Relating prekindergarten teacher beliefs and knowledge to children's language and literacy development

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Highlights

  • Associations between teachers' beliefs/knowledge and child development examined.

  • Teachers' language knowledge predicted children's expressive vocabulary gains.

  • Teachers' literacy knowledge predicted children's gains in print knowledge.

  • Teacher beliefs were not predictive of children's skill development.

  • Important as the field develops mechanisms for evaluating and training educators.

Abstract

The current study examines the associations between teachers' beliefs and knowledge and children's learning during the prekindergarten year. This study describes the degree to which 262 prekindergarten teachers' beliefs and knowledge regarding children's language and literacy skills are related to learning over the prekindergarten year. Teacher beliefs were not predictive of children's skill development. However, teachers' knowledge of language positively predicted children's gains in expressive vocabulary skills. In addition, teachers' knowledge of literacy predicted children's gains in print knowledge. Understanding these associations is important as the field continues to develop mechanisms for evaluating and training early childhood educators.

Introduction

Renewed attention to effectiveness of teacher preparation programs (U.S. Department of Education, 2011) is fueling opportunities for systematic investigation of the educational and training experiences teachers need. A variety of pedagogical strategies, including clinical internships and coursework, are available to train teachers in the dispositions, knowledge, and practices necessary for success in today's classrooms (Darling-Hammond et al., 2007, Kleickmann et al., 2013). To increase the rigor of teacher training, it is necessary to identify measurable teacher characteristics that are both related to students' outcomes and responsive to training. For example, the Teacher Belief Q-Sort was developed to study teachers' priorities related to discipline, classroom practice, and beliefs about children, and has been shown to change with training and teaching experience (Rimm-Kaufman, Storm, Sawyer, Pianta, & LaParo, 2006). Measures of teacher pedagogical content knowledge, understanding of both content and the best ways of presenting that content for learners of varying abilities (Ball et al., 2008, Shulman, 1987), relate to students' math achievement (Hill et al., 2008, Hill et al., 2005). However, we know very little about the beliefs and knowledge of prekindergarten teachers that contribute to children's development, specifically, children's development of language and literacy skills.

The research base has identified key domains of language and literacy skills that children should possess in early childhood to prevent later reading difficulties (National Early Literacy Panel, 2008, Snow et al., 1998, Whitehurst and Lonigan, 1998). These precursors include meaning-based oral language skills, such as vocabulary, and code-based literacy skills, such as phonological awareness and print knowledge (Kendeou et al., 2009, NICHD Early Child Care Research Network, 2005, Storch and Whitehurst, 2002). Although the bulk of research has been conducted with English-speaking populations, there is support for similar early literacy skills affecting reading acquisition in other languages, including German (Näslund, 1990) and Spanish (Denton, Hasbrouck, Weaver, & Riccio, 2000). When well developed, these skills allow children to make a smoother transition to conventional reading once formal instruction begins (Lonigan et al., 2000, O'Malley et al., 2002). There is reason to believe that teacher beliefs about and knowledge of these domains may be important for children's learning of critical early literacy skills, but there is little evidence on that regard. The current paper begins to address this question.

Language and literacy skills in early childhood represent two interrelated constructs that are predictive of children's future achievements in reading comprehension and word recognition (National Early Literacy Panel, 2008, Storch and Whitehurst, 2002). The association between early literacy skills and future reading achievement has been demonstrated internationally as well (Mullis, Martin, Foy, & Drucker, 2012). The Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) in 2011 identified associations between parents' assessments of their children's early literacy skills (prior to entering primary school) and fourth grade reading achievement (Mullis et al., 2012). Prekindergarten language skills are related to children's initial reading achievements, when children are learning to decode words, but have their greatest impact on later reading comprehension (NICHD Early Child Care Research Network, 2005, Storch and Whitehurst, 2002). Vocabulary knowledge, including the volume and depth of words known in both receptive and expressive modalities, arguably has the strongest relation to reading development of the language skills children are developing at this time (National Reading Panel, 2000). Children's early literacy skills, including phonological awareness and print knowledge, lay a foundation for them to “break the code” of reading and consequently contribute to subsequent word recognition (Denton et al., 2000, National Early Literacy Panel, 2008). Phonological awareness is the ability to identify and manipulate sound components of words, independent of their meaning. A number of abilities contribute to print knowledge, including identifying letter names and corresponding sounds, and an understanding of print conventions such as print conveys meaning and is read from left to right in the English language (Pullen & Justice, 2003).

