Research into practice: interventions for infants, toddlers, and preschoolers.

This issue features seven studies that address affective as well as academic educational outcomes. The first article incorporates teachers' perceptions of the role of technology in supporting English language learners' writing. The second article highlights results for two cohorts of young children served by an Early Reading First program at kindergarten and 1st grade entry, compared to peers not served by this intervention program. The third article continues a series of research studies on young teachers' ability to deal with episodes of spurning by their peers and the effects of preservice training on their coping skills in these situations. The fourth article explores self-perceptions and emotional understanding among boys and girls ages 5 to 8. The fifth article provides results of a two-year study of children's perceptions and insights about the child care programs they attended. The sixth article explores the relationships among teachers' work environments in child care, administrative and leadership qualities, and the quality of the program children experience. The seventh article presents the results of a longitudinal study comparing high school academic achievement of Montessori-educated students to their traditionally schooled peers. This column summarizes the content of each article and suggests implications for educators and future research studies.

Enhancing the Writing Development of English Language Learners: Teacher Perceptions of Common Technology in Project-Based Learning--Foulger & Jimenez-Silva

As the latest census data show, the numbers of English language learners within the United States and its schools have increased. Teachers seek more effective means of supporting these students as they acquire a second language and become literate in their new language. English language learners require appropriate instruction, modeling, and increased access to needed information, clarification, and translation. Building writing skills, fluency, and expression can present difficulties for individuals who are only beginning to feel confident in listening to and speaking English. This study explored teachers' perceptions of the role of technology in promoting English language learners' writing skills throughout an academic year as students were involved in a project-based environment.

As the researchers noted, project-based learning encompasses a number of complex receptive and productive language skills as students are immersed in authentic situations. Coupled with technology, in the form of increased access to computers (1:5 students) for writing, e-mailing, collaborating, and researching, English language learners were afforded opportunities to build their expressive ability throughout the year. Fourteen K-8 teachers who volunteered to participate in the project documented their classroom activities and collected evidence of the benefits and specific technology tools supporting the English language learners. Teachers ranged from novice (less than 3 years in classroom) to experienced, and their technology skills varied from functional to independent users. Each teacher, supported by one-on-one work with a professional developer, created project-based units of study incorporating technology, received ongoing technology training, and met periodically with project teachers to share ideas and learn new skills. When necessary, teachers received one-on-one or small-group training. Data sources included teachers' reflective writing collected at three points during the year at project meetings. The professional developer provided specific prompts to identify classroom management, student and teacher goals, changes in students and themselves, ways student learning was enhanced by technology, and support for English language learners' writing development. The teachers' 34 written reflections were from one to three single-spaced pages in length.

Data analysis was conducted by the two researchers, who coded the frequency of responses according to the seven techniques teachers use to support English language learners' writing: 1) sense of community, 29 percent; 2) genuine audience, 23 percent; 3) safe environment, 15 percent; 4) a real reason for writing, 12 percent; 5) useful feedback, 9 percent; 6) access to role models, 8 percent; and 7) time and opportunity to write, 4 percent. Then the use of technology in each of these techniques was noted. Since access to computers was limited to five per classroom, many opportunities for communication among small groups and collaboration with peers enabled those with limited English language proficiency to be supported and develop independence. Through e-mail communication, English language learners had wider audiences, took bigger risks in their writing, and experienced increased motivation to write. Teachers identified similar opportunities for multimedia publishing, along with more interest and effort during revision and editing. Finally, technology had several affective influences--increasing students' willingness to take risks with their writing, higher levels of self-confidence and self-esteem, and better receptiveness to feedback.

Future research in this area is warranted, especially studies documenting English language learners' increased levels of written fluency, expression, vocabulary, syntax, and semantics. Although teachers identified seven practices as contributing to students' writing, the contribution and significance of each one is not evident. Are some of these practices more essential to English language learners' development than others? How do differing levels of English language fluency change as a result of writing experiences and collaboration with English-speaking role models? There also should be a comparison between the amount and quality of writing that students produce using technology versus traditional paper and pencil.

