Observed Classroom Practices in Relation to Differential Gains in Kindergarten and First Grade

• In Event: Features of Instruction that Promote Children’s Development: Evidence from Systematic Classroom Observations

Abstract

Early elementary classroom quality studies have employed measures captured at the individual student level because children experience various aspects of classrooms in different ways (Cabell et al., 2015). Classroom practices that have been shown to promote children’s gains include teacher-child language exchanges (Pentimonti et al., 2017), instructional content exposure (Bierman et al., 2008), and classroom settings (Lonigan et al., 2011). This study examined relations between these constructs and children’s fall-spring gains in literacy, language, math, executive functions (EF), and social skills during kindergarten (K) and first grade (G1).
This study was conducted in six rural counties in North Carolina. Sixty-three state-funded prekindergarten (PK) classrooms, and 455 children within classrooms were randomly selected to participate in a longitudinal cohort study started in 2016. PK students were followed into 188 K classrooms, where 246 students who had not attended any formal center-based care were recruited. Students were followed into 270 G1 classrooms. The current sample included 655 students who completed K and/or G1 assessments. Student assessments were conducted each fall and spring; classrooms were observed each winter.
Classroom practices were captured with Language Interaction Snapshot (LISn; Atkins-Burnett et al., 2010). Individual children were observed in 30-second intervals to capture teacher-child language exchanges. At the end of 5-minute observations, data collectors marked the instructional content and classroom settings experienced by each child. Each LISn classroom observation totaled 120 minutes (20–30 min per child), and this study included aggregated classroom values. Teacher-child language exchanges included high-quality talk (elaborating or eliciting) between a teacher and child. Instructional content exposure included child participation in language/literacy or math content. Classroom settings included whole group and small group. Outcome measures were Woodcock Johnson-III Letter-Word Identification, Picture Vocabulary, and Applied Problems; DIBELS Phoneme Segmentation Fluency; NIH Toolbox EF measures; and a composite of teacher ratings of social skills (Table 1).
This study used two-level hierarchical linear modeling (HLM). Separate HLM models for each outcome were run predicted by classroom practices and dummy variables representing year (kindergarten/first grade) and season (fall/spring). Controls included county, gender, age at kindergarten, race (Black), home language (Spanish), maternal education, and PK attendance status. Multiple imputation accounted for missing values. All variables were standardized (M=0, SD=1).
HLM standardized coefficients and standard errors models are shown in Table 2. Results indicated that K letter-word identification skills with more content exposure and whole-group settings; G1 vocabulary skills with fewer whole-group settings; K math skills with more math exposure; G1 math skills with more teacher-child language exchanges and fewer whole-group and small-group settings; G1 phonemic awareness skills with more small-group settings; and K/G1 social skills with more whole-group settings. These HLM findings indicated that different classroom practices appeared to promote different skills in the two different grades. Results did not converge on any one classroom practice being significant across domains and grades, and effect sizes were low. Findings suggest that elementary classrooms are complex environments that are challenging to measure, and more work is needed to capture the variability and promise of early elementary classroom practices.

Authors

• Mary Bratsch-Hines, University of Florida
  Presenting Author

• Margaret Burchinal, University of Virginia - Charlottesville
  Non-Presenting Author

• Rose Byrnes, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
  Non-Presenting Author