Differential effects of preschool quality on children's

ReseaRch PaPeRs in education, 2018 VoL. 33, no. 4, 492–514 https://doi.org/10.1080/02671522.2017.1362718

Differential effects of preschool quality on children’s emergent literacy skills in the final preschool year in Germany Simone Lehrla and Wilfried Smidtb a

Faculty of education, department of early childhood education, university of Bamberg, Bamberg, Germany; Faculty of education, university of innsbruck, innsbruck, austria

b

ABSTRACT

ARTICLE HISTORY

The study investigates direct and indirect preschool quality effects on emergent literacy skills (children’s letter knowledge, oral skills, and interests and skills in print and communication) using quality indicators at process (ECERS-R, ECERS-E), structure (e.g. class size) and belief (e.g. support creativity) level. The study included a sample of 547 children from 97 preschools and implemented standardised tests and teacher-ratings in the final preschool year, as well as observations and questionnaires throughout the preschool period. Multiple regression models reveal that ECERS-R was significantly related to children’s teacher rated interest and skills in communication, and that ECERS-E predicted children’s tested letter knowledge. Group size predicted children’s interest and skills in print negatively, revealing lower scores in larger groups. With regard to beliefs, teachers’ creativity and social support beliefs were negatively related with children’s letter knowledge, whereas teachers’ knowledge- and cultural-toolsoriented beliefs were positively related with interest and skills in communication. These effects were partly mediated through ECERS-E. Although the study provides evidence for effects of preschool quality on the development of children’s emergent literacy skills and some evidence that effects of beliefs are partly mediated through process quality, effects are not consistent through the outcome variables and effect sizes are small.

Received 20 september 2016 accepted 29 July 2017 KEYWORDS

Preschool quality; emergent literacy; teacher beliefs; eceRs-R; eceRs-e; structural quality

Introduction Emergent literacy skills such as language acquisition, conventions of print or phonological awareness (Whitehurst and Lonigan 1998) refer to one of the most important competencies preschool children must obtain because these skills provide a crucial basis for their subsequent educational attainment in school (Duncan et al. 2007; Weinert, Ebert, and Dubowy 2010). One important learning context for the development of emergent literacy skills is the preschool (Cunningham 2010; Dickinson, McCabe, and Essex 2006; Sylva et al. 2004). As in many other countries, preschool attendance in Germany is a regular part of most young children’s lives (Oberhuemer, Schreyer, and Neuman 2010). Although preschool attendance CONTACT simone Lehrl [email protected] this article was originally published with errors. this version has been corrected. Please see erratum (https://doi.org/10.10 80/02671522.2017.1374663) © 2017 informa uK Limited, trading as taylor & Francis Group

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is not compulsory in Germany, over 90% of 3–6-year-old children in Germany currently attend non-familial institutions such as preschools and day-care centres before starting formal schooling at around the age of six (Federal Statistical Office 2015). Therefore, due to the high attendance rates, there is significant potential for stimulating educational processes before the start of obligatory school. In the light of the pronounced differences in children’s emerging literacy skills at the beginning of primary school in Germany (Brügelmann 1998; Martschinke et al. 2003), and especially the lower competencies of children from disadvantaged backgrounds (Weinert, Ebert, and Dubowy 2010), preschool education might be an important means of increasing emergent literacy competencies for all children (Dickinson and Tabors 2001; Snow, Burns, and Griffin 1998), and especially those that confer risk. In particular, previous research has highlighted that preschool quality predicts various aspects of children’s development (see Burger 2010; Melhuish et al. 2015; Vandell and Wolfe 2000 for overviews). Preschool quality is frequently defined in terms of global process quality (e.g. climate, teacher–child and child–child interactions), domain-specific process quality (e.g. stimulation in emergent literacy and early numeracy), structural quality (e.g. group size), and preschool teacher’s beliefs (e.g. educational goals, beliefs about development appropriate practices) (Cryer 1999; Huntsman 2008; Sylva et al. 2006; Tietze et al. 1998). While the predictive importance of preschool quality is well-established in general (see Burger 2010; Melhuish et al. 2015; Vandell and Wolfe 2000 for overviews), far less is known, however, about the detailed differential effects of different measures of preschool quality on children’s competencies and – more specifically – on children’s emerging literacy skills. For instance, in a British study, Sylva and colleagues (2006) indicated that global and domain-specific measures of process quality each had specific effects on the development of children’s competencies. ECERS-E (Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale – Extended Version; Sylva, Siraj-Blatchford, and Taggart 2003) scores were especially significantly associated with children’s cognitive development, including pre-reading, whereas ECERS-R scores (Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale – Revised Edition; Harms, Clifford, and Cryer 1998) were more sensitive to social development. Gaining detailed information about differential effects is especially important because this information makes it possible to draw reliable conclusions about the relative predictive importance of different components of preschool quality to identify areas for quality improvement more precisely. The present study addresses this issue and aims to investigate differential effects of preschool quality on children’s emergent literacy skills during preschool with regard to the situation in Germany, where there is a pronounced lack of research in this field. In the following, we first outline the terms ‘emergent literacy’ and ‘educational quality in preschools’ and present relevant research regarding the effects of educational quality in preschools on children’s emerging literacy skills. We then describe our study framework in the context of the German preschool system and present as well as discuss our research questions.

