Linking Preschool Teachers' College Coursework to Children's Cognitive Outcomes

• In Event: Poster Session 15
  In Poster Session: Human Development 2

Abstract

Traditionally, preschool teachers’ college coursework has been classified according to a general typography such as “highest degree attained” or "number of early childhood courses taken." However, this type of classification does not distinguish between specific domain knowledge that may show differential relationships to children's outcomes. We developed a taxonomy for classifying preschool teachers’ college coursework based on teacher knowledge domains that include subject matter content knowledge, pedagogical knowledge, and pedagogical content knowledge. We found that the number of college-level math courses taken was predictive of children’s applied problem solving, and the number of pedagogical content courses taken in literacy was predictive of children’s receptive language, letter word identification, and passage comprehension.

Authors

• Diana Schaack, University of California - Berkeley

• Vi-Nhuan Le, NORC at the University of Chicago

• Claude Messan Setodji, RAND Corporation