Research into practice.

This issue highlights an investigation of infant and toddler child care providers' cultural competence and the demographic correlates of that competence; an examination of the impact of family home learning activities and preschool participation on children's success in kindergarten; a qualitative investigation of timekeeping constructs of 4- and 5-year-old children in Mexico and the southern United States; a study of the achievement, creativity, and problem-solving abilities of a group of multiage elementary students; and an investigation of the relationship between time spent in make-believe play and young children's ability to delay gratification. This column will briefly describe the character of each study and attempt to illuminate the practice implications.

Cultural Competence in Infant/Toddler Caregivers: Application of a Tri-dimensional Model

--Obegi & Ritblatt

The first study is an investigation of infant and toddler child care providers' cultural competence and the demographic correlates of that competence. For the purposes of this study, the construct of cultural competence is directly linked to an individual's awareness of her own heritage and comfort with others. Moreover, culturally competent individuals possess a strong knowledge base of insights about different cultural groups and a willingness to learn more. Finally, these individuals demonstrate well-developed communication skills and culturally sensitive strategies to promote the well-being of children and their families. This tri-dimensional model of cultural competence was examined by assessing, through questionnaires, the demographic and background variables of 109 infant and toddler caregivers from 30 randomly selected infant/toddler centers that were licensed to provide child care. In addition, the participants were asked to complete a 40-item Infant/Toddler Caregiver Cultural Rating Scale (ITCCRS) that was developed and field-tested by the authors. There were 10 items assessing awareness, 19 measuring knowledge, and 11 measuring skills. The caregivers responded to the 40 statements of the ITCCRS using a 6-point Likert scale that ranged from 1 (strongly disagree) to 6 (strongly agree). Factor analytic data on the ITCCRS confirmed one reliable factor rather than multiple subscales. Thus, a mean caregiver cultural competence score was calculated for each participant. Those with higher mean scores indicate greater levels of cultural competence. Results of the study revealed several important findings. Overall, demographic variables that were significantly related to mean cultural competence scores include age, child development units completed, education, hours of diversity training, and books/articles read related to diversity in childhood development. Further targeted analyses revealed that education level, child development units completed, books/articles read, and diversity training significantly differ among caregivers who score "low" or "high" on the cultural competence measure. In addition, these variables account for roughly 38 percent of the variance in cultural competence scores. Qualitative analyses also were conducted to examine the participants' views about cultural conflicts that were experienced related to daily caregiving, traditions/ customs, and parent/caregiver bias. The authors of this study provide an illuminating, in-depth discussion of the qualitative results. They recommend that caregivers receive more specific training on how to communicate and interact with culturally different children and families. In addition to communication training, the authors recommend that college level child development inservice training and coaching be provided at child care centers.

The Impact of Ready Environments on Achievement in Kindergarten

--Nelson

This study examines how home learning activities and preschool attendance affects achievement in kindergarten. Past research has shown that young children who experience enriched home and preschool environments are much more likely to have improved academic performance in formal schooling. These results are particularly robust for children who live in low-income or poverty settings. Approximately 23,000 data sets from the 1998 kindergarten cohort of the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study (ECLS) were examined for this study. These data sets report assessment details on children's cognitive, language, socioemotional, and physical development. In addition, there are a variety of parent and teacher reports that reveal information on family demographics, health status, classroom environments, and educational program goals, to name a few. The home activities analysis group included 14,880 kindergarten children, while the preschool analysis group consisted of 10,307 kindergarten children. The author employed a stratified cluster sampling process in order to examine subjects from a variety of regions and metropolitan areas, social class and racial backgrounds, and school types and sizes. The data were examined to determine risk status, level of home learning activities, preschool attendance, reading and mathematic achievement, and parent and teachers' perceptions of children's level of persistence, motivation, and interest in learning activities. The math and reading assessment scores, along with the approaches to learning assessment, served as the dependent variables in a series of two-way multiple analyses of variance procedures. The results from this study revealed that parents who engage in learning activities at home have kindergartners who have higher mathematics and reading scores when compared to children who experience no home learning activities. Unfortunately, children who experience one or more risk factors score lower on math and reading assessment. When preschool attendance and risk factors are examined, similar findings emerge. Students who attend preschool have higher math and reading scores than children who have not attended preschool. Sadly, children who experience one or more risk factors demonstrate lower approaches toward learning and poorer math and reading scores than children without risk factors. Since home learning activities were the only factor that affected higher scores on assessments of how children approach learning, the author recommends increased funding and support for helping parents to provide stimulating home learning activities. Reducing risks in families that negatively impact children may be one of the best investments we can make. Finally, the author recommends greater advocacy in promoting the value of universal preschool for all children.