Emergent literacy According to Whitehurst and Lonigan (1998), the term ‘emergent literacy’ has been used to refer to three different, although related concepts: (1) Individual skills associated with subsequent reading and writing competencies, which are denoted as ‘emergent literacy’. It comprises skills, which are acquired via continuous learning processes starting with birth until children are able to read and write in a conventional manner (Teale and Sulzby 1989). In this understanding, emergent literacy includes components of language, narratives,

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conventions of print, emergent reading and writing, grapheme knowledge, phonological and syntactic awareness, phoneme-grapheme correspondence, phonological memory, rapid naming and print motivation (Whitehurst and Lonigan 1998). By categorising the components of emergent literacy, Caspe (2009) has suggested distinguishing between print-related competencies (e.g. knowledge of letters, conventions of print), which have been shown to predict subsequent basic reading skills (Lehrl, Ebert, and Rossbach 2013; Sénéchal and LeFevre 2002) and language-related competencies (e.g. vocabulary, phonological awareness and narratives), which have been shown to be good predictors of reading comprehension (Dickinson and Tabors 2001; Griffin et al. 2004; Lehrl, Ebert, and Rossbach 2013). (2) Characteristics of environments in which the individuals are embedded in and which support the development of emergent literacy (e.g. the provision of shared book reading in the preschool class) are denoted as ‘emergent literacy environments’; they refer to children’s learning environments such as preschools. The preschool environment, especially its quality, has been shown to be related to children’s emergent literacy (e.g. in terms of shared reading and writing activities and instructional quality) (Dickinson and Tabors 1991; Howes et al. 2008; Sylva et al. 2006). (3) Emergent literacy-related educational policies that are termed ‘emergent literacy movement’ can enhance literacy-related activities in children’s learning environments. In this regard, examples include non-obligatory educational plans (curricula), which were introduced in Germany some years ago to enhance the quality of educational work regarding emergent literacy-related contents (amongst other domains such as mathematics; Diskowski 2008) and – as more recent development – the implementation of state-funded compensatory preschool programmes, which aim to foster the language competencies of socially disadvantaged children and of those with an immigration background (e.g. Bundesministerium für Familie, Senioren, Frauen und Jugend (BMFSFJ) 2015). For the purpose of the present study, we refer to the first two concepts of emergent literacy.

Educational quality in preschools and its effects on emergent literacy skills The educational quality children experience in their learning environments is considered to be of crucial importance for the development of their emergent literacy skills. There are different and sometimes conflicting ways to conceptualise educational quality. For instance, definitions of educational quality may vary depending whether the notions of parents, children, educational staff or researchers would be considered (e.g. Katz 1994; Moss 1994; see also Smidt and Rossbach 2016). For the purpose of the present study, we refer to an evidenced-based model of educational quality in which educational quality can be conceptualised by means of the three components: structural quality, educational beliefs and process quality (National Institute for Child Health and Human Development Early Child Care Research Network [NICHD ECCRN] 2002; Pianta et al. 2005; Tietze et al. 1998). The first component refers to structural quality, which comprises structural characteristics of the preschools and preschool classes, whereby some of them are administratively and politically regulated (Cryer 1999; Kluczniok and Roßbach 2014; Tietze et al. 1998). In this regard, aspects of structural quality include, for instance, preschool and class size (number of children), the teacher–child-ratio, staff qualifications and job experience and classroom equipment and materials. In general, structural quality aspects have been shown to be related to process quality (Lamb and Ahnert 2006; Vandell and Wolfe 2000): smaller


