Preschool Curricula: Outcomes and Developmental Processes

描述（由申请人提供）：该计划项目的目标是确定：1）在中心设置的2至4岁贫困儿童的入学准备干预措施的有效性，2）教师行为变化在调解入学准备中的作用，以及3）发展过程（例如，社会，语言，认知），影响这些结果的干预效果。支持幼儿学习各种技能的方法（即，语言、识字、数学、社会）忽视了关键领域，或以零敲碎打的方式关注这些领域。中心主题是测试社会和认知学习的综合教学内容和过程，以及解释这种情况如何发生的机制。包括五个项目和两个核心（行政、统计/计量）。项目1（2-3岁的干预）将测试，在一个随机的设计，认知课程与反应教学实践的影响相比，它与一个明确的社会课程配对。项目2（学前教育干预）与项目1的目标相似，采用4岁的队列，并检查了课程联系与一般进展监测的优势。项目3-5将研究解释干预效果的发展过程，以及干预如何影响特定的发展领域。项目3（社会）将研究针对社会情感过程作用的干预措施和结果之间的调解链（例如，情感理解，努力控制）。项目4（语言，心理理论）解决：a）语言的增长如何促进学业成绩和心理理论技能的增长和B）家庭和学校的语言输入在这个过程中发挥的作用。项目5（数学）考察早期数学领域的发展轨迹是否能预测学术成果，并考察它们的前身。这项研究计划将确定必要的内容，过程和时间，以促进入学准备和调解和调节因素，并提供重要的跨学科的见解儿童的认知和社交技能的相互关系。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The program project objectives are to determine the: 1) effectiveness of school readiness interventions for 2 to 4 yr old children from poverty in center-based settings, 2) role of teacher behavior change in mediating school readiness, and 3) developmental processes (e.g., social, language, cognitive) that influence intervention efficacy on these outcomes. Approaches to supporting young children's learning across a range of skills (i.e., language, literacy, math, social) have overlooked key areas or attended to them in piecemeal ways. The central theme is to test integrated instructional content and processes on social and cognitive learning and mechanisms that explain how this occurs. Five projects and two cores (Administrative, Statistical/ Measurement) are included. Project 1 (2-3 yr old intervention) will test, in a randomized design, the impact of a cognitive curriculum with responsive teaching practices in contrast to its pairing with an explicit social curriculum. Project 2 (pre-K intervention) parallels Project 1 goals with a 4 yr old cohort and also examines the advantage of curriculum linked vs. general progress monitoring. Projects 3-5 will examine the developmental processes that explain intervention effects and how the intervention impacts specific developmental areas. Project 3 (social) will examine chains of mediation between the interventions and outcomes that target the role of social-emotional processes (e.g., emotional understanding, effortful control). Project 4 (language, theory of mind) addresses: a) how language growth promotes academic achievement and growth in theory of mind skills and b) the role that home and school language input play in this process. Project 5 (math) examines whether the developmental trajectories of early math domains predict academic outcomes and examines their precursors. This research program will determine the content, processes, and timing necessary to promote school readiness and the mediating and moderating factors and provide important cross-discipline insights into the interrelation of children's cognitive and social skills.