resist temptations<\/a>, to hold and use information in their minds for short periods of time, to shift attention between competing tasks or rules, and to maintain attention despite distractions.<\/p>\nThese executive function tests are important because they determine how well a child functions in class. Children with high levels of executive function can concentrate and make good use of learning opportunities. Children with low levels of executive function show low self-control, disruptive behavior and inability to sit still and pay attention. Other research has shown that a child\u2019s executive function skills at this age are correlated with later success in life\u2014school achievement, good health, higher income, and less involvement in criminal activity.<\/p>\n
The researchers found that teachers varied considerably in the quality of their teaching and that this variation had a substantial impact on all the skills the children were tested for: math, language and executive function.<\/p>\n
Previous research has shown that the impact of quality of teaching on test scores in math and language tails off after a while. Conversely, teaching quality has been correlated with achievement later in life. Could the link be children\u2019s executive function, which is both affected by teaching quality and predicts later success in life?<\/p>\n
Other than teaching quality, the only characteristic of individual teachers that made a significant difference to children was the teachers\u2019 years of experience. Measures of teacher IQ and personality were not linked to improved children\u2019s tests scores.<\/p>\n
The researchers also looked at how parents responded to teaching quality. They measured how the parents rated the quality of teaching the children received. They also measured the parents\u2019 own contribution to the children\u2019s learning (e.g., availability of books, pencils and toys) and parents\u2019 behaviors (e.g., reading to, singing to or playing with their children).<\/p>\n
They found that parents can generally tell the difference between better and worse teaching, but they don\u2019t significantly change their behaviors to compensate for poor teaching or build on good teaching.<\/p>\n
Turning to policy implications, the researchers say that their study makes the case for paying attention to teacher effectiveness when designing educational programs, though quality may may be difficult to measure. The researchers also recommend developing programs to improve teachers\u2019 functioning in the classroom.<\/p>\n
\n
References<\/h4>\n
Araujo MC, Carneiro P, Cruz-Aguayo Y & Schady N (2016), Teacher quality and learning outcomes in kindergarten, <\/strong>Quarterly Journal of Economic Affairs<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The study of 24,000 kindergarten children found that quality of teaching has a substantial impact on how well children do.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":2744,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[435],"tags":[32,406],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/childandfamilyblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2742"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/childandfamilyblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/childandfamilyblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/childandfamilyblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/childandfamilyblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2742"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/childandfamilyblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2742\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22537,"href":"https:\/\/childandfamilyblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2742\/revisions\/22537"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/childandfamilyblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2744"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/childandfamilyblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2742"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/childandfamilyblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2742"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/childandfamilyblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2742"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}