Given the influence of precursory language and literacy skills on subsequent reading development, it is important to understand what prekindergarten teachers believe and know about these developmental areas. We acknowledge debates within the literature regarding the extent to which beliefs and knowledge are unique constructs (see Murphy and Mason, 2006, Woolfolk Hoy et al., 2006). Across American and European cultures, adults have conceptualized beliefs and knowledge as overlapping constructs that also maintain unique properties (Alexander & Dochy, 1995). Participants in the study by Alexander and Dochy often conceptualized both beliefs and knowledge as stemming from experiences, but that knowledge required objective external validation and beliefs did not. In fact, Alexander and Dochy described that participants perceived knowledge as formally constructed, such as would occur through school or formal training, but that beliefs developed through informal daily experiences. An important purpose of examining measures of teachers' beliefs and knowledge regarding children's language and literacy skills is to identify targets for training and professional development. Given that the mechanisms for influencing beliefs and knowledge may vary, we choose to assess beliefs and knowledge as separate constructs. We perceive knowledge to represent facts that one either knows or does not know, and beliefs to represent the values attached to information that one either knows or does not know. Prior research has shown that teachers' beliefs and knowledge are sensitive to training (Hamre et al., 2012); we would like to examine if they are associated with children's learning as well.

Prekindergarten teachers generally believe that it is important to provide children with many opportunities for language learning, particularly through the use of storybooks (Burgess, Lundgren, Lloyd, & Pianta, 2001). In one study, 86 percent of prekindergarten teachers endorsed an item that stated, “I surround students with literature and literacy experiences in order for the children to become skillful, fluent readers” (Burgess et al., 2001, p. 7). Hindman and Wasik (2008) also found that Head Start teachers valued instruction in book reading and oral language/vocabulary. Using the Preschool Teacher Literacy Beliefs Questionnaire (Seefeldt, 2004), they found that teachers strongly endorsed best practices in oral language and book reading instruction.

Prekindergarten teachers commonly view literacy skills as less important. Burgess et al. (2001) reported that, on average, prekindergarten teachers rated verbal language skills, such as telling a story, as more important than alphabet knowledge skills, such as the ability to write letters or words. Hindman and Wasik (2008) reported that teachers' beliefs were less aligned with best practices for instruction in literacy practices than they were with best practices in oral language/vocabulary or book reading.

Studies of early childhood teachers internationally reveal that practices for developing early language and literacy skills can vary greatly as teachers try to reconcile beliefs valued by multiple languages and cultures. For example, in multilingual, multi-cultural contexts in Singapore, kindergarten teachers value a variety of approaches to developing early literacy skills, even approaches that appear to contradict each other (Lim & Torr, 2007). Lim and Torr (2007) report that 75.9% of surveyed kindergarten teachers indicated that both code-focused and meaning-focused literacy instruction were their primary literacy philosophy (teachers did not select one over the other); this finding suggests that teachers in Singapore value an eclectic approach which can be adapted according to students' needs. In China, teachers must determine what they believe when dealing with clashes in approaches valued by Western curriculum models and those valued by Chinese traditions and existing practices (Li, Wang, & Wong, 2011).

Although we have a sense of the value prekindergarten teachers place on children's development of language and literacy skills, research has not yet been conducted to evaluate associations between teachers' beliefs and children's actual learning of these skills. In the current study, we operationalize beliefs as the degree of value teachers assign to precursory language and literacy skills that children may demonstrate in the classroom. We include beliefs related to specific domains of language (vocabulary and linguistic concepts, pragmatics and social language, and narrative skills) and of literacy (phonological awareness, print concepts, and alphabet knowledge) ability. Moving forward, one area of interest is whether prekindergarten teachers' ratings of the importance of children's skills in domains of language (e.g., vocabulary and linguistic concepts) and of literacy (e.g., phonological awareness) align with children's development of associated skills.