Results for Year 2 of an Early Reading First Project--Martin, Emfinger, Snyder, & O'Neal

Among the No Child Left Behind programs in the United States, Early Reading First projects were initiated to support the literacy of economically disadvantaged children. These programs are part of a long tradition of such early intervention programs as Head Start, Even Start, and Reading Recovery, which are designed to enhance young children's literacy and language development and to prevent the need for future remedial services during later school years. Historically, children who are targeted for these programs have been identified as at-risk for school failure due to a combination of socioeconomic, language, and contextual variables. How effectively does an Early Reading First project promote the literacy and language development of economically disadvantaged children necessary for school success? The authors present results of the second year's implementation of their project and compare the progress of the disadvantaged children to a sample of higher SES children in the same community at kindergarten and 1st grade entry.

The Early Reading First project incorporated several research-based components for enhancing children's familiarity with print, reading, writing, and school language while simultaneously delivering professional development and coaching for the teachers and aides and supporting parent involvement in early literacy activities with their children. Two cohorts of low-income children from both years of the project were included in the study. Cohort 1, who were currently in kindergarten, numbered 31, along with a comparison group of 29 children from working-class and middle-income homes. Cohort 2 included 100 four-year-olds, who were predominantly African American, attending one of 11 classrooms, two of which served primarily Spanish-speakers. A comparison group consisted of approximately 30 children from working-class or middle-income homes attending preschools that charged a fee for attending. The researchers employed several data sources, including the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test-III (PPVT-III), as a pretest-posttest measure of receptive vocabulary; the Language and Emergent Literacy Assessment (LELA), a locally developed instrument with six scales for letter recognition, book knowledge, expressive language, beginning sounds, phonemic awareness, and rhyming; and the Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills (DIBELS), a standardized measure of pre-reading and early reading skills.

Cohort 2 and their comparison group were assessed at the beginning and end of the year prior to kindergarten entry with the PPVT-III, but there were no statistical differences between the two groups in pretest-posttest gains. However, 61 percent of the Early Reading First group students had a standard score of 85 (the age expectation for the project) compared to 18 percent for the comparison group. Although the two groups were initially very different on the Letter Recognition Test of the LELA and the comparison group identified many more upper- and lowercase letters, the treatment group made substantial gains by the end of the year, identifying 6 more letters than the comparison group. On the remaining subtests of the LELA, the pretest-posttest results revealed gains of one standard deviation or more; no data for the comparison group were obtained. Comparisons of DIBELS subtests between Cohort 1 and their control group peers at kindergarten entry showed both groups were at or near the benchmark expectations and that Cohort 1's initial deficit in initial sound fluency decreased during the first semester of kindergarten. During kindergarten, both treatment and comparison groups made substantial gains on the DIBELS subtests; however, at the beginning of 1st grade, Cohort 1's students' scores on Letter Naming Fluency and Phoneme Segmentation Fluency subtests showed less "summer regression" at the start of 1st grade than evidenced in the comparison group results.

This study underscores the importance of early intervention programs in preparing disadvantaged children for school success. Yet programs such as Early Reading First offering one year of services and quality instruction may be insufficient in making lasting or substantial differences beyond school entry. As shown in this project, parent involvement programs must extend beyond providing literacy materials and guarantee consistent interaction with books and language for the children by providing modeling and monitoring within the homes. The PPVT data from this study are particularly troubling because the low scores in receptive vocabulary and verbal ability indicate increased risk for school failure among children living in this community. These results underscore the need for multiple-year programs, especially in communities with similar populations.

Experience of Being Spurned: Coping Style, Stress Preparation, and Depersonalization in Beginning Kindergarten Teachers--Wong, Cheuk, & Rosen

One of the recurring issues of concern in education is the retention of new teachers. Attempts to decrease the number of teachers leaving the profession within the first five years have centered on field and internship requirements, content of methods courses, induction programs, and mentoring beginning teachers. Yet few studies have examined the workplace stressors that may contribute to teacher attrition. The present study focused on beginning teachers' experiences with being spurned by fellow teachers and their coping styles when their offers of help to peers were rejected.

