Teaching

"Stretching Children's Thinking": New Video Highlights Importance of Classroom Interactions

Lisa Guernsey — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 12:30:00 -0400

Good preschool teachers don't give children the answers; they help children get there on their own by "stretching children's thinking."

So says Robert Pianta, Dean of the Curry School of Education at the University of Virginia and a recognized expert in early education, in a new video on effective classroom interactions that interweaves advice and policy discussion with clips of teachers talking and singing with their students. The video, which offers a helpful engaging overview of the latest thinking on early education, is designed in part to promote more use of the Classroom Assessment Scoring System, or the CLASS, a tool for measuring what happens in minute-by-minute increments between teachers and students. As explained in a new policy brief by Pianta and colleagues, the system has been used in more than 2,000 classrooms to assess teaching quality. (Work on CLASS is funded in part by the Foundation for Child Development, which is among Early Ed Watch's funders as well.)

Why the Early Education Sector is More Innovative than K-12 (10/16/08)

A CLASS-y Approach to Teacher Quality (7/22/08)

Featured Abstract: It's All About Interactions (5/19/08)

The CLASS, its promoters say, isn't about monitoring for the sake of monitoring. The point is to help teachers create more meaningful exchanges in their classrooms. Recent studies have shown that an increase of just over a point in a CLASS score translates to improved achievement for children. And a mounting pile of research is showing that high-quality interactions between an adult and a child - teacher and student - are keys to the kingdom of real, lasting learning. (Just last week, for example, we wrote about new research in Pediatrics showing that strong language development is correlated with parents and young children engaging in lots of back-and-forth conversation.)

"What we're learning is that there are elements of what teachers know that are important," Pianta says in the video, "but it's far more important what teachers do with children in those classrooms."

The system enlists specially trained observers to enter classrooms and record what they see. It is designed to measure how well teachers are able to provide emotional support for students, how ably they create organized and invigorating classrooms and how much they spur children to think, talk and reflect on what they have learned or what problems they are trying to solve.

Head Start centers, for example, will soon be using the system en masse to monitor the quality of what happens in their classrooms. When the Head Start Act was reauthorized by Congress in late 2007, the law required that programs use "a valid and reliable research-based observational instrument" for evaluating interactions between children and teachers. A year later, the Office of Head Start published a memo encouraging the use of CLASS for this purpose. This year, the office covered the cost of three-day training sessions for Head Start administrators who supervise teachers. Prices for group trainings in how to use the CLASS vary from several hundred to several thousands of dollars depending on how many days of training are needed.

Before the arrival of these kinds of monitoring systems, the only way to determine the quality of a pre-K program -- aside from, say, enrolling your own children and watching from the sidelines -- was to look for largely input-driven indicators like low student-to-teacher ratios or whether staff members had college degrees. (These proxies, for example, are used by the National Institute for the Early Education Research for want of better measures.)

The CLASS system shouldn't be the end-all-be-all for evaluating classroom quality, and there can be problems with putting all eggs in one monitoring basket. But at the moment, CLASS is one of the most tested, reliable methods out there for measuring high-quality early education. We hope it can help to elevate discussion about what really works in early education classrooms - and how to make them better.

Two Antidotes to 'Kindergarten Cram'

Lisa Guernsey — Mon, 04 May 2009 19:53:00 -0400

In Sunday's New York Times Magazine, Peggy Orenstein voices the worries that many middle-income parents are having about kindergarten: Have we gone overboard in trying to make sure our students are academically prepared? In her piece, "Kindergarten Cram," Orenstein asks: "What was the rush?" "How did 5 become the new 7, anyway?"

As the mother of two daughters -- one in 1st grade and another about to enter kindergarten in a Title I public school -- I often have the same thoughts. Not to mention my own nostalgia for those few kindergarten days I remember myself, apple-picking under a blue sky and dipping a brush into a gooey vat of paste during art projects.

But I also have high regard for research that shows the benefits of introducing academic concepts related to literacy, science and math skills in pre-k and kindergarten classrooms. Kindergartens that fail to support these developing skills, that take a lackadaisical approach to teaching and learning, can be harmful too, particularly for children from disadvantaged backgrounds who do not have access to a lot of books or curiosity-provoking conversation at home. Intentional, purposeful and thoughtful teaching -- not just watching from afar, but guiding and prompting questions -- is critical.

