The Landscape of Preschool Classrooms: Influence of Teachers’ Knowledge and Instruction

• In Event: Broadening Our Understanding of Early Math Support at Home and at School

Abstract

The present study provides a richer understanding of how preschool teachers structure the landscape of their classrooms. As Durkin and colleagues (2022)[4] noted, not all preschool experiences lead to positive academic gains— what significantly matters is the quality of learning experiences. One critical aspect that influences the quality of a preschool education is teachers and to the extent that they engage in effective instruction. Unfortunately, the relation between teachers’ knowledge of a subject content (e.g., math) and their associated frequency of subject instruction in their classrooms is unclear. On one hand, handful of studies have found that higher content knowledge in teachers was positively associated with effective content instruction (e.g., 5-7). On the other hand, other bodies of have shown that, despite high levels of knowledge, teachers were not engaging in developmentally appropriate math instruction (e.g., 8-9). Therefore, the present study was designed to contribute to the understanding of preschool teachers’ reported knowledge of early math and their reported frequency of instruction.
This exploratory study investigated teachers’ knowledge of early math, their reported frequency of instruction for particular math concepts, and the relation between the two. Further analysis was also conducted to explore differences in knowledge and instruction for the specific domains of numeracy, patterning, and spatial. Analysis of our online survey (N=83) showed that teachers, on average, are able to correctly identify 70% of developmentally appropriate math goals, and their level of knowledge differs by domain. Furthermore, our sample of teachers reported engaging in comparable levels of math and literacy instruction than noted in previous studies. Analysis of specific math instruction for particular concepts, similarly to knowledge, found differences across domains. Finally, the results of this study showed that teachers’ knowledge is correlated with the frequency of instruction for the domains of numeracy and patterning, but not for spatial.
In addition to highlighting the relation between teachers’ knowledge of math development and their frequency of math instruction, this study contributes to the gap in the preschool teacher literature. Often times, research in the field of teacher education focuses on intervening and providing resources to improve teacher knowledge and practices, but very infrequently begin by describing what current teachers know and do in their own classrooms. As the present study showed, and contrary to the extant literature, preschool teachers are in fact knowledgeable in appropriate math milestones and do report engaging in comparable amounts of math and literacy instruction, suggesting that difficulties in math at kindergarten is not solely due to teacher characteristics. This study has the potential to inform and influence not only educational research and policy changes, but also professional development workshops and pre-service teacher trainings.

Authors

• Jiwon Ban, Boston College

• Elida V. Laski, Boston College