciado la escasa preparación de las profesionales en cuanto a cómo utilizar los recursos tecnológicos para la promoción de los aprendizajes (Avendaño et al, 2021). La educación parvularia, como primer nivel educativo es responsable de insertar al niño en la educación formal, brindándoles las herramientas necesarias que le permitan responder de mejor manera a las necesidades que se le presentan en su entorno, como plantean Kokanović (2019) y Seabra-Santos et al, (2021), es la educación inicial la encargada de aportar al estudiante elementos que le permitan desarrollar habilidades como la autonomía, la resolución de problemas simples que faciliten su integración al medio social. Para los autores es esencial contar con profesionales que cuenten con los conocimientos necesarios para contribuir con experiencias pedagógicas lúdicas que motiven a los niños a aprender.…”