TY - JOUR
T1 - Preschool and kindergarten teachers' beliefs about early school competencies
T2 - Misalignment matters for kindergarten adjustment
AU - Abry, Tashia
AU - Latham, Scott
AU - Bassok, Daphna
AU - LoCasale-Crouch, Jennifer
N1 - Funding Information:
Authors’ notes: The research reported here was supported by the Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education , through grant # R305B090002 to the University of Virginia. The opinions expressed are those of the authors and do not represent views of the Institute or the U.S. Department of Education. The authors thank Paige Biller and Caroline Titan for early research assistance on this project. An earlier form of this paper was presented by the second author at the 2013 annual meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
PY - 2015
Y1 - 2015
N2 - Early Childhood Longitudinal-Birth Cohort data were used to examine the extent to which preschool and kindergarten teachers aligned in their beliefs regarding the importance of school competencies at kindergarten entry, whether misalignment in beliefs predicted academic and sociobehavioral adjustment in kindergarten, and if relations were moderated by children's socioeconomic status. Preschool and kindergarten teachers rated the importance of 12 skills categorized into domains of academic, self-regulatory, and interpersonal competence. In the fall of kindergarten, children were directly assessed on reading and math skills, and kindergarten teachers rated children's approaches to learning, disruptive behavior, and social behavior. Findings revealed (a) misalignment was greatest for teachers' beliefs about the importance of academic competence (b) greater misalignment in beliefs pertaining to all three domains of competence predicted poorer ratings of approaches to learning, social skills, and lower math achievement, and (c) children from socioeconomically disadvantaged backgrounds were more susceptible to the negative influence of misalignment, across adjustment outcomes, compared to their more-advantaged peers. Results are discussed in relation to efforts aimed at promoting alignment within children's early educational contexts.
AB - Early Childhood Longitudinal-Birth Cohort data were used to examine the extent to which preschool and kindergarten teachers aligned in their beliefs regarding the importance of school competencies at kindergarten entry, whether misalignment in beliefs predicted academic and sociobehavioral adjustment in kindergarten, and if relations were moderated by children's socioeconomic status. Preschool and kindergarten teachers rated the importance of 12 skills categorized into domains of academic, self-regulatory, and interpersonal competence. In the fall of kindergarten, children were directly assessed on reading and math skills, and kindergarten teachers rated children's approaches to learning, disruptive behavior, and social behavior. Findings revealed (a) misalignment was greatest for teachers' beliefs about the importance of academic competence (b) greater misalignment in beliefs pertaining to all three domains of competence predicted poorer ratings of approaches to learning, social skills, and lower math achievement, and (c) children from socioeconomically disadvantaged backgrounds were more susceptible to the negative influence of misalignment, across adjustment outcomes, compared to their more-advantaged peers. Results are discussed in relation to efforts aimed at promoting alignment within children's early educational contexts.
KW - Alignment
KW - Kindergarten adjustment
KW - Teacher beliefs
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U2 - 10.1016/j.ecresq.2015.01.001
DO - 10.1016/j.ecresq.2015.01.001
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84955144465
SN - 0885-2006
VL - 31
SP - 78
EP - 88
JO - Early Childhood Research Quarterly
JF - Early Childhood Research Quarterly
ER -