Building upon their work with primary and secondary teachers, the authors included a new population--kindergarten teachers. In their previous studies, Cheuk, Wong, and Rosen established a link between being spurned and secondary teachers' burnout in Hong Kong. Additionally, the researchers attempted to replicate their study of the effects of stress preparation on kindergarten teachers in Hong Kong. The sample included 100 graduates of a preservice teacher training program from the University of Macau. All participants were female Chinese who ranged in age from 21 to 33 years. Questionnaires administered at three intervals during the study provided the data sources. Before the school term began, the teachers responded to a seven-item questionnaire that included two items assessing stress preparation for being spurned. One item assessed the degree to which they expected their help to be rejected by peer teachers, and the second item assessed their perceptions of being prepared to deal with resistant peer teachers. Six months later, teachers responded to a 12-item scale that rated the degree to which they were spurned by peer teachers and to the Ways of Coping Questionnaire to identify the extent to which teachers used problem-focused or emotion-focused strategies and coping. One item on an 11-item scale assessed teachers' views of the extent to which they could overcome peer resistance to help. Four months later, a five-item questionnaire measuring the extent of depersonalization the teachers had experienced was administered.

A two-way ANOVA was conducted to examine the effects of being spurned on kindergarten teachers' depersonalization and coping styles. Results showed that teachers whose coping style was high on problem-focused coping and low on emotion-focused coping experienced lower levels of depersonalization. Regression analysis showed similar results for problem-focused coping strategies. Similarly, a correlational analysis between the item assessing perception of change and scores on the two coping styles (problem-focused and emotion-focused) showed a positive correlation (r = .43) between teachers' perceptions of change and a coping style that was high on problem-based coping and low on emotion. Thus, teachers whose views reflected this coping style perceived peer resistance as changeable. Surprisingly, there was a significant positive correlation (r = .39) for teachers who were low on problem-focused coping and high on emotion-focused coping; they also viewed peer resistance as changeable. A regression analysis revealed that stress preparation did affect the level of spurning that teachers experienced. Teachers who had higher levels of stress preparation were less spurned.

While the kindergarten teachers experienced a moderate degree of being spurned, it was higher than that found for the primary and secondary teachers in the authors' previous studies. The causal link between being spurned and depersonalization was further supported by this study's findings. Other research studies have shown that depersonalization has additional adverse job-related effects that impact students and schools, such as negative attitudes toward students, negative job performance, resistance to implementing new programs that may support student learning, and quitting the profession. The authors suggest that their findings may be culturally based, since the social norms for Chinese culture necessitate the offering of help to the needy. Thus, further research in different cultural settings should explore the extent to which spurning of new teachers occurs, as well as the effects of stress preparation on beginning teachers' coping skills.

Children's Understandings of Emotions and Self: Are There Gender Differences?--Bosacki

More than ever, educators and parents are concerned about the effects of the media and society on their children's self-concepts and emotional well-being. Our culture's emphasis on physical attractiveness and popularity influences both children's awareness of their body image at a much younger age as well as their expectations for acceptance among peers and adults. Children develop one set of understandings based upon their experiences and responses from their families. Yet few studies have explored how children's self-awareness and understanding of others' emotions change during their early years of schooling.

How do girls' and boys' self-perceptions and emotion understanding differ? The present study explores this question among 91 children between the ages of 5 and 8 from middle-class, English-speaking, Euro-Canadian backgrounds. This convenience sample, recruited from two schools, included 52 females whose mean age was 6 years, 4 months, and 39 males with a mean age of 6 years, 3 months. Parent questionnaires provided demographic information about family structure. Data sources for self-concept comprised three subscales from Harter's Self-Perception Profile for Children (SPPC), which assessed behavioral conduct, physical appearance, and global self-worth. The SPPC was administered as a paper-and-pencil task in a group setting; the researcher read each question aloud and the children selected the answer that best represented them. Children's self-understanding was assessed using six questions adapted from Damon and Hart's self-understanding interview to specifically examine subjects' self-continuity, self-agency, and self-distinctiveness. Children's responses to interview questions were audiotaped and transcribed. Finally, children's emotion understanding was assessed using a scenario consisting of the researcher showing each child a cartoon picture of an ambiguous puppet character looking into a mirror and saying, "I feel fat." A series of questions were posed to differentiate the sophistication and accuracy of children's emotion word labeling and their understanding of emotional situations. Responses for emotion labeling and emotion explanation were coded on 3-point scales, with higher scores indicating more sophisticated emotion understanding.

