Poster #181 - Structured and unstructured activities and their associations with children’s outcomes in Colombia

• In Event: 1-005 - Poster Session 01
  In Poster Session: PS 01 Section - School Readiness/Childcare

Integrative Statement

The activities that children experience in their interaction with teachers in early childhood settings have been a focus of interest for a long time. Accumulating evidence indicates that cognitively stimulating teacher-child interactions are linked to children’s development over time (Curby, Rimm-Kaufman, & Ponitz, 2009; Mashburn et al., 2008). The time that children spend in early childhood settings is typically devoted to structured and unstructured activities and routines. Structured activities are directed by the teacher, have specific learning objectives, procedures and rules, and reflect and intentional pedagogy (Strasser, Lissi & Silva, 2009). Unstructured activities are typically child-managed with no rules or specific procedures in which intentionally pedagogy is impossible to recognize (Strasser, Lissi & Silva, 2009). Routines, include meals, cleaning up, distributing materials, standing in line and waiting for a new activity (Cabell et al, 2013). Although there are not agreements about the proportion of the time that a teacher should spend in each type of activity, existing evidence suggest that children benefit from different types of activities. However, it is clear that structured activities are associated with gains in school readiness. This study has two aims. First, it describes the use of time in a sample of public pre-k classrooms in Colombia. Second, it explores whether the percentage of time spent in structured and unstructured activities is associated with children’s outcomes.
Data comes from a sample of 90 public early childhood centers in Colombia located in 40 municipalities across 25 departments. The sample for this study was composed of 621 children (50.5% girls; mean age = 4.36) and their teachers (average teaching experience of 10.6 years; bout half of them had a professional degree (51%). Data was collected using two instruments. The Format of Learning Environments that allows to describe the time allocated to different activities in the classroom. The International Development and Early Learning Assessment (IDELA) was used to assess children’s developmental outcomes (i.e. mathematics (α=.87), language (α=.75), socioemotional skills (α=.73), motor development (α=.87) and executive functions (α=.84)). Multilevel regression models included time percentage dedicated to structured activities as predictor of child development.
The results showed that on average about a third of the time is dedicated to structured activities, while most part of the time is dedicated to routines. Surprisingly, around 15% of the time in routines is spent waiting for a new activity. Multilevel regression models showed that passing more time in structured activities is associated with lower scores in socioemotional skills.

Authors

• Tiffany Alexandra Jimenez Rozo, Universidad de Los Andes
  Presenting Author

• Carolina Maldonado-Carreno, Universidad de Los Andes
  Non-Presenting Author