CHILD DIRECTED ACTIVITY AMONG PRESCHOOLERS 9/30/2014

The CREDE Standards for Effective Pedagogy ◦ 1-Joint Productive Activity ◦ 2-Language and Literacy Development ◦ 3-Contextulization ◦ 4-Complex Thinking ◦ 5-Instructional Conversation ◦ 6-Modeling ◦ 7-Student Directed Activity (Child Directed Activity)

Adapted Study ◦ Early Childhood (EC) settings ◦ Exemplary level of CDA: ◦ “Children engage in the generation of learning topics or activities, OR teacher creates an activity based on a child’s suggestion” (Yamauchi, Im, & Schonleber, 2009).

CDA, Student-Directed Learning, Self-Regulation, and Metacognition ◦ Internal regulation ◦ Understand and think about thinking processes ◦ Motivation ◦ Interest ◦ Active learning ◦ Choice ◦ Social process

Young Children’s Abilities ◦ Rothbart, Posner, and Kieras (2006): Executive functions ◦ Inhibition ◦ Effortful control ◦ Executive attention ◦ Whitebread (2008): Methodological difficulties

Areas of Exploration ◦ What Child Directed Activity (CDA) may look like in EC settings ◦ Educators’ opinions concerning CDA ◦ How CDA can be furthered among young children Goal: To obtain a clearer definition of CDA in EC settings that would facilitate learning and instruction

Method ◦ Research Design: Exploratory, qualitative ◦ Participants: ◦ CREDE: Two administrators, two video raters, 14 teachers, ◦ Non-CREDE: Four teachers

Method ◦ Procedure ◦ Video records ◦ Interviews ◦ Focus group ◦ Individual

Data Analysis ◦ Video records ◦ Interview transcripts

Results: ◦ Motivation, interest, & initiative ◦ Time ◦ Guidance ◦ Questions ◦ Connections ◦ Modeling ◦ Choices ◦ Control ◦ Awareness ◦ Environment ◦ Materials ◦ Play ◦ Spontaneity and flexibility ◦ Emotional, personal, and social development

Discussion ◦ Relationship to Erikson’s Theory ◦ Teaching as part of the social context ◦ Benefits of open-ended materials ◦ Importance of play

Implications ◦ Be attentive ◦ Encourage children ◦ Have patience ◦ Create safety and security

Limitations ◦ Cannot generalize ◦ Exploratory ◦ Within interviews: ◦ Speaking time ◦ Individual interviews ◦ Social desirability

Future Directions ◦ Larger and more representative samples ◦ Different contexts ◦ Different populations ◦ Data sources and methods ◦ Time

“[The children] have a voice and it’s an important voice and what they have to share is just as important as what the adults in their lives have to say. And so I think CDA is good because they build their self-esteem. It gives them a place. It gives them a virtual space and emotional space, a cognitive space to be part of the group.... They’ll know how to present an idea, how to solve problems, how to work together with other people, how to build interest in something that they’re curious about. I think it’ll build their self-confidence and I think they’ll want to take more of an ownership of their education.” (Sarah, Individual Interview, 1/7/11)

Thank You Kathleen Tran