La Paro, K. M., Kraft-Sayre, M., & Pianta, R. C. (2003). Preschool to kindergarten transition activities: Involvement and satisfaction of families and teachers. Journal of Research in Childhood Education, (17)2, 147-158.
My area of interest for research has changed over the last week as I begin to understand the goals of action research. Reflecting on the strengths and needs in my school and community has helped me to identify an area where action research would not only be appropriate but also help serve the families of the students we serve in the community where I teach. The area of interest and focus that I see a tremendous amount of opportunity to help develop and reform based on my week of reflection is in the area of kindergarten school readiness and the effect that transition programs have on social adjustment and academic performance for children entering kindergarten.
In a fairly recent study conducted by Lapar, Kraft-Sayre, & Pianta (2003), researchers looked at the various types of transition activities that are commonly used by teachers and parents to help preschool children transition to kindergarten in the most successful way possible. The study also looked to identify barriers that could prevent a teacher or a family from participating in transition activities as well as parent and teacher satisfaction in these types of activities. In other words, did the parents and teachers find the identified transition activities helpful to the kindergarten student?
The study was developed with grant support from the Educational Research and Development Centers program, PR/Award Number R307A60004, under the direction of the Office of Educational Research and Improvement, U.S. Department of Education. The study was developed on the foundation of widely accepted research that demonstrated the importance of transition to formal schooling for young children. Generally, children who experience success in the early years of school continue to demonstrate success in social competence and academic achievement in their school careers. However, children who have a difficult time transitioning to formal schooling usually have trouble catching up to their peers.
In this two year study, researchers looked two different types of programs: a centralized city program for four year olds and a county program located in four distinct elementary schools. The transition activities developed for use by families of the students and their preschool and kindergarten teachers were organized into four categories. These categories included family-school connections, child-school connections, peer connections, and community connections.
Of the 110 children enrolled initially in the program, there were 86 participants that completed the study from beginning to end. Of the 86 participants, 70 were African American, 31 Caucasian, 3 were Hispanic and 6 had other ethnic backgrounds. Factors in the decline of students participating in the project were due primarily to family mobility. The researchers in the project chose to primarily work with at-risk students. Students were determined to be at risk based on their eligibility for free and reduced lunch, child’s father or mother’s partner ever living with them in the home and mother’s score on the Center of Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale (CES-D) (La Poro et al., 2003).
There were 10 preschool teachers that participated in the study. Eight of the preschool teachers were Caucasian and 2 were African American. All of them were women. The kindergarten teachers consisted of 36 Caucasian females and one African American woman.
Data collection in this study consisted of involving parents on interviews and teacher questionnaires. The questionnaires and interview questions were designed to be sensitive to participants’ use of the transition activities offered to them as well as experiences that occurred as the child moved through preschool and into kindergarten. The interview questions were developed to address the following questions: 1) When offered a range of transition activities and provided support to engage in them, in what transition activities do parents participate and which activities do they find helpful? 2) What barriers do parents report with regard to participating in the activities? 3) In what transition activities do teachers participate in activities and which ones do they find helpful? 4) What barriers do teachers report with regard to participating in the activities? (La Poro et al., 2003).
The results of the study showed that more that 50% of the families reported participating in almost all of the transition activities with a visit to a kindergarten classroom being the most prevalent activity while reading to children about going to school was the least prevalent activity. Out of all of the families that participated, almost all of them said that they were helpful in the transition process. A major barrier for participants was an overwhelming majority of families (74%) reported that their work schedule interfered with their participation in the transition activities (La Poro et al., 2003).
All of the preschool teachers found the transition activities to be helpful, but when researchers surveyed the kindergarten teachers, only about half of them participated in transition activities that occurred during the summer months. Teachers cited lack of pay for their non-participation. Of the activities they did participate in, most all of them found them to be helpful (La Poro et al., 2003).
The implications of this study suggest to me that there is benefit to supporting families with transition tips and activities to help their child move from preschool to kindergarten. It seems that there may be more benefit to offer school funded transition programs that would allow children to participate in school readiness activities while their parents are away at work. There could also be some activities built into that program that would involve parents and children and offer them helpful hints about helping their children get ready for school. This would help take care of the chief problem that parents reported when they reflected on their participation levels in the activities. It would also give teachers an opportunity to earn income over the summer months. It also might be interesting to survey the actual children in the study about their feelings about school before and after the activities. This would give a unique perspective through the eyes of a child.
Kathleen Brotherton
Latest posts by Kathleen Brotherton (see all)
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