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Do peers influence children's skill development in preschool?
Abstract
Currently, a disjuncture exists between the economic literature on young children's outcomes from early education or child care and the literature on schooling outcomes of older children and adolescents. Peer effects have been found to be both theoretically important and empirically significant in school settings, yet the effects of peers have not been incorporated into research estimating the child development production function. In this study, we estimate the value-added effects of peer abilities on the educational outcomes of a probability sample of four year olds who attended Head Start, publicly subsidized pre-kindergarten, or private preschool in Georgia. We use a longitudinal data set that includes measures of preschool quality, child and family characteristics, peer abilities, and assessments of the skills of pre-kindergarteners both before and after attending preschool. The ability level of the peers in a child's classroom has direct and positive effects on the child's cognitive skills, pre-reading skills, and expressive language skills after controlling for preschool resources, family characteristics, and the child's skills at the beginning of preschool. Neither time spent on discipline, nor contextual effects of classroom composition, nor teachers’ motivation appear to be the mechanisms that explain the influences of peers on children's skill development.
... Research has suggested that compositional effects find grounding in peer interactions (Henry & Rickman, 2007). Upon entering school, children are introduced to a new social milieu where peers serve as important socialization agents (Hoff, 2006). ...
... Research probing into students' linguistic backgrounds as a component of classroom composition is limited, and existing findings are inconsistent (Atkins-Burnett et al., 2017;Choi et al., 2018;Henry & Rickman, 2007;Kohl et al., 2022;Washington-Nortey et al., 2022). Some studies have demonstrated that interacting with more proficient peers provides opportunities and support for less competent students to develop their skills in their second language (Atkins-Burnett et al., 2017;Henry & Rickman, 2007;Kohl et al., 2022). ...
... Research probing into students' linguistic backgrounds as a component of classroom composition is limited, and existing findings are inconsistent (Atkins-Burnett et al., 2017;Choi et al., 2018;Henry & Rickman, 2007;Kohl et al., 2022;Washington-Nortey et al., 2022). Some studies have demonstrated that interacting with more proficient peers provides opportunities and support for less competent students to develop their skills in their second language (Atkins-Burnett et al., 2017;Henry & Rickman, 2007;Kohl et al., 2022). For instance, Atkins-Burnett et al. (2017) examined 1,438 U.S. children in 97 preschools and found that the percentage of bilingual children in a class predicted children's expressive vocabulary skills. ...
Students’ learning is deeply rooted in both home and school environments. This necessitates a person-and-context perspective that considers individual, home, and school factors. This study delved into second language learning, an area inherently intertwined with these settings. Utilizing hierarchical linear modeling, the study involved 2,310 fifth-grade English–Chinese bilingual students and 109 teachers across 109 classrooms in 23 Singaporean primary schools where Chinese is taught as a second language. We examined the class compositional effect of Chinese use at home on students’ Chinese language achievement and the cross-level interactions between classroom goal structures (mastery and performance goal structures) and Chinese use at home in predicting Chinese language achievement. Aggregated class-level Chinese use at home exhibited a compositional effect on students’ Chinese language achievement. Additionally, the class-level Chinese use at home strengthened the positive relation between individual students’ home language use and their achievement in Chinese. Moreover, classroom mastery goal structure demonstrated significant moderating effects on the relation between students’ Chinese use at home and Chinese language achievement. While Chinese use at home was positively related to achievement, this relation was weaker in classes with high mastery goal structure and stronger in classes with low mastery goal structure. No main effect or interaction effect concerning classroom performance goal structure was observed. These findings highlight the intricate relation between home language exposure and classroom goal structures. Being surrounded by peers who use the second language often at home may enhance second language achievement. Furthermore, mastery-focused environments may compensate for students with limited second language exposure at home.
... In line with sociocultural theories and the case studies mentioned above, there is a body of quantitative research which has found positive peer effects on oral language skills for L1 and L2 learners (e.g., Gàmez et al., 2019;Yeomans-Maldonado et al., 2019). For L1 learners, research has shown that, at the end of preschool, children's oral language skills were positively associated with the general abilities (Henry & Rickman, 2007) and oral expressive language abilities their peers exhibited at the beginning of preschool (Mashburn et al., 2009). Both studies found positive peer effects on oral expressive language development. ...
... The drawbacks of these studies are that only a small number of participants was included in each classroom and that potential differences between first and second language speakers could not be explored due to sample composition. Moreover, peer abilities were approximated by averaging the scores of the other children (Henry & Rickman, 2007;Mashburn et al., 2009) or based on recordings of classroom activities (Gàmez, 2015). They did not investigate whether the children interacted with each other during their preschool days. ...
... We expected these students to benefit more from their interactions with school friends than those whose parents were German speakers as a first language. Most investigations have either included L1 (e.g., Mashburn et al., 2009;Henry & Rickman, 2007) or L2 children (e.g., Gàmez, 2015;Grøver et al., 2018). Only Gàmez et al. (2019) included L1 and L2 children in their study, which investigated children's expressive and receptive language as well as syntactic complexity in relation to their peers' language use. ...
Interactions with classroom friends may be an important contributor to first and second language development, but to date this hypothesis has not been tested. Using a longitudinal design, the current study investigated the relationship between classroom friendships and oral language development in children. In 8 classrooms, we assessed the relationship between oral language skills and classroom social networks. Across the classrooms, 165 primary school children in Austria (83 boys; 119 L2 learners; age: 6–10) were assessed on oral language proficiency at the beginning of the school year (T1) and 6–7 months later (T2). Results indicated that the more reciprocal best friendships at T1, the greater language improvement at T2. Language improvement was strongest among friends with moderate differences in language proficiency, regardless of whether students were first or second language learners. These results underline the importance of positive social relations at school for language learning broadly.
... For instance, preschoolers with peers high in externalizing behaviors (which reflect high negative emotion and low self-regulation) were more likely to show externalizing behaviors themselves (Hanish et al., 2005). Because of the close inverse relation between negative emotionality and self-regulation, associations between classmates' and children's self-regulatory skills also suggest the presence of peer negative emotionality effects in school (e.g., Henry & Rickman, 2007;Johns et al., 2019;Montroy et al., 2016;Skibbe et al., 2012). Montroy et al. (2016) found that classroom peers' self-regulation predicted some academic achievement measures among preschoolers. ...
... Prior research also demonstrates stable associations between socioeconomic status and academic achievement outcomes (e.g., Henry & Rickman, 2007;Kim et al., 2018), and a male advantage in math (Liu & Wilson, 2009). These findings further justify the inclusion of background covariates when estimating models of academic achievement. ...
... Rickman, 2007;Kim et al., 2018) or children's temperament (e.g.,Johns et al., 2019;Montroy et al., 2016), we used target children's age, sex (0 = female; 1 = male), Hispanic ethnic background (0 = Hispanic; 1 = non-Hispanic), and family socioeconomic status (the average of the z scores of family income and parents' education) as covariates in all analyses. Data for these covariates were collected at study recruitment. ...
Although there is interest in the role of peers in children's schooling experiences, few researchers have examined associations and related underlying processes between peers’ emotionality, an aspect of temperament, and children's academic achievement. This study evaluated whether target children's (N = 260) own self‐regulation, assessed with two behavioral measures, served a moderating function for associations between peers’ emotionality and children's own academic achievement in second grade. There was a positive association between peers’ positive emotionality and reading scores for children with higher self‐regulation. Peers’ negative emotionality was negatively related to target children's reading scores, particularly for children with higher self‐regulation levels, but was unrelated to math scores. Peers’ positive and negative emotionality did not predict math scores, and there was no strong evidence for the moderating role of target children's self‐regulation in this association. This study highlights the potential role of children's self‐regulation in modulating peer effects on academic achievement, particularly reading.
... Findings such as these suggest that children's temperament has implications for social interactions at school. Thus, the temperament of a child's playmates might also predict the quality of children's relationships with teachers, especially given the apparent importance of peer characteristics for a range of developmental outcomes (Valiente, Swanson, DeLay, Fraser, & Parker, 2020), including academic skills (e. g., Henry & Rickman, 2007;Johns et al., 2019;Montroy, Bowles, & Skibbe, 2016;Skibbe, Phillips, Day, Brophy-Herb, & Connor, 2012) and problem behaviors (e.g., Dishion & Tipsord, 2011;Hanish et al., 2005;Ladd, 1999;Rodkin & Ryan, 2012;Rubin, Bukowski, & Parker, 2006). ...
... Theories on peer socialization (e.g., peer deviancy) and literature connecting children's temperament to the quality of the student-teacher relationship suggest that peers have a value-added role in developing children's social relationships beyond individual child effects (Henry & Rickman, 2007). One of the primary principles of temperament theory is that children's self-regulation (an aspect of temperament) shapes their responses to their environment (Rothbart & Bates, 2006). ...
... However, theory and research on peer influences highlight the need to simultaneously consider the role of peer and child characteristics on children's development (Hartup, 2005;Kindermann & Gest, 2018;Ladd, 1999). Thus, we drew from peer socialization (Dishion & Tipsord, 2011;Henry & Rickman, 2007) and temperament (Rothbart & Bates, 2006). ...
