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Accounting for Movement between Childcare Classrooms: Does it Change Teacher Effects Interpretations?
Claude Messan Setodji1, Vi-Nhuan Le, Diana Schaack
1RAND Corporation, 4570 5 Avenue, Suite 600, Pittsburgh, PA 15213.
Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology
|March 6, 2012
Summary
Child care research often overlooks daily classroom transitions. Accounting for teacher and child movement between classrooms significantly improves understanding of teacher qualifications and child development outcomes.
Area of Science:
- Child Development
- Early Childhood Education
- Educational Psychology
Background:
- Traditional child care studies often focus solely on head teacher qualifications.
- These studies frequently overlook the dynamic nature of child care settings, including daily transitions.
Purpose of the Study:
- To challenge traditional assumptions in child care research by examining the impact of classroom transitions.
- To compare traditional models with methods that account for teacher and child movement between classrooms.
Main Methods:
- The study analyzed receptive language, letter-word identification, and passage comprehension in 307 children across 49 child care centers.
- Data collection focused on tracking daily movements of children and teachers between classrooms.
Main Results:
- Nearly one-third of children and over 80% of teachers transitioned between classrooms daily.
- Ignoring these daily transitions can significantly alter interpretations of the relationship between teacher qualifications and child outcomes.
Conclusions:
- Child care environments are dynamic, with frequent teacher and child transitions.
- Models that incorporate classroom movement provide a more accurate understanding of teacher qualifications' impact on child development.
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