Observations of Children's Interactions with Teachers, Peers, and Tasks across Preschool Classroom Activity Settings

Research Findings: This descriptive study examined classroom activity settings in relation to children's observed behavior during classroom interactions, child gender, and basic teacher behavior within the preschool classroom. A total of 145 children were observed for an average of 80 min during 8 occasions across 2 days using the Individualized Classroom Assessment Scoring System, an observational measure that conceptualizes behavior into teacher, peer, task, and conflict interactions. Findings indicated that on average children's interactions with teachers were higher in teacher-structured settings, such as large group. On average, children's interactions with peers and tasks were more positive in child-directed settings, such as free choice. Children experienced more conflict during recess and routines/transitions. Finally, gender differences were observed within small group and meals. Practice or Policy: These findings might encourage teachers to be thoughtful and intentional about what types of support and resources are provided so children can successfully navigate the demands of particular settings. These findings are not meant to discourage certain teacher behaviors or imply the value of certain classroom settings; instead, by providing an evidence-based picture of the conditions under which children display the most positive interactions, they can make teachers more aware of choices within these settings and assist powerfully in professional development and interventions.

[1]  S. Kontos,et al.  Influences on children's competence in early childhood classrooms , 1997 .

[2]  Gary W. Ladd,et al.  Children’s Peer Relations and Social Competence: A Century of Progress , 2005 .

[3]  S. Odom,et al.  ECOBEHAVIORAL ANALYSIS OF EARLY EDUCATION/SPECIALIZED CLASSROOM SETTINGS AND PEER SOCIAL INTERACTION , 1990 .

[4]  L. E. Berk,et al.  Self-Regulation in Young Children: Is There a Role for Sociodramatic Play?. , 2002 .

[5]  Edward S. Shapiro,et al.  Observing Students in Classroom Settings: A Review of Seven Coding Schemes , 2005 .

[6]  C. Howe,et al.  Peer Argument in Educational Settings , 2001 .

[7]  Heather A. Holmes-Lonergan.  Preschool Children's Collaborative Problem-Solving Interactions: The Role of Gender, Pair Type, and Task , 2003 .

[8]  Jennifer Dobbs,et al.  The Relationship Between Preschool Teachers' Reports of Children's Behavior and Their Behavior Toward Those Children. , 2009, School psychology quarterly : the official journal of the Division of School Psychology, American Psychological Association.

[9]  U. Bronfenbrenner.  Contexts of child rearing: Problems and prospects. , 1979 .

[10]  L. Schweinhart,et al.  Preschool experience in 10 countries: Cognitive and language performance at age 7 , 2006 .

[11]  Urie Bronfenbrenner,et al.  The Bioecological Model of Human Development , 2007 .

[12]  G. Duncan,et al.  School readiness and later achievement. , 2007, Developmental psychology.

[13]  C. Greenwood,et al.  Eco-Behavioral Assessment , 1985 .

[14]  S. Rimm-Kaufman,et al.  An ecological perspective on the transition to kindergarten: A theoretical framework to guide empirical research. , 2000 .

[15]  S. Raudenbush,et al.  Resources, Instruction, and Research , 2003 .

[16]  S. Kontos,et al.  An ecobehavioral analysis of early childhood classrooms , 1999 .

[17]  R. Pianta,et al.  Mother-child relationships, teacher-child relationships, and school outcomes in preschool and kindergarten , 1997 .

[18]  R. Barker.  Ecological Psychology: Concepts and Methods for Studying the Environment of Human Behavior , 1968 .

[19]  A. Huston-Stein,et al.  Activity Structure and Sex-Typed Behavior in Preschool Children. , 1980 .

[20]  B. Hamre,et al.  Early teacher-child relationships and the trajectory of children's school outcomes through eighth grade. , 2001, Child development.

[21]  S. Kontos,et al.  An Eco-Behavioral Analysis of Children's Engagement in Urban Public School Preschool Classrooms. , 2008 .