In this short-term longitudinal study, we tested if peers' temperament in the fall of second grade predicted target children's (N = 241) student–teacher conflict and closeness in the spring of second grade and whether target children's self-regulation moderated these associations. Based on regression analyses, peers' negative emotionality was negatively related to target children's student–teacher closeness; peers' self-regulation was positively associated with target children's student–teacher closeness. Based on tests of interactions, the inverse relation between peers' self-regulation and target children's student–teacher conflict was significant when target children had low and average, but not high, self-regulation. Similarly, peers' positive emotionality was negatively related to student–teacher conflict for children with low self-regulation. Children's self-regulation did not moderate associations between peers' temperament and student–teacher closeness. Findings highlight the potential role of children's self-regulation in some associations between peers' temperament and student–teacher conflict.
... Among monolingual preschoolers, there is evidence that peers' vocabulary skills are related to vocabulary development ( Chen, Justice, Tambyraja, & Sawyer, 2020 ;Henry & Rickman, 2007 ;Justice et al., 2011 ;Mashburn, Justice, Downer, & Pianta, 2009 ;Schechter & Bye, 2007 ). For example, two studies of monolingual English-speaking preschoolers from a range of socioeconomic backgrounds found that sharing classrooms with peers with higher mean vocabulary skills uniquely predicted English receptive and expressive vocabulary development, after accounting for initial vocabulary skills and a range of family, teacher, and school characteristics ( Henry & Rickman, 2007 ;Mashburn et al., 2009 ). ...
... Among monolingual preschoolers, there is evidence that peers' vocabulary skills are related to vocabulary development ( Chen, Justice, Tambyraja, & Sawyer, 2020 ;Henry & Rickman, 2007 ;Justice et al., 2011 ;Mashburn, Justice, Downer, & Pianta, 2009 ;Schechter & Bye, 2007 ). For example, two studies of monolingual English-speaking preschoolers from a range of socioeconomic backgrounds found that sharing classrooms with peers with higher mean vocabulary skills uniquely predicted English receptive and expressive vocabulary development, after accounting for initial vocabulary skills and a range of family, teacher, and school characteristics ( Henry & Rickman, 2007 ;Mashburn et al., 2009 ). A similar study of low-income monolingual preschoolers found that children's English language growth was associated with the average language skills, including receptive and expressive vocabulary, of children in their classrooms ( Justice et al., 2011 ). ...
... This study examined the role of classmates' vocabulary skills in predicting low-income DLLs' English and Spanish receptive vocabulary development during preschool. Classmates' skill levels are a key aspect of children's classroom experiences when they enter preschool and spend increasingly more time with peers ( Henry & Rickman, 2007 ;Justice et al., 2011 ;Mashburn et al., 2009 ). Understanding predictors of English and Spanish receptive vocabulary development is particularly important among low-income DLLs, many of whom experience little English exposure prior to entering center-based schooling ( Hammer et al., 2008 ), but who may benefit from maintaining their Spanish language skills ( Agirdag, 2014 ;Barac & Bialystok, 2012 ). ...
Using a nationally representative sample of 3- and 4-year-old Spanish-speaking dual language learners (DLLs) attending Head Start (N = 654), this study examined whether mean levels of and variability in peers’ English receptive vocabulary skills were associated with DLLs’ English and Spanish receptive vocabulary skills in the spring. In addition, I tested whether these associations differed depending on the proportion of DLLs in the class. Results showed that DLLs had better English receptive vocabulary growth, but weaker Spanish receptive vocabulary growth when their classmates had higher English receptive vocabulary skills. Variability in peers’ English receptive vocabulary skills was not significantly associated with vocabulary growth in English or Spanish. These patterns did not depend on the proportion of DLLs in the class, pointing to the utility of understanding peer effects in terms of classmates’ skills and not only their characteristics. Findings demonstrate the importance of classmates’ English vocabulary skills for English vocabulary development. However, additional supports are needed to maintain DLLs’ vocabulary development in Spanish.
... In general, peer effects, sometimes referred to as compositional effects, occur when a variable (e.g., prior skill level) aggregated at the contextual level (e.g., classroom) has an effect on the outcome beyond the effect of the same variable at the individual level (Raudenbush & Bryk, 2002). Peer effects in preschool and kindergarten classrooms have been examined for language outcomes (e.g., Henry & Rickman, 2007;Mashburn et al., 2009;Ribeiro et al., 2017), problem behavior (Choi et al., 2018), prosocial behavior (Schmerse & Hepach, 2021), and executive function skills (Weiland & Yoshikawa, 2014). ...
... The available evidence for peer effects on early language outcomes, largely from the United States, suggests that classroom peers' average language skills (Henry & Rickman, 2007;Mashburn et al., 2009), as well as the classrooms' socioeconomic composition (Reid & Ready, 2013;Weiland & Yoshikawa, 2014), are related to children's individual development in the majority language. Furthermore, the research has shown that the association appears to be stronger for children with lower language skills (Justice et al., 2011) and children from socioeconomically disadvantaged backgrounds (Ribeiro et al., 2017), although some studies did not find significant effects of peers' language skills (Choi et al., 2018;Shager, 2012). ...
... Peer vocabulary skills were calculated as the classroom-average PPVT scores at Time 1 using all available data from the classroom. This approach has been used in several studies on peer effects in preschool and kindergarten classrooms and the sampling rate per classroom lies within a wellestablished range in the existing peer effects literature (e.g., Henry & Rickman, 2007;Mashburn et al., 2009;Ribeiro et al., 2017). Choosing Time 1 peer vocabulary skills to model between-group differences was motivated by the straightforward interpretation of its effect on the intercept in a growth-curve model and by the fact that Time 1 data had the least number of missing values. ...
This study investigated the vocabulary development of children (N = 547) from linguistically and socioeconomically diverse classrooms in Germany from age 3 in preschool to age 7 in Grade 1. The results showed that for dual language learners (DLLs, n = 107) growth rates in their German majority language skills varied over classrooms. Compared to monolingual children, DLLs improved faster in classrooms with higher peer‐level skills in the majority language than DLLs in classrooms with lower peer‐level skills (controlling for socioeconomic status and classroom quality). DLLs showed stronger growth dynamics than monolingual children during later preschool stages. The findings highlight the role of preschool peers in DLLs’ acquisition of the majority language before entering elementary school.
... There is scant research concerning the moderation between classroom quality and peer effects. However, classroom quality is important to study in the peer effect context due to its potential to impact children's various skill development as well as child-to-child transmission of skills (Bulotsky-Shearer et al., 2014;Henry & Rickman, 2007). Given that peer interactions are key to the organization of structured or unstructured classroom activities in early childhood classrooms, the extent to which teachers organize the classroom environments may influence the effect of peers' skills on individual children's EF, preacademic, and language skills. ...
... Our finding is consistent with prior evidence documenting strong associations between EF and math skills (Clements et al., 2016;Cragg & Gilmore, 2014;Duncan et al., 2007;Schmitt et al., 2017), and extends previous literature by highlighting the importance of peers' EF for children's development of math skills, even though the effect size was small. The extent to which peers influence children's learning and development has long been argued (Henry & Rickman, 2007), yet the implications of peers' EF for individual children's development of math over the preschool year has not been previously studied. The findings imply that when children are in classrooms with higher EF skills at the beginning of the preschool, they demonstrate higher math skills at the end of the preschool, and this association is independent of peers' income, prior EF and math skills, or the quality of the classroom environment. ...
... the average language ability of a child's classroom peers in the fall was associated with their own spring language abilities, an effect that is stronger for children with disabilities ( Justice, Logan, Lin, & Kaderavek, 2014 ; and see Chen, Justice, Tambyraja, & Sawyer, 2020 ), little is known about the role vocal interactions with peers play in this process. These dyadic interactions may be central to the previously-documented associations between peer abilities and children's language gains ( Henry & Rickman, 2007 ;Justice et al., 2011Justice et al., , 2014Mashburn et al., 2009 ). Here we model the influence of vocalizations from individual peers on children's vocalizations to their peers in inclusion classrooms for children with and without hearing loss. ...
... As play becomes increasingly social during the preschool years, peers begin to take on a particularly important role in children's development ( Bulotsky-Shearer, Bell, Romero, & Carter, 2012 ;Rubin, Watson, & Jambor, 1978 ). Children's exposure to peer language is associated with improvement in their own language abilities ( Henry & Rickman, 2007 ;Justice et al., 2011Justice et al., , 2014Mashburn et al., 2009 ) independent of the quality of teacher language in their classroom ( Yeomans-Maldonado, . Furthermore, studies have found that peer effects are especially strong for children with delays or disabilities in inclusion classrooms ( Chen et al., 2020 ;Justice et al., 2014 ). ...