The good news is that we're seeing a growing movement that advocates for the preservation of playtime and child-centered exploration while also recognizing the need for this kind of intentional teaching. (Maybe that's because the alternative appears to be kindergarten redshirting, the controversial practice of holding children back from kindergarten until they are 6 -- or nearly 6 -- years old. Research reported here, and described in a fascinating article in Slate, shows that the longterm effect of that practice may not be so beneficial.) The release last month of the report titled "Crisis in the Kindergarten," by the research and advocacy group Alliance for Childhood, has elevated this issue, and though we have wondered if it was premature to proclaim a nationwide crisis without more research, we agree that this subject demands more attention, more research and more thoughtful approaches for educators and policymakers to consider.

So what do we do about it? Translating these important ideas into policy is tricky but hugely important. Achievement gaps continue to plague American education. Research from over several decades has shown us that the way to close those gaps is to first make sure that children arrive at school with some emergent literacy skills and then provide them with language-rich, high-quality environments throughout their early years of elementary school.

The Alliance blames testing and overly scripted curricula. We agree that standardized testing has no place in kindergarten and that teachers need to be given some flexibility in how and what they teach. But well-designed, developmentally appropriate curricula are associated with strong early childhood programs and can be a boon to teachers in providing a framework for how to approach their classrooms. And assessments are important - not standardized tests, but developmentally appropriate assessments based on yearlong observations of how children are learning and where they are having trouble.

As Early Ed Watch joins with others in looking for better approaches for kindergarten, here two possible antidotes that we believe deserve a closer look:

"Tools of the Mind" Project and other strategies that marry play with language development

Envision a classroom in which children are pretending to work at a hospital. "I'll be the doctor!" says one child. "I'll be the patient!" says another. The teacher, gently guiding the play, announces, "Hmm, does anyone want to work in the emergency room lobby, writing down the names of who is arriving and taking their temperature? You do? Great!"

In play scenarios like this, children learn to take on the roles of others, practicing what it is like to have to control over their own impulses and stay ‘in character.' They are also getting opportunities to absorb new literacy, math and language skills. And they are playing in open-ended ways, giving their imaginations a workout and feeling a sense of accomplishment at having practiced what it means to be more grown up.

This is a snapshot of what is possible under the "Tools of the Mind" Project led by Elena Bodrova, a senior research fellow for the National Institute for Early Education Research, and Deborah J. Leong, a professor of psychology at the Metropolitan State College of Denver. Their project, which provides guidance for teaching strategies that are currently employed in dozens of pre-k and kindergarten settings, has been studied by Adele Diamond, a cognitive scientist at the University of British Columbia who co-wrote an article in Science about its success in improving children's executive function skills. A 2008 study published in Early Childhood Research Quarterly also showed benefits of the program. The evidence for gains in language development was not readily apparent; the data pointed in a positive direction but was not statistically significant. But there was a strong connection between the program and fewer behavior problems in school.

In the past few months, "Tools of the Mind" has received significant national attention, including a piece by Sue Shellenbarger in The Wall Street Journal and a segment by Alix Spiegel on National Public Radio. The New Brunswick Sentinel, a local newspaper in New Jersey, recently reported on how the program is being applied in a kindergarten classroom at Parsons Elementary School in North Brunswick.

The recently released 3^rd edition of "Developmentally Appropriate Practice," from NAEYC

The National Association for the Education of Young Children has recently published the third edition of its guide, "Developmentally Appropriate Practice in Early Childhood Programs," edited by Carol Copple, the association's director of publications and initiatives in educational practice, and Sue Bredekamp, an early childhood consultant in Washington, D.C. They have also created videocasts that can be viewed online.

For the first time, the book includes a full chapter on "The Kindergarten Year," written by Heather Biggar Tomlinson. It makes a strong case for kindergarten as a "critical year" for supporting -- or undermining -- children's enthusiasm for and engagement in learning. Tomlinson's chapter zooms in on the latest research in three areas of development: physical, social-emotional and cognitive, providing context for what children's brains, bodies and emotions are developmentally prepared to handle and primed to absorb.