[22]  D. Cicchetti,et al.  Developing criteria for establishing interrater reliability of specific items: applications to assessment of adaptive behavior. , 1981, American journal of mental deficiency.

[23]  Robert C. Pianta,et al.  La & Classroom assessment scoring system (CLASS) manual: Pre-K. Baltimore: Brookes Publishing Co. , 2008 .

[24]  E. Sulzby,et al.  The Role of Autonomy-Support versus Control in the Emergent Writing Behaviors of African-American Kindergarten Children. , 1999 .

[25]  A. Huston-Stein,et al.  The relation of classroom structure to social behavior, imaginative play, and self-regulation of economically disadvantaged children. , 1977 .

[26]  Melanie Killen,et al.  Peer Conflicts of Preschool Children: Issues, Resolution, Incidence, and Age-Related Patterns , 2001 .

[27]  C. Keating,et al.  Gender Differences in Preschool Aggression During Free Play and Structured Interactions: An Observational Study , 2004 .

[28]  S. Atkins-Burnett.  Evaluating Early Childhood Assessments A Differential Analysis , 2008 .

[29]  Andrew J. Mashburn,et al.  Measures of classroom quality in prekindergarten and children's development of academic, language, and social skills. , 2008, Child development.

[30]  R. Pianta,et al.  Teacher-Child Relationships and Children's Success in the First Years of School , 2004 .

[31]  Edward Seidman,et al.  A systems framework for understanding social settings , 2007, American journal of community psychology.

[32]  R. Coplan,et al.  Spending time with teacher: characteristics of preschoolers who frequently elicit versus initiate interactions with teachers , 2003 .

[33]  A. Göncü,et al.  Preschoolers' Classroom Activities and Interactions with Peers and Teachers , 2000 .

[34]  David K. Dickinson,et al.  Describing oral language opportunities and environments in head start and other preschool classrooms , 1994 .

[35]  Timothy R. Konold,et al.  Empirically-Derived, Person-Oriented Patterns of School Readiness in Typically-Developing Children: Description and Prediction to First-Grade Achievement , 2005 .

[36]  D. Pepler,et al.  Observations of Bullying in the Playground and in the Classroom , 2000 .

[37]  L. Harper,et al.  Teacher–child and child–child interactions in inclusive preschool settings: do adults inhibit peer interactions? , 2003 .

[38]  M. Reiser,et al.  Preschoolers' academic readiness: What role does the teacher-child relationship play? , 2007, Early childhood research quarterly.

[39]  Sara E. Rimm-Kaufman,et al.  Kindergarten Classroom Quality, Behavioral Engagement, and Reading Achievement , 2009 .

[40]  J. Fantuzzo,et al.  An investigation of classroom situational dimensions of emotional and behavioral adjustment and cognitive and social outcomes for Head Start children. , 2008, Developmental psychology.

[41]  R. Pianta,et al.  Features of Pre-Kindergarten Programs, Classrooms, and Teachers: Do They Predict Observed Classroom Quality and Child-Teacher Interactions? , 2005 .

[42]  Barbara A. Wasik,et al.  The Effects of a Language and Literacy Intervention on Head Start Children and Teachers , 2006 .

[43]  Erin O'Connor,et al.  Examining Teacher–Child Relationships and Achievement as Part of an Ecological Model of Development , 2007 .

[44]  B. Hamre,et al.  Classroom assessment scoring system. , 2008 .

[45]  Gary W. Ladd,et al.  Peer exclusion and victimization: Processes that mediate the relation between peer group rejection and children's classroom engagement and achievement? , 2006 .

[46]  Andrew J. Mashburn,et al.  Effects of Web-Mediated Professional Development Resources on Teacher-Child Interactions in Pre-Kindergarten Classrooms. , 2008, Early childhood research quarterly.

[47]  Dale C. Farran,et al.  Title I funded preschools as a developmental context for children's play and verbal behaviors. , 2001 .

[48]  R. Pianta,et al.  The Individualized Classroom Assessment Scoring System (inCLASS): Preliminary Reliability and Validity of a System for Observing Preschoolers' Competence in Classroom Interactions. , 2010, Early childhood research quarterly.