Children with hearing loss often attend inclusive preschool classrooms aimed at improving their spoken language skills. Although preschool classrooms are fertile environments for vocal interaction with peers, little is known about the dyadic processes that influence children's speech to one another and foster their language abilities and how these processes may vary in children with hearing loss. We used new objective measurement approaches to identify and quantify children's vocalizations during social contact, as determined by children's proximity and mutual orientation. The contributions of peer vocalizations to children's future vocalizations and language abilities were examined in oral language inclusion classrooms containing children with hearing loss who use hearing aids or cochlear implants and their typically hearing peers. Across over 600 hours of recorded vocal interactions of 29 2.5–3.5 year olds (16 girls) in 3 cohorts of children in a classroom, we found that vocalizations from each peer on a given observation predicted a child's vocalizations to that same peer on the subsequent observation. Children who produced more vocalizations to their peers had higher receptive and expressive language abilities, as measured by a standardized end-of-year language assessment. In fact, vocalizations from peers had an indirect association with end-of-year language abilities as mediated by children's vocalizations to peers. These findings did not vary as a function of hearing status. Overall, then, the results demonstrate the importance of dyadic peer vocal interactions for children's language use and abilities.
... Peer effects are defined as the effects of the skills of peers on individual children's skills (Choi et al., 2018;Henry & Rickman, 2007). Theoretically, both direct and indirect peer effects are plausible (Henry & Rickman, 2007). ...
... Peer effects are defined as the effects of the skills of peers on individual children's skills (Choi et al., 2018;Henry & Rickman, 2007). Theoretically, both direct and indirect peer effects are plausible (Henry & Rickman, 2007). A direct peer effect implies that (1) children can directly learn new words, concepts, or phrases from their peers during interactions and (2) that this is more likely when peers are relatively more skilled in using a language. ...
Children in early childhood education and care (ECEC) spend a considerable amount of time interacting with their peers. However, open questions remain on whether and how children influence their peers’ language development. The present study examined effects of peers’ German receptive vocabulary (n = 1,871) on individual children’s (n = 431) receptive vocabulary gains. Target children were between 30 and 48 months old at the beginning of the study. Findings revealed no links between peers’ vocabulary skills and individual children’s vocabulary gains, neither for all children nor depending on children’s prior vocabulary skills. However, for children with lower prior skills, there was a negative association between the percentage of dual language learners in the classroom and children's vocabulary gains. This link was not attributable to peers’ vocabulary skills. A number of possible mediators and moderators for peer effects were examined but none of them proved to be significant. In sum, these (null-) findings inform future research on compositional and peer effects as well as their underlying processes. Moreover, they have important practical implications for policymakers and ECEC professionals.
... Sok szülő kívánalma, hogy gyermeke olyan osztályba járjon, ahol az őt érő hatások húzóerőként és nem teljesítménycsökkentő tényezőként lépnek fel (Henry és Rickman, 2007;Fejes és Szűcs, 2019). Ezt a feltevést támasztja alá Illyés (2000) is, miszerint azok a gyerekek, akik olyan osztályba kerülnek, ahová főleg az alulszocializált családok gyermekei járnak, az osztály teljesítménye általában alacsonyabb, mint azokban, ahol az osztályon belüli heterogenitás nagyobb. ...
... A heterogén csoportban a közös feladatmegoldásban a gyengébb tanulók sikeresebb társaiktól problémamegközelítési módot, feladatmegoldási stratégiát is tanulhatnak. Ugyanakkor a heterogén csoportban érvényesülhet a gyengébbek segítéséből adódó sajátos kooperáció, amely a tudásban és a szociális készségek fejlesztésében -mindkét pólus tekintetében -jótékony hatású (Henry és Rickman, 2007;Cohen és Lotan, 2014;K. Nagy, 2007K. ...
... The importance of peer effects Peers' social and academic competencies can support or hinder children's own literacy and language achievement (Montroy et al., 2016a, b;Skibbe et al., 2012). Even when controlling for the child's skills at the beginning of preschool, peers are a central consideration that account for the rate of learning within a class (Henry & Rickman, 2007;Justice et al., 2014). The present study examined a vital element of school success, executive function (Blair & Raver, 2015;McClelland et al., 2015), for entire preschool classrooms and its influence on academic achievement. ...
Classmates’ academic and executive function (EF) skills are important predictors of individual EF and achievement. The present study investigated the effects of peer EF, using a battery of measures, on individual EF and academic achievement in preschool. Peer effects were assessed for 321 preschool-aged children from 48 classrooms. Using hierarchical linear modeling, peer EF predicted student gains in executive function, vocabulary, and math, but not literacy. Results suggested that classrooms with higher overall EF had students who achieved more skills over the course of the school year in comparison to children in classrooms with lower levels of EF. The effect of fall peer EF on spring student EF was greater for low-income dual language learners (DLLs) than monolinguals. Findings suggest that EF, math, and vocabulary knowledge are socially mediated by peers and can have differential effects on DLLs.
... Whereas this study advances the field by showing the importance of children's exposure to peer and teacher talk over time in classroom settings, there is a need to understand more precisely what aspects of peer and teacher talk influence children's language development in classroom settings. For instance, it seems plausible that exposure to grammatically advanced language from peers or teachers might enhance children's language development (Huttenlocher et al., 2002;Henry and Rickman, 2007;Yeomans-Maldonado et al., 2019), yet the sensing technologies currently used do not capture grammatic elements of language. ...
Young children's language and social development is influenced by the linguistic environment of their classrooms, including their interactions with teachers and peers. Measurement of the classroom linguistic environment typically relies on observational methods, often providing limited 'snapshots' of children's interactions, from which broad generalizations are made. Recent technological advances, including artificial intelligence, provide opportunities to capture children's interactions using continuous recordings representing much longer durations of time. The goal of the present study was to evaluate the accuracy of the Interaction Detection in Early Childhood Settings (IDEAS) system on 13 automated indices of language output using recordings collected from 19 children and three teachers over two weeks in an urban preschool classroom. The accuracy of language outputs processed via IDEAS were compared to ground truth via linear correlations and median absolute relative error. Findings indicate high correlations between IDEAS and ground truth data on measures of teacher and child speech, and relatively low error rates on the majority of IDEAS language output measures. Study findings indicate that IDEAS may provide a useful measurement tool for advancing knowledge about children's classroom experiences and their role in shaping development.
... The effect of peers' ToM did not extend to children's verbal ability, suggesting that the mechanisms linking peers' ToM and children's ToM may be domain-specific. Here it is important to note that the research on children's language development shows a significant and robust peer effect with the majority of these studies reporting that the average ability level of the peers in a child's classroom has positive effects on the child's language development after pretest scores and other control variables were controlled (Atkins-Burnett et al., 2017;Henry & Rickman, 2007;Justice et al., 2011;Mashburn et al., 2009). Future work examining within-and cross-domain effects of peers' ToM on other related cognitive (e.g., executive function) and academic abilities (e.g., reading) is needed. ...
While there is considerable evidence that children’s early ability to understand others’ mental states, called “theory of mind,” is shaped by family experiences, it remains unclear whether children’s social interactions at school influence theory of mind (ToM) beyond early childhood. We tested whether the mean level (“quantity”) and/or the diversity (“variety”) of peers’ ToM influenced children’s own ToM. We also examined whether peer effects on ToM were independent of possible confounding variables (e.g., verbal ability, social isolation) and comparable across children with different initial levels of ToM and social status. Four hundred fifty-four 8–12-year-old children completed assessments of ToM and peer and friendship nominations at baseline and (for ToM only) 1 year later. The variety (but not the quantity) of peers’ ToM predicted the development of children’s ToM over and above control variables. The magnitude of the peer effect was comparable across different levels of children’s ToM and between children indexed as socially isolated and those who were not. These findings fit with sociocultural models and highlight the importance of the school environment in the development of ToM.
... In contrast to these relatively robust effects in the cognitive/language domain, only small and inconsistent effects are reported in the socio-emotional domain (for an overview see Roßbach, 2005). ECEC centre composition: Several studies show that the average ability of peers in an ECEC centre as well as the SES mix are significantly associated with children's cognitive and language skills -even net of ECEC centre quality (Henry and Rickman, 2007;Reid and Ready, 2013;Weiland and Yoshikawa, 2014). Thus, composition effects (which are very well researched in the literature on schooling effects) seem also to be relevant in ECEC centres. ...
... Things that often arise are in bringing up children's learning readiness in learning. Their peers and the school environment influence the development of skills and competencies of early childhood (Henry & Rickman, 2007). ...
The period of the COVID-19 pandemic impacted education, especially on early childhood education aged 5-6 years. This study aims to determine the effect of online learning on developing language aspects of children aged 5-6 years. The method used is True Experimental Design by comparing face-to-face learning at school and online education at home. The research subjects consisted of two groups, namely experimental and control, with 40 PAUD children from Kindergarten Schools in Surabaya and Gresik. Based on the Asymp.Sig value shows that online learning significantly affects early childhood language development during the Covid-19 pandemic. The reason is, face-to-face learning cannot be done optimally, with reduced learning hours during the Covid-19 pandemic. Conversely, online learning can be done anywhere and anytime, even though the place and distance are different. 0.000 0.05. Online learning that is carried out has the advantage of not having space and time boundaries so that the need for increasing children's speaking, reading, and writing skills can be met.
... The linguistic skills of a child will advance more quickly if they are a member of a peer group with a high level of language abilities. This effect has been observed across various indicators of language development: vocabulary, syntax, or narrative skills 11,[13][14][15] . ...
