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Teacher Practices and Individual Student Experiences: Measuring Influences on Pre-Kindergarten through Third Grade Students

Fri, April 9, 4:20 to 5:50pm EDT (4:20 to 5:50pm EDT), Virtual

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Abstract

Studies find consistently that high quality early education experiences are important for children’s development, especially for children from disadvantaged families (Vandell et al., 2010). Furthermore, aligned classroom experiences from pre-Kindergarten through Grade 3 optimize academic and social-emotional functioning and prevent dissipation of early intervention efforts (Reynolds et al., 2010). Most research exploring variables that predict student outcomes focuses on classroom-level characteristics (e.g., teacher sensitivity, instructional supports), despite high levels of variability in experiences and outcomes for individual students, especially those at greatest risk for school failure. Research is needed to discern what children experience at an individualized level, and how such experiences relate to learning and achievement within and across the early years. Further, as a bridge between research and practice, reliable observational tools must be developed for educator use in recording and understanding individual student experiences. This symposium includes four studies that are part of a research network collectively concerned with measuring and understanding variations in practices that augment early learning, and determining malleable factors that promote academic achievement for disadvantaged children. In this session, teams will present findings related to the measurement of individual student experiences in pre-Kindergarten through third grade classrooms, and associations between individualized student experiences and outcomes. The studies took place in four distinct regions in the United States, using unique observational tools and various measures of students’ academic and social-emotional functioning. Together, studies reveal important directions for the measurement of teacher practices and student experiences, their influence on students’ performance, and future research needs.

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