There are different ways of conceptualizing teacher knowledge of language and literacy skills (Ball et al., 2008, Shulman, 1987). Research in this area has primarily evaluated elementary school teachers' knowledge in reading, which appears to be particularly low in phonological awareness, namely phonemic awareness (Bos et al., 2001, Brady et al., 2009). Moats (1994) surveyed 89 teachers responsible for reading instruction to students from kindergarten to adulthood. These teachers struggled with terminology such as phoneme and morpheme awareness. Researchers have since used or adapted Moats' survey to build evidence showing that knowledge is generally low for elementary school teachers (e.g., Cunningham et al., 2004, Moats and Foorman, 2003). Less research has examined prekindergarten teachers' knowledge of language and literacy concepts (Cunningham Zibulsky, & Callahan, 2009), but there are indications of similar knowledge gaps. In one study, more than half of prekindergarten teachers were unable to identify the number of speech sounds or phonemes in words (Cunningham Zibulsky, & Callahan, 2009). Low levels of knowledge are particularly concerning given that both prekindergarten and elementary teachers overestimate what they know, predicting they will get more items correct on knowledge assessments than they actually do (Cunningham et al., 2004, Cunningham et al., 2009a). Consistently low levels of knowledge regarding language and literacy concepts may make it difficult to assess associations between teachers' knowledge and children's learning.

Moats' (1994) survey of teacher knowledge and various adaptations (e.g., Cunningham et al., 2004) have emphasized teachers' own abilities in various domains of language and literacy. For example, assessments of teacher language and literacy content knowledge often focus on teachers' own ability within specific domains of language and literacy skill, such as identifying the number of speech sounds or phonemes in words to assess phonological awareness (Cunningham et al., 2009a, Moats and Foorman, 2003). In the current paper, we take a child-focused approach. We focus on teachers' ability to identify how skills young children demonstrate represent competencies within these domains. Here, a teacher should know that a child retelling a fictional story using new vocabulary represents skill in narrative, a domain of language ability, and blending syllables into words represents phonological awareness, important for literacy. We align our assessments of knowledge and beliefs, addressing the same domains for each. We hypothesize that prekindergarten teachers need to recognize skills that young children have as representing larger domains of language and literacy ability, such as knowing that a child who identifies the front, back, and title of a book is demonstrating print knowledge. Consider the item, “For each of the following, choose whether the activity would help children acquire: a) Phonological Sensitivity (sometimes referred to as phonological awareness); b) Phoneme Awareness; c) Neither; d) Both; e) Not sure” (Brady et al., 2009, p. 448). With this type of item we can begin to understand teachers' abilities to categorize children's skills according to appropriate domains. Unfortunately, Brady et al. (2009) do not report results at the item level, and their study is focused on first grade teachers. The current study investigates prekindergarten teachers' knowledge of the component skills children may demonstrate that make up precursory language and literacy skill domains (e.g., vocabulary, phonological awareness, alphabet knowledge) and whether teacher's knowledge of these domains is related to children's gains in language and literacy skills.

Several researchers have theorized a pathway by which teachers' knowledge and beliefs influence their classroom practice and through practice, children's learning (Desimone, 2009, Hamre et al., 2012). For knowledge, there is evidence of an association between teachers' phonological knowledge at the beginning of the school year and their practice of literacy instruction that year (McCutchen, Harry, et al., 2002). Knowledge of effective classroom interactions partially mediates observed practice of effective interactions (Hamre et al., 2012). The findings for teacher beliefs are more mixed. There is debate about the degree to which teachers' beliefs influence their classroom behavior (Fang, 1996, Stipek and Byler, 1997). Although some have reported a lack of association between teacher beliefs regarding language and literacy instruction and classroom practice (Hamre et al., 2012, McCutchen et al., 2002b), there are also indications that teacher beliefs can influence how teachers allocate instructional time (Cunningham, Zibulsky, Stanovich, & Stanovich, 2009). Scull, Nolan, and Raban (2012) describe case studies of Australian preschool teachers whose individual practices to support children's literacy are associated with their underlying beliefs regarding the importance of young children's literacy development. For example, the teacher who perceived literacy as a social practice which connects children to cultural and historical knowledge instructed children to document classroom experiences with Haiku. The teacher who stressed an interdisciplinary approach to literacy led children in a cooking activity, highlighting how print conveys meaning by having them read the recipe. Because there are indications that both beliefs and knowledge are associated with teachers' classroom practices to promote language and literacy, we anticipate that beliefs and knowledge will also be associated with children's development of these skills. However, because the research linking beliefs to classroom practice is more mixed, we hypothesize that the associations with teacher beliefs will be less strong.

