Poster #3 - The Delayed Role of Kindergarten: Linkages Between Teachers’ Cognitive Processing Language and Children’s Memory Skills

• In Event: Poster Session 02

Abstract

During elementary school, children exhibit growth in their deliberate memory skills (Ornstein et al., 2006), including the use of organizational strategies. Longitudinal studies have provided evidence that meaning-based sorting (grouping semantically-related items) increases between kindergarten and second grade (Kron-Sperl et al., 2008). Studies have linked schooling experiences with students’ deliberate memory skills, with particular focus on the first-grade year (Morrison & Dow-Ehrensberger, 1995). Research has also highlighted the role of teachers’ metacognitively-rich language (Cognitive Processing Language; CPL) in elementary students’ growing memory skills (Coffman & Cook, 2021). Exposure to higher levels of CPL in first grade is associated with more strategic memory behaviors across the school year, with differences persisting through the fourth grade (Coffman et al., 2019). However, less is known about exposure to high levels of CPL during kindergarten. Importantly, kindergarteners are often less strategic than first-grade students and are less able to take up specific strategy training (Coffman et al., 2011), and, as such, associations between exposure to high levels of CPL in kindergarten and strategic behaviors may not be evident until later grades.  

To explore the role of kindergarten teachers’ CPL in students’ organizational strategies, 76 students (53% female) from 10 classrooms were followed across the kindergarten and first-grade years. At three timepoints (fall, winter, spring) each school year, students’ strategic sorting was assessed during a Free-Recall with Organizational Training (FRT) Task (Moely et al., 1992). Students were instructed to remember 16 drawings from 4 conceptual categories. At the beginning of kindergarten and first grade, children completed a baseline trial to assess spontaneous sorting, followed by organizational training – i.e., instruction in categorical grouping (sorting). A final generalization trial was given, without strategy instructions, using new stimuli. During winter and spring trials, the participants received no training or strategy instructions. Standardized strategy (ARC) scores range from -1 to +1 (below chance to complete organization; Roenker et al., 1971). Additionally, observations of the kindergarten classrooms were conducted across the year to examine teachers’ use of CPL – language related to deeper processing and metacognitive understanding.  

Analyses revealed that students increased in strategic sorting across kindergarten and first grade. Additionally, kindergarten teachers used varying levels of metacognitively-rich language, and were divided into two groups (high-CPL and low-CPL) based on a median split. A series of growth curve models was conducted in a multilevel modeling framework to investigate developmental trajectories in students’ sorting behaviors as a function of their teachers’ use of CPL. Notably, exposure to high-CPL did not predict students’ performance at the end of the kindergarten year (p>.05). However, when modeling change over all timepoints, we found significant differences (p=.01) in the model-estimate means of children taught by high-CPL (0.87) versus low-CPL (0.53) teachers. Moreover, children differed in their developmental rate of change (p=.02) as a function of their kindergarten classroom experience (low-CPL=0.11, high-CPL=0.15). These findings are the first to provide evidence of associations between kindergarten teachers’ use of CPL and children’s growth in strategic sorting across the first two years of elementary school.

Authors

• Amber Elizabeth Westover, University of North Carolina at Greensboro
  Presenting Author

• Olivia K. Cook, University of North Carolina at Greensboro

• Sydney Alexis Revell, University of North Carolina at Greensboro

• Kaitlyn Tran, University of North Carolina at Greensboro

• Lianny Araujo Martinez, University of North Carolina at Greensboro

• Catherine Ricci, University of North Carolina at Greensboro

• Peter A Ornstein, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

• Jennifer L Coffman, University of North Carolina at Greensboro