The purpose of the study was to observe pre-kindergarten through second-grade
public school classrooms, specifically noting child-centered and teacher-directed
pedagogical approaches, by simultaneously examining: student behavior and activity
structure, teacher instructional orientation and rationale, and overall classroom
environment. The quantitative study built upon the work of Pianta, examining classroom
instruction and its effect on student engagement and educational quality; however,
unlike previous studies, researchers in the current study observed the nature of activity
structure and various student demographic variables. Additionally, dissimilar to prior
classroom observation studies, which typically included an overwhelming percentage of
White students, Hispanic and African American students comprised a large percentage
of the sample. And because policy-makers have called for more research-based
information on classroom instruction in the early childhood setting, an additional contribution is the use of systematic observation and analysis of young learners’
experiences within their classrooms.
The multi-faceted approach to classroom observation yielded one critical result:
Little to no variation existed in the activities in which young children were engaged in
their classrooms, nor in the instructional practices utilized by their early childhood
teachers. Accordingly, the study revealed few differences in student behavior and
teacher practices by student sex, student ethnicity, grade-level, English language
proficiency, and/or economic status. Instruction in these classrooms was almost entirely
standardized; however, three statistically significant findings showed that: (a) students
taught by teachers rated as having a higher developmentally appropriate instructional
practices (DAIP) score were more likely to be on-task and less likely to be off-task; (b)
students taught by teachers with a higher DAIP score were significantly more likely to
be working kinesthetically, answering teacher-posed questions, and freely exploring; and
(c) students taught by teachers with a lower DAIP score were significantly more likely to
be distracted and/or not engaging in activity. Study findings were significant, as, despite
research showing the unfavorable effects that highly teacher-centered, scripted
classrooms have on young students’ engagement and subsequent learning outcomes,
students continue to be taught in the same way—one in which reaching a designated test
score appears to be the singular, ultimate objective.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:tamu.edu/oai:repository.tamu.edu:1969.1/ETD-TAMU-2011-05-9226 |
| Date | 2011 May 1900 |
| Creators | Alford, Beverly Lynn |
| Contributors | Waxman, Hersh |
| Source Sets | Texas A and M University |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | thesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
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