Limited research is available to inform our hypotheses describing the relationship of prekindergarten teachers' beliefs and knowledge regarding language and literacy skills with children's development of those skills. We were unable to identify studies examining associations between teacher beliefs regarding language and literacy skills and children's development of those skills. There is some research on associations between teacher knowledge and student achievement, though most of this work has been conducted with elementary teachers. Studies have found significant and positive relations between teachers' reading-related knowledge and students' reading achievement for second through fifth grade classrooms (Foorman and Moats, 2004, Garet et al., 2008, McCutchen et al., 2009). McCutchen, Abbott, et al. (2002) found a correlation between teachers' phonological knowledge and children's end of year skills in reading words for kindergarten. Carlisle, Kelcey, Rowan, and Phelps (2011) measured teacher knowledge somewhat differently, framing it as teachers' use of knowledge to make instructional decisions or analyze student performance on reading and writing tasks, and identified small effects of teachers' knowledge on first-grade students' early reading comprehension. There is even less support for these associations in early childhood, though one study reports that prekindergarten teachers' increased knowledge following professional development had minimal effects on children's learning (Cunningham, Zibulsky, & Callahan, 2009).

In the current study, we investigated the following question: What is the relationship between prekindergarten teachers' beliefs and knowledge regarding language and literacy instruction and children's language and literacy gains during the prekindergarten year? We hypothesize that there will be significant associations between teachers' knowledge of language and children's gains in receptive and expressive vocabulary skills, and also between teachers' knowledge of literacy skills and children's gains in print knowledge and phonological awareness skills. We also hypothesize that there will be significant associations between teachers' beliefs regarding language and children's gains in vocabulary skills, or for teachers' beliefs regarding literacy skills and children's gains in print knowledge and phonological awareness skills. Because teacher beliefs appear to translate to practice less readily than teacher knowledge (McCutchen, Harry, et al., 2002), and because we prescribe to a theory of change in which knowledge influences practice which improves learning (Desimone, 2009, Hamre et al., 2012), we anticipate associations for teachers' knowledge will be stronger than associations for teachers' beliefs.

Section snippets

Method

The present study represents secondary data analyses from a multi-site, randomized controlled trial, the National Center for Early Childhood Education Professional Development Study (see Hamre et al., 2012, Pianta et al., 2014). Although intervention status was not of interest in the current study, we included it as a covariate in the analyses. The randomized controlled trial included 496 prekindergarten teachers in an evaluation of two types of professional development, both designed to

Results

Table 1 provides descriptive statistics for children's raw scores on the prekindergarten achievement tests of language and literacy skills at both fall and spring time points. As expected, children made gains across all measures during the year. It is important to note, however, that many children in this sample were at risk for later reading difficulties, as evidenced by end of year scores; at the end of the year, one-quarter to one-half of all children scored at or below the 25th percentile

Discussion

The identification of specific, measurable teacher competencies related to children's learning is an important step in efforts to improve the quality of today's educators. There is clear evidence describing key domains of language and literacy skills that children need in early childhood to prevent later reading difficulty (Kendeou et al., 2009, National Early Literacy Panel, 2008, Storch and Whitehurst, 2002). There is less research describing how teachers' beliefs and knowledge about these

Acknowledgments

We thank the many teachers, children, and research staff who made this study possible. This research project was supported by the U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences through Grant R305A060021 to the University of Virginia—funding the National Center for Research on Early Childhood Education (NCRECE). The content of this publication does not necessarily reflect the views or policies of the Institute of Education Sciences, nor does mention of trade names, commercial

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