Results of correlational analysis showed a significant correlation between the mother's educational level and global self-worth of boys (.329), but not for girls. A series of MANOVAs did not find gender differences for scores on the emotion understanding task and the self-perception questionnaire. Pearson correlations calculated for the entire sample revealed that higher levels of emotion understanding were related to lower self-ratings of physical appearance. However, when the genders were analyzed separately, girls' higher ratings of emotion understanding were significantly correlated to higher levels of self-understanding and a positive correlation between girls' global self-worth and perceived behavioral conduct was found. For both boys and girls, correlations between total self-understanding scores and self-perception subscales (behavioral conduct, physical appearance, global self-worth) were not significant. There were no significant differences between boys and girls on responses to the emotion understanding task. Thus, girls and boys did not differ significantly on self and emotional understanding.

These findings have important implications for parents and teachers in understanding and promoting healthy emotional development. Children's positive perceptions of their physical appearance influenced their feelings of personal happiness. Within the classroom, comments and reactions from adults and peers can validate or change these self-perceptions. Gender role expectations promoted by society and the media define the ideal physical self for children. Therefore, discussions of an individual's appearance and attractiveness need to be monitored to avoid perpetuating these stereotypes. Although society expects girls to understand and read others' emotions accurately, should we not expect boys to develop this same sensitivity? Above all, we should not ignore how children's emotional and self-development are influenced by stereotypical beliefs about gender. Thus, we must accept the responsibility to monitor our own language and behavior to avoid perpetuating these harmful expectations and messages. Future research within school contexts may reveal the influences of teacher and peer talk on children's emotional competence.

"[I] Play a Lot" Children's Perceptions of Child Care--Ceglowski & Bacigalupa

As more parents are employed outside the home, increasing numbers of children are enrolled in child care programs that range from babysitting, licensed preschool facilities, and school-based after-care programs. Previous studies of child care have focused on the quality of the programs, curriculum, staffing, and standards as well as on the views of teachers, parents, and educational researchers. Yet few studies have investigated children's perceptions and evaluations of the quality of the child care they received. The present study was designed to explore children's descriptions of their child care experiences, identifying the common elements within varying age groups.

The researchers conducted a two-year study of the quality of child care experienced by 94 children from Minnesota families representing four counties and eligible for subsidized assistance or sliding scales for payment of services. Both urban and rural families were included, with 13 percent speaking a language other than English. The children ranged in age from 1 to 18, consisting of four age groups: under 2-1/2 years (10); 2-1/2 to 4 years (19); 5 to 11 years (59); and 12 to 18 years (15). Four types of child care were represented in the study: 1) family, friends, and neighbor (FFN), usually unlicensed and informal; 2) licensed family care homes (FCC); 3) child care centers (CCC); and 4) school-age child care programs (SACC) located in schools serving half-day kindergarten children and before- and after-school care for older children. Community researchers who represented the various ethnic and language groups of the sample were trained to conduct the family and child interviews. Data sources included eight family interviews conducted in the home language eliciting children's responses to a series of questions about what the child liked/disliked about child care. Another session incorporated a short story read to the child by the community researcher about the best things during child care, followed by a similar story elicited from the child. While each session used a different format, each interview session involved children in drawing pictures of their experiences or ideas about child care. Interviews were audiotaped and transcribed into English and the transcripts loaded into NUDIST*NVivo software.

