The Role of Self-Regulation and Classroom Self-Regulatory Supports in Early Education

项目摘要 关于公立幼儿园前（pre-k）计划在早期关闭贫困相关项目的潜力的辩论 教育和健康差距占据了科学家、政策制定者、教育和公共卫生的中心舞台 官员虽然有大量证据支持学前教育促进儿童积极发展的力量， 就短期而言，人们对解释这些积极的短期影响的机制知之甚少。此外，委员会认为， 没有证据表明在小学早期教育中维持积极的短期影响的途径 (1st- 四年级），以指导可采取行动的决定，改善弱势幼儿的教育和健康。 我们专注于儿童的自我调节技能（例如，注意力和冲动控制;情绪管理; 记忆、计划和组织）以及支持其发展的公共学前班功能 作为将学前教育与教育和健康成果联系起来的机制的主要候选者，原因有三：（1） 在那些有着自我调节能力的儿童中， 经历了重大的经济逆境;（2）自我监管技能已被实证记录， 教育和健康结果的基础;（3）自我调节技能对干预敏感，因此 在童年早期是可塑的。拟议的5年纵向多方法研究将建立这一 首先评估学前教育对低收入儿童的自我调节、教育和健康的促进作用， 结果在幼儿园，然后通过检查这三个结果之间的关联，以及测试 自我调节技能是否可以解释学前教育参与与教育和健康之间的联系 幼儿园入学的成绩。然后，我们研究与学前班自我相关的机制， 监管特征，因为它们解释了学前教育参与和幼儿园成果之间的关联， 调查自我调节课堂功能作为中介幼儿园自我调节，教育， 健康成果。我们的最终目标是利用纵向研究设计来探索这些过程 潜在的持续前k影响：我们将测试任何持续前k的存在和途径 通过四年级的影响，侧重于课堂过程，可能会淡出学前教育的影响。数据 将在塔尔萨公立学校（TPS）区收集，该地区举办了一个全国公认的学前教育项目， 我们将从幼儿园入学开始研究其影响。在拟议项目的每一年-从 K到四年级-该项目将包括对儿童的自我调节，教育和 健康结果，课堂观察和教师访谈，以收集课堂信息 流程和实践，以及家长访谈。为了分析我们的数据，我们将采用计量经济学， OLS回归和多级建模方法。研究结果将阐明从前k 接触长期教育和健康成果，为下一代学前教育的设计提供信息 承认其作为早期学习和促进健康干预措施的作用的方案。

Project Summary Debates about the potential of public pre-kindergarten (pre-k) programs to close poverty-related early education and health gaps occupy center-stage for scientists, policymakers, and education and public health officials. While there is substantial evidence to support the power of pre-k to promote positive development in the short-term, the mechanisms that explain those positive short-term effects are poorly understood. Moreover, there is no evidence examining pathways for sustaining positive short-term effects into early primary schooling (1st – 4th grade) to guide actionable decisions to improve education and health for vulnerable young children. We focus on children’s self-regulatory skills (e.g., attention and impulse control; management of emotions; memory, planning, and organization) and the public pre-k classroom features that support their development as prime candidates for mechanisms linking pre-k with education and health outcomes for three reasons: (1) the brain regions underlying developing self-regulatory skills are compromised among children who have experienced significant economic adversity; (2) self-regulatory skills have been empirically documented to underlie education and health outcomes; and (3) self-regulatory skills are sensitive to intervention and thus malleable during the early childhood years. The proposed 5-year longitudinal, multi-method study will build this evidence base by first assessing a pre-k boost to low-income children’s self-regulatory, education, and health outcomes in kindergarten, and then by examining associations among this triad of outcomes, as well as testing whether self-regulatory skills explain associations between pre-k participation and education and health outcomes at kindergarten entry. We then examine mechanisms associated with pre-k classroom self- regulatory features as they explain associations between pre-k participation and kindergarten outcomes, investigating self-regulatory classroom features as mediators of kindergarten self-regulatory, education, and health outcomes. Our final goal capitalizes on the longitudinal study design to explore the processes underlying sustained pre-k impacts: we will test for the presence of and pathways to any sustained pre-k effects through 4th grade, focusing on classroom processes that may underlie fade-out of pre-k impacts. Data will be collected in the Tulsa Public Schools (TPS) district, which hosts a nationally recognized pre-k program, the impacts of which we will study beginning at kindergarten entry. In each year of the proposed project – from K through 4th grade – the project will include direct assessments of children’s self-regulatory, education, and health outcomes, classroom observations and teacher interviews to gather information on classroom processes and practices, and parent interviews. To analyze our data, we will employ a mix of econometric, OLS regression, and multilevel modeling approaches. Findings will illuminate the active pathways from pre-k exposure to longer-term education and health outcomes, informing the design of next-generation pre-k programs that acknowledge their role as both early learning and health-promoting interventions.