[49]  D. Phillips,et al.  From Neurons to Neighborhoods: The Science of Early Childhood Development , 2000 .

[50]  Alija Kulenović,et al.  Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing , 1999 .

[51]  Allison Sidle Fuligni,et al.  Getting Ready for School: An Examination of Early Childhood Educators’ Belief Systems , 2008 .

[52]  H. Ruff,et al.  Age, individuality, and context as factors in sustained visual attention during the preschool years. , 1998, Developmental psychology.

[53]  J. Gmitrov,et al.  The Impact of Teacher-Directed and Child-Directed Pretend Play on Cognitive Competence in Kindergarten Children , 2003 .

[54]  S. Rimm-Kaufman,et al.  The Contribution of Classroom Setting and Quality of Instruction to Children’s Behavior in Kindergarten Classrooms , 2005, The Elementary School Journal.

[55]  Jennifer Sable,et al.  Public Elementary and Secondary School Student Enrollment and Staff Counts From the Common Core of Data: School Year 2007-08. First Look. NCES 2010-309. , 2008 .

[56]  Sterling C. Hilton,et al.  A Gender Comparison of the Cooperation of 4-Year-Old Children in Classroom Activity Centers , 2003 .

[57]  S. Kontos,et al.  An Eco-Behavioral Approach to Examining the Contextual Effects of Early Childhood Classrooms. , 2002 .

[58]  R. Pianta,et al.  Development of Academic Skills from Preschool Through Second Grade: Family and Classroom Predictors of Developmental Trajectories , 2002 .

[59]  A. Reynolds,et al.  Long-term effects of an early childhood intervention on educational achievement and juvenile arrest: A 15-year follow-up of low-income children in public schools. , 2001, JAMA.

[60]  Ruth E. Tomes.  Teacher Presence and Child Gender Influences on Children's Activity Preferences in Preschool Settings. , 1995 .

[61]  L. Justice.  Creating Language-Rich Preschool Classroom Environments , 2004 .

[62]  Scott D. Gest,et al.  Behavioral and Cognitive Readiness for School: Cross-Domain Associations for Children Attending Head Start. , 2009, Social development.

[63]  R. Pianta,et al.  How do pre-kindergarteners spend their time? Gender, ethnicity, and income as predictors of experiences in pre-kindergarten classrooms , 2010 .

[64]  S. Kontos.  Preschool teachers’ talk, roles, and activity settings during free play , 1999 .

[65]  S. Striefel,et al.  A naturalistic study of the relation between preschool setting events and peer interaction in four activity contexts , 1986 .

[66]  Robert C. Pianta,et al.  What is Pre-Kindergarten? Characteristics of Public Pre-Kindergarten Programs , 2005 .

[67]  F. Morrison,et al.  Preschool instruction and children's emergent literacy growth , 2006 .

[68]  J. Fantuzzo,et al.  Preschool Approaches to Learning and Their Relationship to Other Relevant Classroom Competencies for Low-Income Children. , 2004 .

[69]  Megan M. McClelland,et al.  Children at risk for early academic problems: the role of learning-related social skills , 2000 .

[70]  P. Gump.  THE CLASSROOM BEHAVIOR SETTING--ITS NATURE AND RELATION TO STUDENT BEHAVIOR. FINAL REPORT. , 1967 .

[71]  D. Eignor.  The standards for educational and psychological testing. , 2013 .

[72]  Robert C. Pianta,et al.  The Relation of Kindergarten Classroom Environment to Teacher, Family, and School Characteristics and Child Outcomes , 2002, The Elementary School Journal.

[73]  J. T. Neisworth,et al.  The MisMeasure of Young Children: The Authentic Assessment Alternative , 2004 .

[74]  R. A. McWilliam,et al.  Adult Interactions and Child Engagement , 2003 .

[75]  C. Blair,et al.  School readiness. Integrating cognition and emotion in a neurobiological conceptualization of children's functioning at school entry. , 2002, The American psychologist.