Through codes developed by the research team, major themes were identified based upon children's descriptions and pictures. Results showed that playing with other children was the most frequent response across all four age groups. While preschool-age children described their activities as playing, school-age children differentiated between inside and outside activities, with boys listing more outside ones. School-age children who disliked their child care noted boredom as the reason for their dissatisfaction. One discouraging outcome was the number of children who described watching television or videos, or playing video games, during the majority of their time in child care. While preschool children reported daily experiences with books read aloud, this practice was less likely to occur during the school-age children's time. With regard to discipline, the researchers were surprised by the number of children in all age groups who mentioned "time out" as the common consequence for misbehavior--a practice that is expressly prohibited by licensing regulations.

From this study, parents and educators can appreciate children's perspectives on the quality of the child care they experience. Of all the stakeholders involved, children are the ones who have the most to gain or risk. Future researchers have several avenues to investigate about the shortcomings of child care situations, particularly discipline techniques, age-appropriate activities, attention to children's concerns and feelings, and interpersonal relationships between staff and children.

Child Care Work Environments: The Relationship With Learning Environments--Lower & Cassidy

The quality of child care is related to several dimensions--curriculum, child-staff ratios, equipment and safety; however, few studies have examined the relationship between the teacher work environments in child care settings and classroom global quality. Difficulty in recruiting and retaining qualified teachers are established dilemmas within the industry, as are the effects of high staff turnover on children's attachment. Yet the dimensions of the workplace environment and administration are often overlooked when seeking solutions to these problems. The current study identifies several contributing factors, such as leadership, organizational/management practices, teachers' perceptions of their work, and how these factors relate to the quality of children's classroom experiences.

The researchers were part of the North Carolina Rated License Assessment Project, which was working with both not-for-profit and for-profit centers throughout the state. For this study, 30 participating child care centers from rural, suburban, and urban areas were recruited. The sample contained 225 full time teachers--mostly female, 58 percent white and 34 percent black, with an average of 7 years experience in child care. There were 25 female directors, 68 percent white and 28 percent black, whose experience as administrators averaged 8.5 years. Data sources included an evaluation of program administration, the Program Administration Scale (PAS), which included an interview with the director and document verification of practices; the Early Childhood Work Environment Survey-Short Form (ECWES), which taps teachers' perceptions of the organizational climate within centers; and the Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale-Revised (ECERS-R), an observational instrument and teacher interview that measures global quality of child care programs on scales rating structural and process-oriented components; as well as a scale rating leadership and management practices, the Parents and Staff Subscale. The ECERS-R was administered twice for each center during the research project.

Results for the PAS were positively skewed within the normal range; however, the average score for program administrative practices across the child care centers was lower than the instrument's "minimal" standards and no center scored within the "excellent range." When ECERS-R classroom scores were correlated with the PAS and the ECWES, there was significant correlation between both program administration and organizational climate to classroom global quality. Further, the language interaction factor of the ECERS-R was significantly correlated to organizational climate (ECWES). Thus, both program administration and organizational climate were shown to be critical to quality early childhood care and education.

There are important implications in this study for developing quality early childhood programs as well as support for teachers and administrators. Since the quality of leadership and management does affect the quality of the services that teachers deliver and children experience, more attention must be paid to developing degree programs for early childhood administrators, improved professional development, and licensing. This study underscored the importance of four-year degree programs in improving administrative practices and program quality. In turn, leadership style can shape teachers' perceptions, expectations, and investment in programs and children. This study highlighted the link between teachers' perceptions of their workplace environment and their interactions with children within the centers. Thus, shared decision-making, supportive policies, and more inclusive leadership practices seem warranted.

High School Outcomes for Students in a Public Montessori Program--Dohrmann, Nishida, Gartner, Lipsky, & Grimm

For over 100 years, Montessori programs have been implemented throughout the world in private and public school systems. Many parents, especially those from middle and higher socioeconomic backgrounds, prefer Montessori programs for their preschoolers and elementary-age children. Parents and educators believe that Montessori programs are superior to others in terms of the students' academic achievement, problem-solving abilities, independence, and attitudes toward learning. Yet the quality of Montessori programs varies in terms of teacher training, experience, and effectiveness. Thus, researchers who evaluate the outcomes of these programs report conflicting results. In some instances, the studies lacked appropriate methodology, which failed to control for initial differences in the samples, random assignment, the quality of the program's implementation, or the length of time students spent in Montessori education. The current study was designed to address the methodological shortcomings of earlier research in terms of gender, SES, and race/ethnicity. It compares the longitudinal effects of Montessori programs on high school achievement for students who were enrolled for at least eight years (from age 3 or 4 through their elementary school years) in high-quality Montessori programs to their peers who attended different elementary programs.