Among its many recommendations, the chapter suggests that teachers encourage children to think and reflect by asking them questions ("I wonder how many blocks it would take to cover this rug?") and giving them time to answer. It also points out that play is a "crucial vehicle" for building and practicing self-regulation skills, urging teachers to make sure that children have ample opportunity, materials and encouragement to engage in dramatic play, such as make-believe play and play with made-up rules."

The book is a must-have guide for early childhood educators, as well as much-needed resource that brings together the latest thinking about how to best support not only children's cognitive development, but their physical, social and emotional development as well.

Kindergarteners are not just third-graders in size 6x clothes. And it is not automatically obvious to teachers -- particularly if they have been simply moved from, say, 3rd grade down to kindergarten -- how to teach academic content in harmony with a child's stage of development. That's why good teaching strategies and good resources for professional development are so important. At Early Ed Watch we'll be seeking out more examples of good practice over the coming months and diving into further research on developmentally appropriate practice and what it means in PreK-3rd schools. Please feel free to post additional ideas or forward new research or ideas for policies that we should be considering.

Photo from Flickr user WoodleyWonderWorks under Creative Commons license.

McKinsey Report: Achievement Gaps Are Causing The Equivalent of A Deep Recession

Lisa Guernsey — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 16:21:00 -0400

Poor academic achievement on multiple levels -- including dismal showings among middle class students in America compared to other countries -- has led the United States to lose hundreds of billions of dollars in its gross domestic product, according to a report released by McKinsey & Company today.

The report makes a case for the devastating economic impact of not improving the nation's schools. Its data show that achievement gaps have imposed "the economic equivalent of a permanent deep recession." The report does not offer specific recommendations for getting out of this ditch, other than to look more closely at the few school systems that are making progress and adopt their practices.

The way out was left to a discussion with education and civil rights leaders at the formal unveiling of the report at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., today. Disappointingly, although the Rev. Al Sharpton voiced strong applause lines about the need for change, there was no specific mention of what might be achieved by offering better early childhood education opportunities to young children and tying those early experiences to what is taught in elementary schools.The solutions offered did, however, include general calls for investing in teacher quality and leadership, which could be taken to apply to pre-K teachers and programs as well.

The closest thing to an acknowledgment of early education's role came in the mention of New Jersey, which received kudos for making the most progress. Union City, N.J., was called out for being one district where the racial gap had actually been closed. Earlier this month, we wrote about the impressive changes that are taking place in New Jersey, which can be traced in part to high-quality universal pre-K programs.

U.S. Secretary Arne Duncan, who attended the first half of the event, said he saw reason for hope in those pockets of improvement at the system level. Echoing points he has made in recent public speeches, he added that incentives must be employed to award improvement and "radical change" is needed in underperforming schools. He asked hypothetically: "What if we took the bottom 10 percent of all schools and took out the adults and brought in different adults? Think what that would do to drive the country forward."

The report also urges comparisons with systems in other countries, like Finland, Korea and Canada, where math and science scores on the PISA (the Program for International Assessment) are highest. (Finland, incidentally, provides well-subsidized childcare and high-quality preschools and kindergartens to the vast majority of its citizens.)

Even when accounting for family income levels, students in those countries are doing significantly better. " All things being equal, a low-income student in the United States is far less likely to do well in school than a low-income student in Finland," the report said.

The largest applause lines of the morning came when the Rev. Al Sharpton, one of the discussants, repeated his argument about education being the civil rights issue of our era. He is the co-chair of the new Education Equality Project along with Joel Klein, chancellor of the New York City schools. The McKinsey report, Sharpton said, was the "thermometer" telling us the termperature, whereas he and Klein were the "thermostats," designed to change it.

Sharpton also accused people who "cover up inept teachers and principals" as being the new civil rights adversaries. "They look different today," he said, noting that they might be "friendly liberals" in nice clothes "who look like us." But, he added, they are nothing more than "Professor James Crow, rather than Jim Crow."

The Dangers Of Teaching Same Sex Marriage To Young Children

Joe Mathews — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 15:54:00 -0500

Supporters of Prop 8, an initiative to ban same-sex marriage, claim that if gay couples continue to be permitted to marry in California, schools will have to teach same-sex marriage to young children. Educators and legal experts say that’s nonsense, and there is no such curricular requirement.

The controversy begs a practical question:: What would it be like to try to teach same-sex marriage to kindergarteners? I can only imagine how one might do that.

