Multi-Faceted Learning Environments: A Study of Preschool Development
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Date
2008-06
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Publisher
The Ohio State University
Abstract
In 2003, Ohio initiated “Step up to Quality (SUTQ)” as a voluntary program evaluating the effectiveness of preschools across the state. This quality preschool rating scale recognizes characteristics such as child-staff ratios, staff education, specialized training, administrative practices and curriculum development as important to child outcome, but fails to consider the interaction of these aspects within the context of a child’s multi-faceted learning environment. A large scale screening of over 300 preschool programs participating in SUTQ will yield approximately 15,000 completed questionnaires from preschool parents, teachers and program directors. Ahead of the larger sample, this pilot study (parents/students, n=101; teachers, n=40) analyzed parents’ demographic data and home environments, preschoolers’ language and cognitive skills, and teachers’ demographics, experience, and methodologies. The study supports previous findings of a positive correlation between parents’ workweeks and home order, and finds a significant relationship between a father’s workweek and order. Also, the data indicates a negative, though nonsignificant, correlation between a parent’s workweek and child outcome. Contradictory to previous findings, this pilot sample shows a negative correlation between age and progressive methodologies. As more data becomes available, these relationships should be further explored with a large sample. Additionally, inclusion of both teacher and director responses to questionnaires will show how the many aspects of a child’s learning environment (demographics, school, classroom, family) interact to predict child outcome. Such findings have the potential to indicate the benefits and drawbacks to a given teaching attitude dependent upon demographics, SES or other variables.
Advisors: Stephen Patrill, Ph.D. & Laura Justice, Ph.D.
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Keywords
preschooler education, early childhood development, progressive teaching, traditional teaching, Step up to Quality