The study took place in the Milwaukee Public School district, where admission to Montessori programs was by lottery. Since records of the lottery participants were missing, the researchers established the experimental group by initially identifying students who had completed 5th grade between 1990 and 1994 at one of two public Montessori schools in the district, locating their assigned high school, and establishing a comparison group of graduates of each high school attended by the Montessori students. There were 201 students in the Montessori-origin group, composed of 53 percent black, 40.8 percent white, 3.5 percent Hispanic, and 2.5 percent Asian or Native American. The modified peer control group was generated for each high school with 10 or more Montessori graduates; high schools with fewer than 10 Montessori graduates were combined and considered as a single school within the control group. Several criteria, which included gender, race/ethnicity, and free/reduced-price lunch status, were used to form the peer control group composed of 47.3 percent black, 40.8 percent white, 9.0 percent Hispanic, and 3 percent Asian or Native American. A chi-square analysis showed that the two groups were not significantly different in terms of ethnicity. Data sources obtained from the Milwaukee Public Schools included results for a standardized achievement test, the Wisconsin Knowledge and Concepts Examination (WKCE), also known as the Terra Nova, administered to students in 10th grade, the ACT scores of the 1997-99 graduates, the Cumulative Grade Point Averages for each student and separate GPAs for social studies, English, mathematics, science, and foreign language. The WKCE includes scales for reading, language arts, mathematics, science, and social studies. The ACT scores were not available for the 2000 and 2001 high school graduates, due to a change in student privacy policies.

A series of factor analyses were computed to identify the differences between the Montessori high schoolers and the control group on the academic variables of composite and subtest scores for the ACT and WKCE, overall GPA, and subject-specific GPA. Only 53 participants had complete data records and the factor models were computed only for these subjects. Three factors emerged from the data--GPA, Math/Science, and English/Social Studies. Overall GPA and subject-specific GPAs for social studies, mathematics, science, English, and foreign language were loaded on the GPA factor. The Math/Science factor comprised the 7 math and science tests of the WKCE and ACT and the composite score of the ACT. Finally, the English/Social Studies factor included loadings from the ACT composite, the nine English and Social Studies tests of the WKCE and ACT and two science tests ACT Science Reasoning and WKCE Science. Results showed one statistically significant positive effect (0.30) for the Math/Science factor for the Montessori-educated students. However, there were no significant differences between the two groups on GPA and English and Social Studies standardized test results. For the total sample, differences were found on GPAs for females and non-minority students, as well as for students who were economically advantaged (not eligible for free lunch).

This study suggests that a high-quality Montessori elementary education may provide a lasting advantage in the areas of mathematics and science over a traditional program. The difference may be a result of Montessori's early and consistent curriculum emphasis on abstract mathematical concepts using concrete experiences as well as the laboratory experiences in science provided throughout the child's education. Traditional programs not only tend to emphasize literacy more than mathematics or science in the early grades, but also devote almost 50 percent of instructional time to developing reading and language in young children. Although Montessori students spent their elementary years without experiencing tests, grades, and homework, the authors suggest that their results show that Montessori programs do successfully prepare students for competitive high school environments, such as the ones these students experienced. Further, the authors suggest that exposure to Montessori education, particularly in mathematics and science, beyond 5th grade might produce greater differences than shown in their study. Future research that assesses the longitudinal effects of quality Montessori programs on student achievement would add to our understanding of how nontraditional programs prepare students for competitive environments, as well as promote enhanced performance in mathematics, science, and technology.

Rebecca P. Harlin

Florida Atlantic University