The scene, a kindergarten classroom, morning

Teacher: This is Mr. Mathews. He’ll be leading today’s lesson on gay marriage.

Little girl #1: J is my favorite letter!

Mr. Mathews: I believe your teacher meant gay, not J.

Little girl #1: What does that word "gay" mean?

Mr. Mathews: Well, it can mean happy…

Little boy #1: I’m very happy. So I’m very gay!

Mr. Mathews: Well, sure, you’re gay in that way. But the word means more than one thing.

Little boy #2: Mr. Mathews (raises hand)?

Mr. Mathews: Yes.

Little boy #2: I have to go potty.

Little girl #2: I have to go potty, too

Teacher: Well, one at a time. Here’s a note for you. (Boy exits). Now, where we?

Mr. Mathews: The meaning of gay. In this case, we’re talking about gay marriage. And gay is a word for boys who like boys. Or girls who like girls.

Little girl #3: I like girls.

Little boy #3: I like boys better. Boys are better than girls.

Little girl #3: No, they’re not.

Little boy #3: Girls are yucky.

Little girl #3: Girls smell better. Boys smell bad.

Mr. Mathews: Hold on there. How people smell is not really the point. I don’t mean “like’ in the sense of friends.

Little boy #1: I like being gay. It’s much better than being sad.

Mr. Mathews: Hmmm. I mean “like” in the way women and men sometimes like each other. They are attracted to each other. I mean “like” in the sense that your mommy likes your daddy.

Little boy #4: My mommy doesn’t like my daddy. She says he drinks too much and should help more around the house.

Mr. Mathews: I’m sorry to hear that. I hope things will get better for your mommy and daddy.

Little boy #4: I hope so too. I’d like them to be more gay.

Mr. Mathews. Happier, sure. We’d all like to be happy. And that gets me to my point. There are some boys, some men really, who are happy living with men, and they’d be really happy if they could marry the other man they live with.

Little girl #4: My mommy says if you think you’ll be happy just by marrying a man, you’ll be sorely disappointed. She says marriage is a trap for women.

Mr. Mathews: Really, she says that?

Little girl #4: Ever since daddy left.

Mr. Mathews: Well, it’s true that marriage doesn’t mean you’ll be happy.

Little boy #1: So how can there be gay marriage?

Mr. Mathews: Well, I didn’t mean happy marriages. I meant gay marriage, in a marriage between two women or between two men.

Little boy #5: Well, why do they want to marry then if they’ll be unhappy? I don’t understand what marriage has to do with being gay.

Mr. Mathews: Traditionally, it hasn’t had anything to do with being gay. If you were gay, in the sense that you were a man and preferred to live with another man, you couldn’t marry the person you really loved. It was against the law.

Little boy #4: My mom says throwing gum on the sidewalk is against the law. But I do it sometimes.

Mr. Mathews; You should obey the law. But in this case, in California, the law changed, and now a man can marry another man, or a woman can marry another woman.

Little boy: #4: And they do this so they can be gay?

Mr. Mathews. Not exactly. They want to do this because they love each other and because they are gay. But it’s not clear if they’ll be allowed to do that. Because there is this thing called Prop 8.

Little boy #5: Prop 8? Why didn’t you say that? We’ve all seen that on TV.

Whole class; TV! Teacher, can we watch TV?

Teacher: Later.

Little girl: #1: But those people talking about Prop 8 on TV aren’t happy at all. They’re very angry. There’s that one lawyer man who says that kids will have to be taught about gay marriage in schools.

Mr. Mathews: That’s why I’m here.

Little girl #1: But gay marriage is not for kids. Plus, I don’t understand anything you’re saying. Gay marriage is confusing.

Mr. Mathews; I’m learning that.

Little girl #1: I think gay marriage is just something that old people get very angry about on TV.

Little boy #1: Let’s talk about something else.

Little girl #3: Like sex. They always have that on TV.

Teacher: Now, boys and girls, settle down.

Little boy #2 (returning from the bathroom): Now that I went potty, I feel much more gay.

Teaching

"Stretching Children's Thinking": New Video Highlights Importance of Classroom Interactions

Related posts

Two Antidotes to 'Kindergarten Cram'

McKinsey Report: Achievement Gaps Are Causing The Equivalent of A Deep Recession

The Dangers Of Teaching Same Sex Marriage To Young Children