DyLNet is a large-scale longitudinal social experiment designed to observe the relations between child socialisation and oral language learning at preschool. During three years, a complete preschool in France was followed to record proximity interactions of about 200 children and adults every 5 seconds using autonomous Radio Frequency Identification Wireless Proximity Sensors. Data was collected monthly with one week-long deployments. In parallel, survey campaigns were carried out to record the socio-demographic and language background of children and their families, and to monitor the linguistic skills of the pupils at regular intervals. From data we inferred real social interactions and distinguished inter- and intra-class interactions in different settings. We share ten weeks of cleaned, pre-processed and reconstructed interaction data recorded over a complete school year, together with two sets of survey data providing details about the pupils’ socio-demographic profile and language development level at the beginning and end of this period. Our dataset may stimulate researchers from several fields to study the simultaneous development of language and social interactions of children.
... & Rickman, 2007;Ribeiro et al., 2017). This clinical focus article integrates broad definitions of friendship with research on the specific friendship perspectives and experiences of individuals with disabilities who use AAC with the goal of making theory-and evidence-driven suggestions for SLPs to develop a friendship mindset and to support friendship for individuals who use AAC. ...
Purpose
Friendships are enjoyable and desirable relationships with personal and developmental benefits for all people. However, individuals who use augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) experience barriers to developing and maintaining friendships. Speech-language pathologists (SLPs), with expertise in communication, social pragmatics, and AAC, are uniquely qualified to support friendship for individuals who use AAC. This clinical focus article provides a background on friendship and friendship development generally, then outlines considerations for SLPs to support individuals who use AAC to develop and maintain authentic friendships with peers across the lifespan.
Conclusions
Communication with peers is an essential component of friendship development and maintenance. SLPs should recognize that they have clients on their caseloads who desire friendship and who likely experience barriers to developing or maintaining friendships. When SLPs have a friendship mindset, they identify authentic, motivating opportunities for social interaction; provide the needed tools, including AAC, to support communication within those opportunities; and target communicative competence as part of treatment.
... Theoretically, classroom composition captures objective attributes of the group with whom the child interacts, and there is considerable evidence showing that objective classroom compositional variables are important for young children's academic (Benner & Crosnoe, 2011;Henry & Rickman, 2007;Justice et al., 2014) and social-behavioral outcomes (Benner & Crosnoe, 2011;Gaviria & Raphael, 2001). For instance, Reid and Ready (2013) examined the relations between mean classroom socioeconomic status (SES) for 2,966 preschoolers in 704 classrooms and cognitive and social gains over the year the contribution of classroom; SES was positive and significant for measures of language and math, over and above the effects of a child's own SES. ...
Research Findings: The purpose of this study was to test a theoretical measurement model representing four proposed dimensions of the classroom ecology in pre-K to third-grade classrooms. The four proposed dimensions of Classroom Composition, Peer Network and Norms, Teacher Practices, and Student Experiences were evaluated using data collected in 182 classrooms and 2,662 students in two districts spanning rural, suburban, and urban settings. Overall, the theoretical measurement model supported the multi-dimensional nature of the classroom ecology across the early primary grades, although specific characteristics and relations within the four dimensions may vary somewhat in pre-kindergarten settings compared to kindergarten through third grade. Practice or Policy: The overarching goal is to advance research that conceptualizes the classroom ecology more broadly to reflect both the academic and peer environment. The study is important for advancing understanding of salient characteristics of the classroom ecology that may foster learning and achievement.
... Peer effects are defined as the impact of a peer's abilities on the development of language, communication, social, and problem-solving skills on another child (Hanushek et al., 2003;Henry & Rickman, 2007;Zimmer & Toma, 2000). Explanations for potential influences from peer effects are rooted in Vygotsky (1978) theory that children learn from engaging and interacting with their peers. ...
Purpose
The purpose of this pilot study was to determine the impact of including peers with typically developing language (TDL) in language intervention sessions for preschool children with diagnosed developmental language disorder (DLD).
Method
To measure peer effects, participants received 8 weeks of group language intervention in their neighborhood head start. Twenty children with DLD were randomly assigned to one of two conditions. Children in the experimental condition received language intervention with a peer with TDL; children in the control condition received language intervention with another peer with DLD. Pre- and posttest measures of language (semantics, syntax, morphology, and narrative) were collected. Teachers, speech-language pathologists, and assessors were blind to study condition.
Results
All children in the study showed gains from pre- to posttest; there were no statistically significant differences between conditions. However, effect size estimates (Cohen's d) indicated that the children in the experimental condition showed an advantage over the control condition in syntax, morphology, and narrative.
Conclusions
This study provides preliminary evidence that children with DLD show increased gains in language when paired with peers with TDL. This finding supports previous research in educational literature, suggesting that children's development is influenced by the skills of their peers. Additional research is warranted to further explore and understand the role of peers for children with DLD.
... There may be disproportionate effects on other students' chronic absenteeism in the spring if they have differing proportions of chronically absent classmates in the fall. Extant literature reveals how having more peers with disruptive behavior can take away from common classroom resources (e.g., instructional time spent remediating students who were previously absent; Lazear, 2001), and this disruption may contribute to negative attitudes and less success in the classroom (Henry & Rickman, 2007;Juvonen et al., 2003). Consequently, students with a significant amount of disruption in their classrooms tend to experience greater absenteeism (Gottfried et al., 2016). ...
Background
In efforts to address chronic absenteeism, educational stakeholders have begun to focus on which school factors might link to how and if students miss school. One underexplored area within school is the context of the classroom and, namely, the spillover effects of peers. This study examined whether students were more likely to be chronically absent when they had a chronically absent classmate.
Research Questions
(1) In elementary school, does having chronically absent classmates in the fall influence individual students’ absences in the spring of that same year? (2) Does this differ by the classroom proportion of chronically absent classmates?
Subjects
This study used administrative data from an urban school district in California. The district consisted of 13 public elementary schools. From these schools, the analytic sample contained N = 14,891 student observations from 2011 to 2014.
Research Design
This study examined whether a student was more likely to be chronically absent in the spring semester of the school year if they had a chronically absent classmate in the fall. We employed linear probability models with multiple fixed effects and time-varying covariates. Errors were clustered at the classroom level.
Findings
We found that students were more likely to be chronically absent in the spring when their classmates were absent in the fall. This finding was consistent across model specifications.
Conclusions
This finding supports previous research, highlights the value of promoting fall attendance, and aligns with current national, fall-based attendance-boosting policies and programs. When taken together with the idea that absences affect not only the absent child, but also raise the chance of other students being absent, it becomes even more crucial for administrators and policymakers to make informed decisions to address chronic absenteeism.
... It boosts cognition for all children, and especially poor and minority children (Gormley & Gayer, 2005;Gormley et al., 2008). UPK also has been linked to supporting language development for low-income students (e.g., Henry & Rickman, 2007;Mashburn, Justice, Downer, & Pianta, 2009). ...
Communities of practice seek to support all members to move from the margins of education to the center. This study draws on data collected in one diverse universal pre-kindergarten (UPK) community in West Virginia over a 4-year period as a basis for considering home-school relationships. The findings indicated that while not yet a reality in the community due to persistent challenges, there is a deep interest among educators and diverse families to support their children's educations and to develop cross-cultural understandings. Given the current community context and the role of universal pre-kindergarten as a major pathway into K-12 education, this research found that it makes sense to pursue the development of communities of practice through induction, integration and investment strategies (Hong, 2011), with UPK serving as an important site for initial induction and integration.
... In contrast, affiliation with prosocial children led to a decrease in negative peer interactions and an increase in positive peer relationships (Fabes et al., 2012). The level of peer-group ability was also a significant predictor of preschool children's academic abilities (Henry & Rickman, 2007) and language skills (Mashburn et al., 2009). There is thus a clear need for generating scientific knowledge on the role of particular peers and the overall peer group characteristics and dynamics for individual child behaviour and skills (Abry et al., 2017). ...
Social experiences and opportunities during early childhood are consequential for children’s later development, defining its positive or negative trajectories. Beyond the family, the childcare setting is most important context for young children’s development and learning. In the context of early education and care, children are involved in various activities and routines, interacting with their caregivers and peers. In supportive environments and through positive peer-related experiences (e.g. being liked and accepted by peers, playing together, sharing positive emotions), children learn how to get along with others in appropriate and effective ways. However, children do not have equal opportunities for
positive experiences with peers, and some children are exposed to aggression, or are ignored or even actively rejected by their peer group. Whether a child has positive or negative social experiences depends on multiple factors that are both within the child (individual
characteristics such as biological factors, behavioural competencies and previous experiences), and within the context of the interaction (e.g. classroom characteristics, caregiving quality). Moreover, these factors may interact in predicting children’s outcomes. Understanding children’s relationships with peers and peer groups during early childhood
becomes increasingly interest and important. However, there has been much more research on caregiver-related experiences within the childcare setting than on children as part of their peer group.