More Than Clocks and Calendars: The Construction of Timekeepers by Eleven Kindergarten Children in Mexico and the United States 

--Hardin, Jones, & Figueras

This qualitative study reports how 11 ethnically diverse 4- and 5-year-old children construct methods for marking and measuring time before, during, and after their kindergarten year. None of the children had prior preschool or formal child care experience. The mothers, kindergarten teachers, and several education administrators were also involved in this study in order to gain a systems perspective on the evolution of timekeeping constructs. A variety of semi-structured questions, activities, and interviews were employed across three phases of the year-long study. In addition, classroom and informal observations were conducted. Data were transcribed, classified, and coded in an attempt to discern commonalities and differences among the timekeeping constructs of the children and within the contexts of their homes, classrooms, communities, and countries. The authors report that three methods for marking and measuring time surfaced from the data. Biological, environmental, and conventional timekeeping elements emerged in an evolutionary fashion as the children transitioned to formal schooling. Initial physiological processes, such as sleeping/ waking patterns, were soon transformed due to school schedules. Everyday needs soon became environmentally regulated through community, home, and classroom routines. Eventually, conventional timekeeping methods, such as clocks, watches, and calendars, transformed the children's ideas of thinking about time. The authors of this study fully describe the dimensions of each of the three methods of timekeeping and embed these descriptions within the sociocultural contexts represented within the study. For teachers, it is very important to understand how biological and environmental features from home and the community influence how children construct temporal identity. Indeed, as the authors suggest, even though children must learn institutional time features, teachers cannot assume that children will construct temporal identity solely through conventional timekeeping mechanisms.

Bridging the Gap: Towards an Understanding of Young Children's Thinking in Multiage Groups

--Gerard

The next study examines the academic achievement, creativity, and problem-solving capacities of a multiage group of 29 nine-, ten-, and eleven-year-old children. The learning needs and ability levels of this group were wide-ranging. The measures used in this study included results from the Stanford Achievement Test (SAT) (9th ed.), and a group cooperation and problem solving rubric to assess negotiation and problem solution strategies, and social competence features when provided linguistic and nonlinguistic problem tasks from the Odyssey of the Mind program. The SAT mean scores in language, reading, and math for this multiage group of students were compared to national norm groups in 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade. The multiage group performed slightly higher on reading and mathematics when compared to the norm groups, yet was considerably below the national norm groups in language. The linguistic problem-solving task required the students to think in terms of creative categories and alternatives when given a prompt. The answers are scored on a 5-point scale denoting various levels of creative responses. The nonlinguistic problem required teams of students to build as tall a structure as possible using common materials that would support the weight of up to 20 nails. A seven-attribute rubric was used to assess group performance, with a maximum score of 28. Teams of students were given 6 minutes to complete their structures and all sessions were videotaped and coded by reliable scorers. The results of independent samples t-test analyses showed that the high levels of cooperation between multiage students substantially interacted with the creativity and problem solving scores for both linguistic and nonlinguistic problems. Implications for practice abound in this article. Children of varying learning needs and abilities who are allowed to work together will actively contribute to strategic planning. Moreover, as evidenced in this group, the children demonstrate group cohesion and share materials for task completion. Finally, through peer scaffolding and joint participation, children are provided the opportunity to contribute ideas and solutions, listen to one another, and compromise productively when needed.

Delay of Gratification and Make-Believe Play of Preschoolers

--Cemore & Herwig

The final study examines the relationship between preschool-age children's ability to delay gratification and time spent in make-believe play. The children selected for participation in this study were identified by their child care teachers as either highly involved in make-believe play or rarely involved in make-believe play. A random sample of children from each of these two play classifications served as the study participants. Thirty-nine 3- to 5-year-old children's play was assessed via videotaped classroom observations and child interviews. In addition, the perspectives of both teachers' and mothers' assessments of make-believe play at school and at home were obtained through questionnaires and interviews. Delay of gratification was assessed through an experimental situation that calculated the amount of time that the children were able to refrain from pursuing a reward contingency. The results of this study revealed a significant relationship between children's make-believe play at home (as reported by mothers and the children) and their delay of gratification. In addition, for those children who spent more time in make-believe play, as reported by all sources, their delay of gratification was longer. Interestingly, there were no significant findings related to play at preschool and delay of gratification. Furthermore, delay of gratification was unrelated to a variety of demographic variables; the level of make-believe play was the only significant predictor of delay of gratification. There are several implications for practice noted in this article. While social interactions with others in make-believe play are important, the results of this article suggest that it is the actual engagement in make-believe that is crucial. Thus, teachers and parents may want to offer more opportunities for children to engage in role-playing at home or interacting with imaginary friends. Children at home are more likely to experience in-depth make-believe play, whereas in preschool the abundance of activities, materials, and playmates may actually lead to less serious involvement in make-believe play. These at-home experiences appear to influence a child's ability to tolerate longer periods of delay of gratification. Parents and teachers are reminded to create more indoor and outdoor dramatic play centers, provide more time for children to engage in free-choice activities, and to provide adult presence, at times, to extend play themes, roles, and language.

Michael F. Kelley

Arizona State University West