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classrooms, smaller child-to-teacher ratios and higher teachers’ education levels are associated with higher process quality. Furthermore, regarding emergent literacy outcomes, effects of structural quality aspects in terms of class size have been found, with a negative effect on letter naming and on receptive language (Mashburn et al. 2008). Additionally, Ebert and colleagues (2013) found for a German sample that preschool class size was negatively associated with the development of children’s receptive vocabulary between the age of three and five after controlling for child and family characteristics. At least limited evidence has been also reported with regard to the positive effects of preschool teachers’ educational levels, which have been partly shown to be related to children’s pre-reading skills (but not with children’s receptive language skills) (Early et al. 2007). Whereas the aforementioned findings suggest direct effects of structural quality, there is also evidence for indirect effects of structural quality: Structural quality variables in terms of the child–staff ratio and caregiver training were found to reveal indirect effects on preschool children’s cognitive competencies (including emergent literacy aspects), which were mediated by the childcare process quality (NICHD ECCRN 2002). The second component refers to educational beliefs of preschool teachers. These beliefs are assumed to serve as filters and frames regarding educational practices that are conducted in order to foster children’s competencies (Fives and Buehl 2012). Preschool teachers’ educational beliefs cover a wide range of topics such as educational goals (e.g. Smidt, Kammermeyer, and Roux 2015), beliefs about developmentally appropriate practices (e.g. Charlesworth et al. 1993), and beliefs about the general importance of institutional care and education for children’s development (e.g. Kluczniok and Roßbach 2014). As with structural quality, research has generally indicated relations between preschool teachers’ educational beliefs and process quality (e.g. Kluczniok, Anders, and Ebert 2011; Maxwell et al. 2002; Berk 1985; Charlesworth et al. 1993; McMullen et al. 2006; Pianta et al. 2005; Stipek and Byler 1997; Tietze et al. 1998; Kagan and Smith 1988). For instance, preschool teacher’s endorsements of school preparation as well as general education (e.g. creativity, social competencies and dexterity) were positively related to process quality in terms of ECERS-R and ECERS-E (Kluczniok, Anders, and Ebert 2011). When referring to emergent literacy, one major influencing factor for the provision of literacy-based experiences in preschools is the belief that preschool teachers hold about how young children learn to read and write (McMullen et al. 2006; Mills and Clyde 1991). However, some studies have failed to demonstrate associations between teacher beliefs and process quality (e.g. Bryant et al. 1994; Hamre et al. 2012; Hedge and Cassidy 2009; Rentzou and Sakellariou 2011; Sandvik, van Daal, and Adèr 2014). For instance, the study of Hamre and colleagues (2012) did not reveal relations between preschool teacher’s beliefs about the importance of literacy and language skills and process quality (measured with the CLASS). In addition, some study findings even showed negative effects: That is, Schachter et al. (2016) found that preschool teacher’s beliefs about oral language and vocabulary instruction were negatively related with instructional practices in preschool. These different patterns of findings might be caused by the variety of operationalisations of educational beliefs. Hence, more research about the effects of teacher beliefs is necessary. Teachers’ assumptions about how children become literate can either limit or expand the opportunities offered for children’s literacy development, which, in turn, may influence the children’s own competencies. The third component, process quality, refers to interaction processes of the child with its spatial-material and social surrounding which can be regarded as ‘the primary engines of

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development’ (Bronfenbrenner and Morris 2006, 798). In the light of this literature, process quality has been also considered to be the main component of educational quality (Tietze et al. 1998). Process quality comprises the interactional processes between children and preschool teachers and peers as well as children’s task orientation (e.g. Cryer 1999; Kluczniok and Roßbach 2014). By taking into account theories that refer to the domain specificity of children’s acquisition of competencies (e.g. Wellman and Gelman 1992), a distinction that is often made refers to more global aspects (e.g. care, climate and supervision) and domain-specific aspects of process quality (e.g. literacy-related or numeracy-related processes) (e.g. Anders et al. 2012; Smidt and Rossbach 2016). Process quality is frequently examined with standardised observation and rating tools such as the ECERS-R or the Classroom Assessment Scoring System (CLASS, Pianta, La Paro, and Hamre 2008), which have been shown to meet scientific criteria (see Halle, Vick Whittaker, and Anderson 2010 for an overview). Several studies have highlighted the predictive importance of process quality for a wide range of children’s competencies (Anders et al. 2012; Sylva et al. 2006; see Burger 2010 and Clarke-Stewart and Allhusen 2005 for reviews). For instance, global process quality positively predicted children’s socio-behavioural competencies in terms of ‘co-operation & conformity’ whereas domain-specific quality positively predicted children’s cognitive competencies in terms of ‘pre-reading’, ‘general mathematical concepts’ and ‘non-verbal reasoning’ (Sylva et al. 2006). The NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development revealed that after controlling for several family and childcare-related variables, higher global educational process quality of nonmaternal care positively predicted receptive and expressive vocabulary of three-year-old children and language competencies in terms of indicators such as the vocabulary, morphology and syntax of five-year-old children (NICHD ECCRN 2006). Findings of Mashburn and colleagues (2008) noted that global process quality measures were positively correlated with preschool children’s vocabulary skills, oral and written language skills, rhyming, and letter naming after accounting for several child variables and aspects of structural preschool quality. Some studies have also stressed the predictive importance of domain-specific process quality rather than global process quality. Cunningham (2010) found a positive relation between literacy-related educational process quality in preschool classes and children’s development of emergent literacy skills in terms of language, reading and writing by computing Pearson correlations (i.e. without controlling for other variables). In addition, Sylva and colleagues (2006) found domain-specific aspects of educational process quality in preschool classes (a literacy subscale and a total composite comprising diversity, math and natural science) to be positively correlated with pre-reading competencies (a combination of letter recognition and phonological awareness) of five-year-old children after controlling for a number of child and family background variables. However, there were no effects of domain-specific quality on children’s language-related competencies (a combination of naming vocabulary and verbal comprehension). There were no effects of global process quality on children’s pre-reading and language competencies. In sum, previous research has generally indicated effects of educational quality in preschools and other nonmaternal childcare settings on the development of preschool children’s emergent literacy skills (e.g. Cunningham 2010; Dickinson, McCabe, and Essex 2006). However, the pattern of findings varies across studies. This diversity may correspond with study characteristics such as different measures of process quality. That is, although generally using the same framework of quality and following a shared understanding of process