The leading aim of the present thesis was to generate new knowledge of toddlers’ social experiences and interactions within Swiss mixed-age childcare, which is highly flexible and characterised by an extended age range and continually changing peer-group characteristics. This issue was addressed from different perspectives in an observational study
conducted in 9 Swiss childcare centres and including 15 groups with a total of N = 395 children. First, the study focused on associations between classroom age composition and how young children experience childcare in terms of the level of emotional and learning support that caregivers provide through their interactions with the children. Second, the study examined whether the age of peers is relevant to toddlers’ engagement in childcare settings, i.e. their social behaviour and competencies in interactions with adults and peers, and within tasks and activities. We also explored what other childcare-related and individual
characteristics contribute to children’s engagement in the childcare setting. More specifically, we examined the role of caregiver support, childcare stability, activity setting, group size and the number of caregivers present, as well as children’s social skills, sex and age. Finally, the study investigated the moderating role of emotional and behavioural support from caregivers in the association between toddlers’ social skills and their interactions with peers. Accordingly, we examined whether supportive caregiver-child interactions compensate for deficits in young children’s social skills.
One central finding of this thesis was that mixed-age grouping with an extended age range and a higher number of infants is challenging for caregivers, and leads to lower interaction quality between caregivers and children, and fewer learning opportunities. In
contrast, there were no indications that peer-group age composition is relevant to toddlers’ engagement. However, a range of other childcare-related characteristics (activity setting, group size, number of children present) were related to children’s behaviour. Our results also indicate the particular importance of social skills for young children’s behaviour in childcare. Children rated by their caregivers as being more sociable and assertive showed more positive interactions with peers, especially when receiving greater caregiver support.
The present thesis highlights the complexity, reciprocity and multifactorial nature of social behaviour and interpersonal relationships (in general and in childcare settings). The results are discussed in relation to previous research, and build a basis for important practical
implications and ideas for future research directions.
... The life skills of peers of whom they associate with (i.e., peer group life skills), and youth's relative life skills within a social group may influence life skill development and transfer (Gifford-Smith & Brownell, 2003;Henry & Rickman, 2007). Indeed, research in education suggests this may be the case. ...
Journal of Sport for Development
Sport-based positive youth development (PYD) programs are recognized as important contexts for promoting life skill development and transfer, especially among socially vulnerable youth. Past research has examined the role of social agents (e.g., coaches, staff, parents) in life skill development and transfer. While peers are identified as a critical social agent in sport-based PYD contexts, little English-speaking literature has examined the influence of peers on youth’s life skill outcomes. This case study examines multiple peer influences contributing to life skill outcomes among 483 youth involved in a sport-based PYD program. Cohen’s d demonstrated improved self-control, effort, teamwork, social competence, and transfer of learning outcomes from pre- to post-program. Using a series of hierarchical linear regression models, results demonstrate the degree of life skills among peers in one’s group, the youth’s relative life skills within their group, and the number of friends in one’s group predicted life skills scores at post-test after controlling for pre-test scores and demographics. These findings point to the importance of peers as significant social influences contributing to youth’s life skill outcomes in a sport-based PYD program. Sport practitioners can intentionally promote youth development through facilitated group processing, optimal peer group composition, and autonomy supportive staff practices.
... An alternative approach is to consider the skills of all students within a classroom, recognizing that in addition to direct child-to-child peer effects, indirect peer effects may exist even when two classmates do not interact directly or frequently. These studies of academic skillbased peer effects tend to find a small positive effect of having high achieving classmates (e.g., Henry & Rickman, 2007;Mashburn, Justice, Downer & Pianta, 2009), but the findings have been heterogenous both in direction and magnitude. For example, Marotta's (2017) study of Brazilian first graders and a study by Duflo, Dupas, and Kremer (2011) found that, on average, students performed better (0.17 SD and 0.52 SD, respectively) in classrooms with higher achieving peers. ...
Research on classroom peer effects has focused nearly exclusively on high-income countries and on academic skills. Little is known about peer effects in low-income countries and whether effects differ under different educational environments (e.g., teacher-directed versus child-centered, conditions of concentrated advantage or disadvantage). Based on a dataset of Ghanaian pre-primary classrooms in the Greater Accra Region collected in the 2015-2016 school year, we use complex system networks with multilevel modeling to study the presence and magnitude of peer effects. Results corroborated small statistically significant effects on academic and non-academic skills (d=0.06-0.10). Peer effects on literacy were larger for children in public schools, who are relatively more disadvantaged that their private school counterparts. Teacher-directivity intensity did not moderate peer effects.
... Peer influence in childhood has a particularly important role, as in this time period, children spend a large amount of time in their daily lives with friends (Henry & Rickman, 2007). These relationships play an important role in both cognitive and social development of a child. ...
Play activity is an integral part of childhood and accompanies most aspects of young children activity. In the new "culture" that has developed in recent years, digital games have become prominent and have replaced a number of "traditional" games in children's daily lives. This phenomenon has provoked a series of debates regarding the effect of digital games on children's overall development. Positive and negative views have been expressed, but undoubtedly, a new reality has been created, in which, the presence of digital games is intertwined with children's daily life. The current study attempted to investigate elementary school children's habits regarding the use of digital games through various sources (computer, tablet, gaming machine), their choices and preferences, as well as the conditions, under which they play (alone, with friends, etc.). In order to address the current research questions, a questionnaire was developed, based on a combination of an existing questionnaire as well as a number of variables that emerged from the literature review. Elementary school students in 2 nd , 3 rd , 4 th , and 5th grades of an elementary school in Volos, participated in the questionnaire , and a total of 81 questionnaires were collected and analysed.
... Research suggests pre-K children benefit from having peers with higher skills. The spillover is 20 percent: Including more kids with higher test scores increases the class test scores by 20 percent more than predicted based on the direct effect (Henry and Rickman 2007). 68 No one thinks that the ideal pre-K design is income-segregated "separate but equal" programs. ...
Background Without intervention and support, autistic children may have limited interactions with their peers in inclusive preschool settings, thus restricting the potential of this environment to support children’s learning and social development. Peer-mediated interventions (PMIs) include a variety of approaches which aim to support non-autistic and autistic children to interact with each other. Children have contributed little to the design and development of PMIs. This study aims to provide a qualitative, child-centred, description of the implementation of PMI, according to non-autistic preschool children. Methods Focus groups will be conducted with a convenient sample of preschool children recruited from a local preschool. Talk- and art-based activities will be used to generate discussion around a series of vignettes. Focus groups will be video, and audio recorded and transcribed and analysed using a reflexive approach to thematic analysis. Ethics and Dissemination Ethical approval has been granted by the Faculty of Education and Health Sciences University of Limerick, Research Ethics Committee (2024_04_05_EHS). Findings will be disseminated through journal publication and through distribution of lay summaries and an infographic.
The aim of this study is to investigate the social emotional well being of preschool children's in terms of coping skills with peer pressure. A relational screening method was used in this study. The sample group included 202 children aged 4-6 years. Personal Information Form, Social Skill Assessment Scale with the sub-dimension of coping skills with peer pressure, and social emotional well-being and resilience scale (PERIK) used as data collection tools. According to the findings of the research, it was determined that there was a positive correlation between skill level to coping with peer pressure and making contact/social performance, self-control/thoughtfulness, self-assertiveness, emotional stability/coping with stress, task orientation, pleasure in exploring. As the skill level of coping with peer pressure increases, the levels of the variables related to social emotional well-being and psychological resilience increase. As the level of skill coping with peer pressure descrease. It is seen a descrease in related variables. In addition, the perception of peer pressure coping skills predict making contact/social performance, self-control/ thoughtfulness, self-assertiveness, emotional stability/coping with stress, task orientation, pleasure in exploring significantly. The variables of coping skills with peer pressure which was the most predicted by social emotional well-being and psychological resilience were self-assertiveness and making contact/social performance, and the least predicted variable was responsibility task orientation.
New York City’s Pre-K for All (PKA) is the nation’s largest universal early childhood initiative, serving over 64,000 four-year-olds annually. Stemming from the program’s choice architecture as well as the city’s stark residential segregation, PKA programs are extremely segregated by child race/ethnicity. Our current study explores the complex forces that influence this segregation, including the interplay between family choices, seat availability, site-level enrollment priorities, and the PKA algorithm that weighs these and other considerations. We find that a majority of PKA segregation lies within local communities, and that areas with increased options and greater racial/ethnic diversity exhibit the most extreme segregation. We also conduct a simulation that leverages family PKA choices to maximize site-level racial/ethnic diversity and reduce between-site segregation.
This section considers the issue of class composition in primary schools and its effect on pupils’ educational progress. It contains the results of two independent studies conducted in two countries with quite different contexts – Russia and the Netherlands.KeywordsClass compositionEducational progressLongitudinal analysisHeterogeneity
https://depositum.uqat.ca/id/eprint/1403
Cette recherche avait pour premier objectif d’élaborer un dispositif pédagogique reposant sur la perspective vygotskienne et aidant les enseignant·es à la maternelle 4 ans à soutenir l’émergence de l’écrit des enfants en contexte de jeu symbolique. Son deuxième objectif était de décrire l’utilisabilité ainsi que l’utilité de ce dispositif, et ce, tel que perçues par des enseignant·es l’ayant mis à l’essai dans leur classe.
