Preschool Curricula: Outcomes and Developmental Processes

描述（由申请人提供）：本项目的目标是确定：1)在以中心为基础的环境中，对2至4岁贫困儿童入学准备干预的有效性，2)教师行为改变在调节入学准备中的作用，以及3)影响干预效果的发展过程（如社会、语言、认知）。支持幼儿学习一系列技能（即语言、识字、数学、社交）的方法忽视了关键领域，或者以零敲碎打的方式关注它们。中心主题是测试关于社会和认知学习的综合教学内容和过程，以及解释这是如何发生的机制。包括五个项目和两个核心（行政、统计/测量）。项目1（2-3岁儿童干预）将以随机设计的方式测试认知课程与响应式教学实践的影响，对比其与明确的社会课程的配对。项目2（学前教育干预）将项目1的目标与一个4岁的孩子群体进行比较，并考察了课程关联与一般进度监测的优势。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）将研究干预和结果之间的中介链，目标是社会情绪过程的作用（例如，情绪理解，努力控制）。项目4（语言，心理理论）涉及：a)语言增长如何促进学业成就和心理理论技能的增长，b)家庭和学校语言输入在这一过程中所起的作用。项目5（数学）研究早期数学领域的发展轨迹是否能预测学业成绩，并检查其前兆。本研究项目将确定促进入学准备所需的内容、过程和时间，以及中介和调节因素，并为儿童认知和社交技能的相互关系提供重要的跨学科见解。

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.