Investigating Metacognitive Awareness’ Role in Early Science Education Among Head Start Teachers

• In Event: Poster Session 12
  In Poster Session: PS 12 Topic - Education, Schooling

Abstract

Introduction

Science is a much less emphasized topic than other academic subjects in early childhood education (Guo et al., 2014), particularly for children of low-socioeconomic status (SES) (Kaderavek et al., 2020). Early childhood teachers are trained as generalists (Linder et al., 2016), however, they tend to have a weaker science teaching efficacy (Gerde et al., 2018), which may limit children’s learning opportunities (Oppermann et al., 2019). Teaching science within a metacognition (i.e., being aware of and be able to regulate one’s thinking) context mirrors the scientific discovery process and promotes meaningful learning (Marulis et al., 2019). Therefore, this project aims to explore the role of teachers’ metacognitive awareness (MA) in their science teaching efficacy (STE) and thinking-skills teaching efficacy (TTE).

Research Questions

RQ1. Is preschool teachers’ MA associated with their STE (controlling for degrees and teaching experiences)?
RQ2. Is preschool teachers’ MA associated with their TTE (controlling for degrees and teaching experiences)?
RQ3. What are preschool teachers’ attitudes and challenges related to teaching science and thinking skills?

Methods

This mixed-method project took place in summer 2020. A total of 115 teachers from 15 Head Start centers (HS; an education program serving 3-6-year-olds living in poverty) in seven states completed Qualtrics surveys, among whom, five were interviewed by researchers.

Teachers’ MA was measured by the Metacognitive Awareness Inventory for Teachers (Balcikanli, 2011; αdeclarative = .85; αprocedural = .82; αconditional = .84; αplanning = .81; αmonitoring = .80; αevaluating = .79). STE was measured by the Teacher Efficacy and Attitudes toward STEM Survey-Science (Friday Institute, 2012; αbelief = .90; αexpectation = .81). TTE was measured by the Teachers’ Self-efficacy towards Teaching Thinking Skills Scale (Dilekli & Tezci, 2018; αdesign = .85; αpractice = .94; αcompetence = .95). The interview protocol covers teachers’ attitudes, practices, and challenges regarding teaching science and thinking skills to young children.

Analysis, Results, and Discussion

After excluding incomplete data and outliers, 103 teachers were included in the analysis (Table 1). Multilevel regression was employed to account for group-level common variance (teachers nested in HS centers) using R (Nezlek, 2011).

Results (Table 2) regarding RQ1 showed that HS teachers’ MA-procedural-knowledge (β=1.17, p<.05) and MA-planning (β=1.38, p<.001) were related to STE.

Regarding RQ2, teachers’ MA-planning was linked to TTE-practice (β=.55, p<.05); MA-procedural-knowledge was linked to TTE-competence (β=.89, p<.05). Results indicated that HS teachers who were more aware of instructional strategy and goals tended to report better STE and TTE (Hughes, 2017).
Three out of the five interviews have been transcribed and analyzed via a case study approach (Yin, 2018).

Results regarding RQ3 showed that HS teachers perceived teaching science and thinking skills as meaningful but were facing challenges in developmentally appropriate practices, pedagogy, their knowledge base, and instructional time (Pendergast et al., 2017).

Note that the data collection was delayed due to COVID-19, however, we were able to reach 80% of targeted sample size (based on a power analysis, n=130). We will reach an ideal sample size by December 2020.
 

Authors

• Shiyi Chen, University of Idaho
  Presenting Author

• Rebecca Sermeno, University of Idaho
  Non-Presenting Author

• Ling Tsao, University of Idaho
  Non-Presenting Author

• Caitlynn Hewlett, University of Idaho
  Non-Presenting Author