For many years, researchers studied EFs in the laboratory with a focus on understanding an individual child's development and brain processes in a controlled environment. Building on this foundational research, there is a growing interest in EFs in the context of a child's dynamic, social world and the contextual and compositional factors influencing EF development. This paper provides a descriptive view of EFs in 1,112 K‐3 children from six schools in Phoenix, AZ. The study's goals were to examine (1) variation in EF scores between and within schools and classrooms, (2) predictors of variation in children's spring EF scores, and (3) individual and compositional predictors of children's spring EF scores. Our findings indicate greater variation in children's EF within schools than between, with very little or no variation arising from differences between schools. Though we observed greater variation within classrooms than between them, a notable amount of variance in children's spring EF scores appears to arise from differences between classrooms. Classroom‐level variables, including a fall leave‐out classroom mean (without the students’ own score) and the number of children in the top or bottom grade‐level quartiles in each classroom, were significant predictors of variation in spring EF scores as well as in fall to spring changes in EF. In some cases, the classroom variables were stronger predictors than individual fall scores. Findings suggest that understanding variation and cultivating growth in EF skills requires intervention, measurement, and analytic approaches that extend beyond the individual to include compositional features of the classroom environment. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved
Voting in an election can be a complicated process, requiring both knowledge and motivation. According to the “primacy principle” and theories of “human capital formation,” early childhood learning has the potential to shape attitudes and behaviors later in life. If correct, these theories suggest that early childhood education could help develop skills necessary for voting. Using data from Tulsa Public Schools (TPS), we identify 4033 students who entered kindergarten in the fall of 2006. Approximately half of those students were enrolled in universal pre-K the year before. We then identify which of these students registered to vote and actually voted in the two years after they turned 18. Using propensity score weighting, we find that students enrolled in pre-K were more likely to register to vote and to vote in an election than those not enrolled in pre-K. We explore potential paths through which pre-K might increase civic participation. We find that pre-K increases both cognitive and socio-emotional skills and that an increase in these skills is associated with an increase in registering to vote (cognitive) and actual voting (cognitive and socio-emotional).
Background
In Canada, more than one in four children are considered vulnerable in at least one domain of development when they enter kindergarten. Recent studies have suggested that this ratio is higher among those who were previously maltreated. However, little is known about this associations at the neighborhood level, although it may be an interesting way to identify risk areas and highlight child welfare system data to prevent public health issues.
Objective
Using the census tract as the unit of measurement, this study examines the association between the proportions of vulnerable children in different domains of development upon entering kindergarten, and four indicators of child maltreatment (CM) among 0–5 year olds.
Participants, setting and method
This study is based on the secondary use of data from a survey on the development of kindergartners carried out in 2017, combined with data from child welfare records for that same year. The data have been aggregated on the basis of 759 census tracts located in four health regions of Quebec, Canada.
Results
The results of spatial regression analyses show that all indicators of maltreatment are positively and significantly associated with each indicator of developmental vulnerability. The size of these associations varies according to the indicators used (β = 0.192, p < .05 to β = 1.587, p < .001).
Conclusion
The results highlight the link between CM and school readiness, including potential externalities on neighborhood children. Neighborhoods at high risk of maltreatment could help identify areas with high rate of vulnerable children in early childhood.
Due to segregation in early childhood education, the demographic makeup of daycare centers varies considerably. At the same time, the daycare centers’ composition (e.g., the proportion of children living in poverty) affects children’s competences. However, as the exact relationship of this association is still unclear, we study the effect of preschool composition on children’s language skills at school entry by exploring linear and nonlinear relationships. Using the example of a medium-sized German city, we combine data from a school entry examination and a preschool survey (7,604 children in 84 daycare centers) and employ multivariate latent and logistic regression analyses within a multilevel modeling framework. We find indications for nonlinear relationship between daycare centers’ demographic composition and non-native children’s grammar and German skills. More precisely, a negative effect of increasing risk compilation proportions is weakened when proportions of 30–40% are reached. Possible explanations for this turning point are discussed.KeywordsSegregationComposition effectsLanguage skillsNon-native children
Having children of multiple ages in the same preschool classroom is a common practice, and age composition has been shown to shape children's learning. However, there is little understanding of the mechanisms that link age composition to children's development. In this study, we examined the extent to which classroom age composition shaped children's classroom engagement, as well as the mediating role of classroom engagement in the links between classroom age composition and children's language and literacy gains. The data were drawn from the Teacher Professional Development Study, a study of 895 4-year-olds across 223 classrooms. We found that positive engagement with teachers mediated associations between classroom age composition and children's vocabulary gains. Specifically, 4-year-olds in classrooms with a greater number of younger classmates experienced less positive engagement with their teachers, which in turn, contributed to smaller vocabulary gains across the year. In addition, being with a greater number of older classmates was associated with lower negative engagement in the classroom. Results are discussed in relation to exploring the critical role of children's individual-level classroom experiences in mixed-age preschool classrooms.
Bu araştırmada okul öncesi eğitim öğretmen adaylarının göçmen çocuklar için erken çocukluk eğitiminin kalite boyutları hakkındaki görüşlerinin incelenmesi amaçlanmıştır. Araştırmada nitel araştırma yöntemlerinden biri olan özel durum deseni kullanılmıştır. Bu araştırma İç Anadolu Bölgesinde yer alan bir devlet üniversitesinin Okul Öncesi Öğretmenliği Ana Bilim Dalı’nda okumakta olan 12 öğretmen adayı ile yürütülmüştür. Amaçlı örneklem yöntemi ile seçilen 12 katılımcı içerisinde 6 öğretmen adayı Türk uyruklu, altı öğretmen adayı ise göçmen/yabancı uyrukludur. Mevcut araştırmada Demografik Bilgiler Formu (DBF), Göçmen Eğitimi Uyum Etkinlikleri Sıralaması (GEUES) formu ve mülakat sorularından oluşan görüşme formu kullanılmıştır. Araştırmada nitel araştırmalarda elde edilen verilerin analizinde kullanılan tümden gelimsel içerik analizi tercih edilmiştir. Araştırma bulgularına göre, öğretmen adayları çocuklara yönelik okul öncesi eğitim kalitesi için akran, toplum, öğretmen, aile, çocuk, sınıf/öğrenme ortamı ve pedagojik öneriler olmak üzere yedi tema çerçevesinde görüş bildirmişlerdir. Araştırma sonuçları doğrultusunda çeşitli önerilerde bulunulmuştur.
Peers' skills matter for students' development in classroom contexts. Using a sample of 2950 students in 173 classrooms in public primary schools in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, the present study sought to validate an observational measure of classroom-level peer self-regulation and then used this measure to predict individual students' gains in cognitive regulation and social-emotional skills over an academic year. The classroom-level measure of peer self-regulation showed high levels of internal reliability and predictive validity. Specifically, higher levels of baseline peer self-regulation were associated with greater gains in individual students' performance on cognitive regulation and emotion knowledge tasks. These associations largely did not depend on students' baseline skills. This paper introduces a novel approach for measuring peer self-regulation at the classroom level, contributes to the literature on peer effects, and also expands the literature on students' social-emotional development in diverse global contexts.
The positive effects of pre-kindergarten (pre-K) programming may be enhanced in later grades for children who subsequently experience high-quality educational environments in elementary school. The current study tested this hypothesis in relation to the effects of North Carolina's NC Pre-K program on child outcomes at the end of kindergarten, including language, literacy, mathematics, and working memory. Measures of elementary school quality were examined as moderators of the NC Pre-K effects, including school-wide academic proficiency and school-wide growth in academic achievement. We found no reliable effects of NC Pre-K participation for children attending elementary schools with average levels of quality. However, the positive effects of NC Pre-K participation on language and working memory skills were evident for children attending elementary schools with higher levels of academic proficiency and academic growth, respectively. No evidence of moderation was found in relation to literacy and mathematics skills.
Heterogeneity in treatment effects of MyTeachingPartner (MTP), a professional development coaching intervention focused on improving teacher–student interactions, was examined for 1407 4-year-old preschoolers who were enrolled in classrooms that served children between the ages of 3 and 5. On average, there were no consistent impacts of MTP coaching on children’s school performance, but there was evidence of moderation in treatment effects as a function of classroom age diversity, defined as the proportion of children who were not 4 years of age. MTP coaching improved children’s expressive vocabulary, literacy skills, and inhibitory control in classrooms that served primarily 4-year-olds and were less age diverse. These effects were in large part due to MTP causing improvements in teachers’ instructional support that in turn was more predictive of children’s skills in less age-diverse classrooms. Results also indicated that the nature of age diversity did not matter; a greater number of 3- or 5-year-old classmates equally reduced the benefits of the MTP intervention for 4-year-olds. The sole exception occurred for receptive vocabulary, in which case, MTP was most effective in classrooms with a larger number of older (but not younger) children. Taken together, these results suggest that under the right circumstances, the benefits of professional development that improve early childhood educators’ teaching practices can also translate into benefits for students.
Grouping children of different ages in the same preschool classroom (i.e., mixed age) is widespread, but the evidence supporting this practice is mixed. A factor that may play a role in the relation between classroom age composition and child outcomes is peer skill. This study used a sample of 6,338 preschoolers (ages 3–5) to examine the influence of both classroom age composition and peer skill on children’s behavioral and language outcomes. Results supported the growing literature indicating preschoolers’ skills are higher when peer skill is higher, but differences related to classroom age composition were not found. These findings further support the view that peer skill plays an important role in preschool children’s outcomes.
