Computerized Social-Emotional Assessment Battery for School Readiness

描述(由申请人提供)：向正规学校的过渡是一个重要的基础，可以使孩子在学术和社会领域走上成功或失败的循环。在整个学习过程中，也许最重要的是在早期，儿童表达健康情绪的能力，理解自我和他人的情绪，调节情绪，注意力和行为，对社会问题做出正确的决定，以及从事一系列亲社会行为的能力，所有这些都共同促进了成功的学校经历。然而，由于入学原因，许多儿童在这些技能方面存在缺陷，教育工作者缺乏必要的工具来识别、跟踪和评估这些儿童需要学习的技能。改善这些条件的工作可能会帮助儿童有机会发挥他们的潜力，过上健康和富有成效的生活，这是NIH的关键使命。因此，由于社交-情绪学习(SEL)是如此关键，确定儿童的技能和进步的评估工具是至关重要的。建议的研究将通过计算机化，使研究型SEL评估工具具有较强的经验预测效度，以适应学校的适应和成绩。这些计算机化的工具将用于幼儿教育环境、教学和注重成果的目的。因此，我们这项应用的总体目标是开始改造这种电池，以最大限度地提高学前班、学前班和幼儿园教室的实用性和可行性。我们看到了这种评估单元的未来，它的最终形式是形成性和终结性的儿童评估以及课堂或项目评估；它将用于为特定学生的整体课堂教学和教学计划提供信息，衡量学校准备情况，并评估项目的问责制。因此，我们在这个探索性/发展项目中的第一个目标是设计一个基于计算机版本的SEL评估单元。在项目的第一年，我们将完成评估自我调节、情感知识、社会问题解决和亲社会行为的游戏类测量的计算机化，并试用这些早期版本，检查它们在教师和3-4岁儿童中的可用性，以及它们与教师对计算机的态度、课堂上计算机使用、性别、年龄和儿童早期学校成功和认知能力的关系。我们会在与教师举行专题小组会议后，在有需要时修订有关措施，告知有关程序。在此基础上，在项目的第二年，我们将致力于针对原始的非计算机化评估工具以及与儿童早期学校成功相关的完整计算机化电池进行验证。这项工作将为最终确定这一电池并继续探索其实用性提供一个跳板。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The transition into formal schooling is a crucial foundation that can set children on a cycle of success or failure in both academic and social domains. Throughout schooling, but perhaps most especially during these early years, a child's abilities to express healthy emotions, understand emotions of self and others, regulate emotion, attention, and behavior, make good decisions regarding social problems, and engage in a range of prosocial behaviors, all work together promote successful school experience. However, many children have deficits in these skills by school entry, and educators lack the requisite tools to identify, track and assess skills these children need to learn. Work to ameliorate these conditions may help children have the chance to fulfill their potential to live healthy and productive lives, a key mission of NIH. Thus, because social-emotional learning (SEL) is so crucial, assessment tools to pinpoint children's skills and progress are vitally necessary. The proposed research will adapt, via computerization, research-based SEL assessment tools with strong empirical predictive validity for school adjustment and achievement. These computerized tools will be used in early childhood educational settings, instructional and outcome-based purposes. Our overarching goal for this application, then, is to begin transforming this battery to maximize utility and feasibility in preschool, Head Start and prekindergarten classrooms. We see the future of this assessment battery, in its later, ultimate form, for both formative and summative child assessments and classroom or program evaluation; it will be used to inform overall classroom instruction and instructional plans for specific students, measure school readiness, and evaluate program accountability. Thus, our first aim in this exploratory/developmental project is to design a computer-based version of our SEL assessment battery. In Year 1 of the project, then, we will complete our computerization of game-like measures assessing self regulation, emotion knowledge, social problem-solving, and prosocial behavior, and pilot these early versions, examining their usability with teachers and 3- to 4-year- old children, as well as their relation to teachers' attitudes about computer, computer usage in the classroom, gender, age, and children's early school success and cognitive ability. We will revise the measures as necessary after holding a focus group with teachers to inform this process. With this foundation, in Year 2 of the project we will work toward validation of the complete computerized battery against the original noncomputerized assessment tools, and in relation to children's early school success. This work will provide a springboard to finalization of this battery and continued exploration of its usefulness.