Observing Preschool Children’s Engagement With Teachers, Peers, and Tasks in a Large, Diverse Sample

• In Event: Advancements in Assessing the Early Educational Experiences of Diverse Children and Families Living in Poverty

Abstract

Objectives
The Individualized Classroom Assessment Scoring System (inCLASS) is an observational tool designed to assess preschoolers’ engagement with teachers, peers, and tasks in their naturalistic classroom environment (Downer et al., 2010). Sound psychometric properties were initially established in a largely middle-upper class, White sample. In order to use the instrument more broadly to understand patterns of classroom engagement and its role in facilitating school readiness, it is necessary to confirm the observation system’s utility in a large, diverse sample of preschoolers.

Perspective(s) or theoretical framework
Preschool children have numerous opportunities to engage in positive and negative interactions in different classroom contexts with teachers, peers, and tasks. A child’s unique approach to engaging within these contexts contributes to their acquisition of academic and social skills (Burchinal et al., 2002; Ladd et al., 1999; Stipek et al., 2010). Although studies have examined children’s engagement, most have focused on one contextual domain, or over-relied on subjective and decontextualized measures. The purpose of this study is to: (a) confirm a 4-factor model of the inCLASS (positive engagement with teachers, peers, tasks, and negative classroom engagement) in a large, diverse sample of children, and (b) establish measurement invariance across demographic subgroups.

Methods
inCLASS data were collected via live observations during a typical morning of preschool. These observations were conducted by trained coders alternating four cycles of observations on average (10 minutes observing, 5 minutes coding) on randomly selected children (M=3.03, SD=1.85) in each classroom. Inter-rater reliability was strong (average ICC=.80).

Data sources
Across two cohorts of data collection, the total sample will include 992 children (506 girls and 486 boys, M = 4.35, SD = .46 age in years) from 352 preschool classrooms across 8 states. The majority of children were African American (47%) and Hispanic (31%). inCLASS ratings were made on a 7-point scale across 10 dimensions of engagement (see Table 1).

Results
Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) with robust maximum-likelihood was used to fit the 4-factor structure reported in Downer et al. (2010). Fit indices for the 4-factor model were adequate for the initial cohort, particularly when correlating three error terms (Table 2). For the conference, the two cohorts will be combined, and the CFA will be rerun on the full sample. This larger sample will also allow us to test measurement invariance across each of three demographic subgroups- gender, poverty status, and ethnicity.

Scientific or scholarly significance
This study examines the extent to which the inCLASS, an observational tool, can be confidently applied to the assessment of classroom engagement in a diverse set of children and preschool classrooms. Initial findings suggest that the inCLASS operates similarly in observations of classroom engagement across a wide range of preschoolers. If this pattern remains in follow-up analyses, the inCLASS may be poised to help the field better understand the role that a child’s engagement in the classroom can play in his or her preparation for school.

Authors

• Jason Downer, University of Virginia

• Amanda Paige Williford, University of Virginia

• Leslie Booren, University of Virginia

• Natalie L. Bohlmann, Montana State University - Billings

• Michelle Maier