We would like to acknowledge the hard work and dedication of all the graduate research assistants and consultants who have worked on this project. In particular, we would like to thank We owe a special thanks to Nicole Andrews-Lewis, who spent many hours working with the schools. In addition, we appreciate the time and effort contributed by all of the teachers, staff, and administrators in the preschools participating in the study. We also wish to recognize the important contributions of the parents of the children in the study, who allowed us to observe and assess their children and who took their time to complete surveys. Finally, we wish to recognize the cooperation of many Georgia kindergarten teachers, school secretaries and data clerks, elementary school principals, and school system superintendents. No study such as this could be completed without the assistance of several hundred individuals across Georgia who invested their time with the hope that the information could ultimately benefit the children of the state.
The National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) Study of Early Child Care compared 3 statistical methods that adjust for family selection bias to test whether child care type and quality relate to cognitive and academic skills. The methods included: multiple regression models of 54-month outcomes, change models of differences in 24- and 54-month outcomes, and residualized change models of 54-month outcomes adjusting for the 24-month outcome. The study was unable to establish empirically which model best adjusted for selection and omitted-variable bias. Nevertheless, results suggested that child care quality predicted cognitive outcomes at 54 months, with effect sizes of .04 to .08 for both infant and preschool ages. Center care during preschool years also predicted outcomes across all models.
Three different preschool models operating in an urban school district were identified through cluster analysis of teacher responses to the Pre-K Survey of Beliefs and Practices. The language, self-help, social, motor, and adaptive development, along with mastery of basic skills, of 721 4-year-olds randomly selected from these models were compared. Children in the child-initiated model demonstrated greater mastery of basic skills than did children in programs in which academics were emphasized and skills were taught. Children in the combination model did significantly poorer on all measures except self-help and development of social coping skills compared with children in either the child-initiated or academically directed models. Girls outperformed boys in all areas except gross motor development and play and leisure skills. Implications for educational policymakers are discussed.
Most studies of the long-term effects of early childhood educational interventions are of demonstration programs rather than large-scale public programs. Previous studies of one of the oldest federally funded preschool programs have reported positive effects on school performance, but effects on educational attainment and crime are unknown.
To determine the long-term effectiveness of a federal center-based preschool and school-based intervention program for urban low-income children.
Fifteen-year follow-up of a nonrandomized, matched-group cohort of 1539 low-income, mostly black children born in 1980 and enrolled in alternative early childhood programs in 25 sites in Chicago, Ill.
The Chicago Child-Parent Center (CPC) Program (n = 989 children) provides comprehensive education, family, and health services and includes half-day preschool at ages 3 to 4 years, half- or full-day kindergarten, and school-age services in linked elementary schools at ages 6 to 9 years. The comparison group (n = 550) consisted of children who participated in alternative early childhood programs (full-day kindergarten): 374 in the preschool comparison group from 5 randomly selected schools plus 2 others that provided full-day kindergarten and additional instructional resources and 176 who attended full-day kindergartens in 6 CPCs without preschool participation.
Rates of high school completion and school dropout by age 20 years, juvenile arrests for violent and nonviolent offenses, and grade retention and special education placement by age 18 years.
Relative to the preschool comparison group and adjusted for several covariates, children who participated in the preschool intervention for 1 or 2 years had a higher rate of high school completion (49.7 % vs 38.5%; P =.01); more years of completed education (10.6 vs 10.2; P =.03); and lower rates of juvenile arrest (16.9% vs 25.1%; P =.003), violent arrests (9.0% vs 15.3%; P =.002), and school dropout (46.7% vs 55.0%; P =.047). Both preschool and school-age participation were significantly associated with lower rates of grade retention and special education services. The effects of preschool participation on educational attainment were greater for boys than girls, especially in reducing school dropout rates (P =.03). Relative to less extensive participation, children with extended program participation from preschool through second or third grade also experienced lower rates of grade retention (21.9% vs 32.3%; P =.001) and special education (13.5% vs 20.7%; P =.004).
Participation in an established early childhood intervention for low-income children was associated with better educational and social outcomes up to age 20 years. These findings are among the strongest evidence that established programs administered through public schools can promote children's long-term success.
In this study of Oklahoma's universal pre-K program, the authors relied on a strict birthday eligibility criterion to compare "young" kindergarten children who just completed pre-K to "old" pre-K children just beginning pre-K. This regression-discontinuity design reduces the threat of selection bias. Their sample consisted of 1,567 pre-K children and 1,461 kindergarten children who had just completed pre-K. The authors estimated the impact of the pre-K treatment on Woodcock-Johnson Achievement test scores. The authors found test impacts of 3.00 points (0.79 of the standard deviation for the control group) for the Letter-Word Identification score, 1.86 points (0.64 of the standard deviation of the control group) for the Spelling score, and 1.94 points (0.38 of the standard deviation of the control group) for the Applied Problems score. Hispanic, Black, White, and Native American children all benefit from the program, as do children in diverse income brackets, as measured by school lunch eligibility status. The authors conclude that Oklahoma's universal pre-K program has succeeded in enhancing the school readiness of a diverse group of children.
Interest in social interactions neighborhood effects and social dynamics in the last several years has seen a revival Unfortunately little progress has been made on empirical estimation of such interactions and testing for their presence on the development of policy interventions which work through social interactions or on the evaluation of such interventions because several basic identification and estimation problems have not been seriously confronted Nevertheless most of these problems are in principle solvable and methods for identifying social interactions and estimating their magnitudes are available and are outlined in this paper These methods address simultaneity correlated unobservables errors-in-variables and endogenous group membership problems Moreover while policy interventions with presumed effects on social interactions have not been well-designed thus far at least to measure social interactions per se this problem is not inherent and several policy interventions are suggested which could work primarily through social interactions and whose evaluation could establish their magnitudes
A theoretical and computational model with tax-financed, tuition-free public schools and competitive, tuition-financed private schools is developed. Students differ by ability and income. Achievement depends on own ability and on peers' abilities. Equilibrium has a strict hierarchy of school qualities and two-dimensional student sorting with stratification by ability and income. In private schools, high-ability, low-income students receive tuition discounts, while low-ability, high-income students pay tuition premia. Tuition vouchers increase the relative size of the private sector and the extent of student sorting and benefit high-ability students relative to low-ability students. Copyright 1998 by American Economic Association.
Assessment of Early Childhood Environments for preschool aged children
Many argue that the composition of a school or classroom-that is, the characteristics of the students themselves-affect the educational attainment of an individual student. This influence of the students in a classroom is often referred to as a peer effect, There have been few systematic studies that empirically examined the peer effect in the educational process. In this research, we examine the peer effect with a unique data set that includes individual student achievement scores and comprehensive characteristics of the students' families, teachers, other school characteristics, and peers for five countries. The data allow an examination of peer effects in both private and public schools in all countries. Our analysis indicates that peer effects are a significant determinant of educational achievement; the effects of peers appear to be greater for low-ability students than for high-ability students. The finding is robust across countries but not robust across school type. (C) 2000 by the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management.
Since the mid-1990s, three states, including Oklahoma, have established a universal pre-kindergarten (pre-K) program. We analyze the effects of Oklahoma's universal pre-kindergarten (pre-K) program forfour-year-olds on children in Tulsa Public Schools (TPS). The main difficulty with testing the causal impact of a voluntary pre-K program is that certain parents are more likely to select pre-K, and these parents might have other unobservable characteristics that influence the test outcomes of their children. Because TPS administered an identical test in September 2001 to children just beginning pre-K and children just beginning kindergarten, we can compare test outcomes of "old" pre-kindergarten students to test outcomes of "young" kindergarten students who attended pre-K the previous year We find that the Tulsa pre-K program increases cognitive/knowledge scores by approximately 0.39 standard deviation, motor skills scores by approximately 0.24 standard deviation, and language scores by approximately 0.38 standard deviation. Impacts tend to be largest,for Hispanics, followed by blacks, with little impact for whites. Children who qualify for a free lunch have larger impacts than other children.
The paper presents empirical evidence that earlier research may have overstated the impact of ability grouping and tracking on inequality in student achievement. We list six key difficulties facing research on the effects of grouping on student achievement. Each of these difficulties offers opportunities for further research and for collection of more appropriate data sets. Strong conclusions as to the differential effect of ability grouping on high-achieving and low-achieving students are probably not yet warranted. [JEL I21].
Single equation models of educational achievement that have been estimated by OLS have tended to ignore the effects of omitting relevant variables. These omitted variables may lead to biased and inconsistent estimates. Further, past research frequently obscures the correct interpretation of the estimated coefficients. This paper considers three frequently estimated models of educational achievement: the case when only cross-sectional data are available, the case when "pre" and "post" measures of achievement are available, and the case where one has more complete panel data. Starting from a general cumulative model of achievement, we outline sufficient assumptions to produce readily interpretible OLS estimates which have good statistical properties. With only cross-sectional data, these assumptions are almost certainly not met in most research. With two measures of achievement, useful estimates with good statistical properties can be obtained if we make quite restrictive assumptions concerning the relationships among the explanatory variables. With panel data, simple OLS can produce coefficients with good statistical properties under fairly general conditions. The use of multiple measures, however, may lead to multicollinearity which one must balance off against the gain in efficiency.
This article describes the Oral and Written Language Scales, an assessment of receptive and expressive language for children and young adults aged 3 to 21. The test assesses overall language skills and specific performance in oral expression, listening comprehension, and written expression. Its administration, standardization, reliability, and validity are discussed. (Contains references.) (CR)
As part of the Cost, Quality, and Outcomes Study, child and family characteristics were tested to see whether they moderated the relation between center-based child care quality and preschool children's concurrent cognitive and socioemotional development. Analyses included a multisite sample of 170 child-care centers of varying quality and 757 children (mean age 4.3 yrs). Results provide further evidence that there is a positive relation between child-care quality (both observed classroom practices and teacher ratings of teacher-child closeness) and children's cognitive and socioemotional outcomes. Moderating influences of family characteristics were observed for some outcomes, indicating stronger positive effects of child-care quality for children from more at-risk backgrounds. Further, there was no evidence that children from more advantaged families were buffered from the effects of poor-quality care. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Many argue that the composition of a school or classroom-that is, the characteristics of the students themselves-affect the educational attainment of an individual student. This influence of the students in a classroom is often referred to as a peer effect. There have been few systematic studies that empirically examine the peer effect in the educational process. In this research, we examine the peer effect with a unique data set that includes individual student achievement scores and comprehensive characteristics of the students' families, teachers, other school characteristics, and peers for five countries. The data allow an examination of peer effects in both private and public schools in all countries. Our analysis indicates that peer effects are a significant determinant of educational achievement; the effects of peers appear to be greater for low-ability students than for high-ability students. The finding is robust across countries but not robust across school type. © 2000 by the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management.
This study assesses the relative effects through age 23 on young participants born in poverty of the High/Scope, Direct Instruction, and traditional Nursery School preschool curriculum models. At ages 3 and 4, 68 children were randomly assigned to the models, which were implemented independently and to high standards, in 2-hour classes 5 days a week and biweekly 1-hour home visits. For a decade, virtually no curriculum group differences in intellectual and academic performance were found. In many areas, no statistically significant differences were found at age 15 or at age 23; however, a pattern of group differences in community behavior did emerge at age 15 and became more pronounced at age 23. At age 15 the Direct Instruction group reported committing 2 times as many acts of misconduct as the High/Scope group. At age 23, compared to the other curriculum groups, the Direct Instruction group had three times as many felony arrests per person, especially those involving property crimes; 47% of the Direct Instruction group was treated for emotional impairment or disturbance during their schooling, as compared to only 6% of either of the other curriculum groups. These results are attributed to the emphasis on planning, social reasoning, and other social objectives in the High/Scope curriculum and the Nursery School curriculum, but not in the Direct Instruction curriculum. The results of this study do not consistently distinguish between the long-term effectiveness of the High/Scope and traditional Nursery School currculums, but the High/Scope curriculum model is more readily replicated because of its more precise definition. These findings argue against using Direct Instruction in preschool programs and for using a well-defined curriculum model based on child-initiated learning activities.
The paper presents empirical evidence that earlier research may have overstated the impact of ability grouping and tracking on inequality in student achievement. We list six key difficulties facing research on the effects of grouping on student achievement. Each of these difficulties offers opportunities for further research and for collection of more appropriate data sets. Strong conclusions as to the differential effect of ability grouping on high-achieving and low-achieving students are probably not yet warranted. [JEL I21]
For some socioeconomic outcomes of interest to government policy-makers, the influence of “peer groups” may be important. For example, students' performance in school may be affected by characteristics of their classmates. If peer group effects exist, governments may be able to manipulate them to better achieve policy objectives. An example of this is the choice between “mixing” and “streaming” students of different “abilities” in public schools. Several recent studies have examined the influence of peer group effects. This paper argues that past attempts to estimate their impact may have used insufficiently flexible techniques. In particular, they have emphasized the mean of peer characteristics without taking into account their overall distribution. The paper shows how estimation can be done that takes the shape of the distribution into account, and how failure to do so can yield seriously misleading results.
This book is about children's learning and problem-solving behavior. Paul Light and Karen Littleton address, in both theoretical and empirical terms, the ways in which interactions between children influence learning outcomes. The authors describe a series of their own experiments conducted with groups of school children. Many of the studies involve computer-based learning and problem-solving, but the findings are of more general significance. In particular, they have implications both for classroom practice and the understanding of the learning process. This book is a valuable tool for psychologists and educationists.
Although there is widespread agreement that compensatory preschool education can produce short-term gains in test scores, its ability to produce meaningful long-term improvements in educational and economic success has been questioned. This paper reviews the evidence regarding long-term effects, including a classical experiment and benefit-cost analysis. It is concluded that compensatory preschool education can produce long-term gains in school success through contributions to cognitive abilities not adequately measured by Intelligence (IQ) tests. Greater educational success is accompanied by substantial improvements in social and economic outcomes including employment, teen pregnancy, and welfare assistance.
Measuring educational performance and understanding its determinants are important for designing policies with respect to such varying issues as teacher accountability, educational finance systems, and school integration. Unfortunately, past analyses of student achievement and educational production relationships have been plagued by both a lack of conceptual clarity and a number of potentially severe analytical problems. As a result, there is considerable confusion not only about what has been learned, but also about how such studies should be conducted and what can be learned. This review considers each of these issues and also relates knowledge from these studies to research about areas other than just school operations and performance.
Health services researchers are often interested in the effect of a treatment or a service in situations in which randomization is difficult or impossible. One useful alternative involves propensity score methods, a means for matching members of different groups based on a range of characteristics. Under certain assumptions, comparisons of the matched groups reveal the impact of the treatment of interest.
This article reviews propensity score methods and illustrates their use in an analysis of dose response, the relationship between the volume of services received, and treatment outcomes. In mental health policy, this question is central to key issues such as parity.
Data for the illustrative analysis are taken from a well-known study of children's mental health services. This analysis estimates the impact of outpatient therapy based on comparisons of individuals receiving different treatment doses. Those comparisons are adjusted for preexisting observed differences among the groups using propensity score methods.
The study includes 301 participants aged 5 to 18 years treated at the study sites.
The analyses are based on family characteristics and the mental health status of children and adolescents reported in interviews with parents as well as administrative data on service use.
Analyses using propensity score matching suggest that added services improve treatment outcomes, especially child functioning. However, at least for the services and outcomes considered, the marginal benefits to high levels of treatment are limited.
These analyses illustrate the potential value of propensity score methods to health services researchers.
Empirical analysis of peer effects on student achievement has been open to question because of the difficulties of separating peer effects from other confounding influences. While most econometric attention has been directed at issues of simultaneous determination of peer interactions, we argue that issues of omitted and mismeasured variables are likely to be more important. We control for the most important determinants of achievement that will confound peer estimates by removing student and school-by-grade fixed effects in addition to observable family and school characteristics. The analysis also addresses the reciprocal nature of peer interactions and the interpretation of estimates based upon models using past achievement as the measure of peer group quality. The results indicate that peer achievement has a positive effect on achievement growth. Moreover, students throughout the school test score distribution appear to benefit from higher achieving schoolmates. On the other hand, the variance in achievement appears to have no systematic effect. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
We show that the length of compulsory education has a causal impact on regional labour mobility. The analysis is based on a quasi-exogenous staged Norwegian school reform, and register data on the whole population. Based on the results, we conclude that part of the US-Europe difference, as well as the European North-South difference in labour mobility, is likely to be due to differences in levels of education in the respective regions.
This paper estimates an, educational production function. Educational attainment is a function of peer group, parental input and schooling. Conventional measures of school quality are not good predictors for academic attainment, once we control for peer group effects; parental qualities also have strong effects on academic, attainment. This academic attainment is then a key determinant of subsequent labour market success, as measured by earnings. The main methodological innovation in this paper is the nomination of a set of instruments, very broad regions of birth, which, as a whole, pass close scrutiny for validity and permit unbiased estimation of the production function.
This paper estimates an educational production function. Educational attainment is a function of peer group, parental input and schooling. Conventional measures of school quality are not good predictors for academic attainment, once we control for peer group effects; parental qualities also have strong effects on academic attainment. This academic attainment is a then a key determinant of subsequent labour market success, as measured by earnings. The main methodological innovation in this paper is the nomination of a set of instruments, very broad regions of birth, which, as a whole, pass close scrutiny for validity and permit unbiased estimation of the production function. Copyright The London School of Economics and Political Science 2003
Peabody picture vocabulary test -III performance record, form a
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Woodcock– Johnson III tests of achievement. Itasca, IL: Riverside Publishing. ARTICLE IN PRESS G.T. Henry, D.K. Rickman / Economics of Education Review 26 (2007) 100–112
Successes in early intervention: the Chicago child-parent canters
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GA: Georgia Office of School Readiness and the National Institute for Early Education Research
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Head Start: Background and funding
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Is more treatment better than less?: An application of propensity score matching
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Foster, E. M. (2003). " Is more treatment better than less?: An application of propensity score
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Long term effects of and Childhood intervention on educational achievement and juvenile arrest
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Middle school ability grouping and student achievement in science and mathematics
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