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quality in terms of high-quality interactional processes in preschools, slightly different observational tools to capture quality are used. In addition, differences in the consideration of control variables and variations in the operationalisation of the dependent emergent literacy variables may also lead to varying pattern of findings.

The present study Taken together, the research conducted thus far reveals that variations in preschool quality can make a difference in emergent literacy development, with preschool children showing better letter knowledge and better language skills in high-quality classrooms. Nevertheless, until now, there has been a lack of research pertaining to the simultaneous exploration of indicators of different levels of educational quality – namely process, structure and beliefs – and their mediating effects. Therefore, the present study investigated differential effects of different dimensions of preschool quality on children’s emergent literacy skills in the final preschool year in Germany. Additionally, we test for a mediational model assuming that process quality predicts literacy outcomes at the end of preschool and that this association mediates the impact of structural quality and educational beliefs on children’s literacy outcomes. We suppose that process quality is the mechanism through which structural features of the preschool and educational beliefs of the teacher are affecting literacy outcomes.

Method Sample Data for the present study were collected within the German longitudinal research project ‘Educational Processes, Competence Development and Selection Decisions at Preschool and School Age’ (German acronym: BiKS) comprising a sample of 547 children from 97 preschools (one preschool group per preschool) in two German federal states (von Maurice et al. 2007). The German preschool system has some peculiarities, which should be briefly noted. Most childcare institutions are centre-based, state subsidised and community- or welfare-led organisations. Preschool is not compulsory, but almost all 3–6-year-old children attend preschool before starting formal schooling at around the age of six. In general, there are age-mixed classes of about 25 children served by one certified teacher and one assistant or even two certified teachers (regulated by law in each federal state, varying across states) covering the age span of 3–6 years, or even between 1 and 6 years (Rossbach 2009). There is no national curriculum for preschools in Germany. However, since 2004, curricular guidelines, which are not mandatory, have been introduced, which have turned the focus to providing more domain-specific learning support (Oberhuemer, Schreyer, and Neuman 2010). With regard to teacher training, there are different possibilities to be qualified to work at a German preschool: assisting staff obtains a two-year vocational training after finishing 9 years of schooling, certified teachers have to finish an additional three-year course or a Bachelor’s degree in early childhood education. However, academically trained preschool teachers in German preschools are still rare (2014: 5.3%, Bock-Famulla, Lange, and Strunz 2015) compared to other countries. The children of the present study were followed from three years of age (beginning of preschool) until the end of primary school (10 years); a follow-up study followed children until the 8th grade (13 years). Parents and teachers were asked for their written consent

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Table 1. descriptive statistics for child variables and covariates. N Child Outcomes Letter knowledge oral skills interest and skills in communication interest and skills in print Child and family background variables Gender female Parental native language status age of child in months ses hLe Preschool quality measures (Means through t1, t2, t3) Group size Mean age of children spatial resources (m²/child) support creativity and social adjustment convey knowledge/cultural tools eceRs-R total eceRs-e total

%

436 373 373 373 263 119 451 528 547 97 94 97 537 537 97 97

M

SD

Min.–Max.

12.83 2.29 2.17 2.70

8.41 0.73 0.58 0.44

0–26 0–3 0.25–3 0–3

67.46 52.79 0.52

4.25 16.43 0.13

58–78 16–90 0.06–0.84

23.83 5.05 3.46 3.70 3.01 3.77 2.98

3.69 0.24 2.25 0.20 0.44 0.49 0.53

11–36 4.31–5.70 1.47–16.00 3.24–4.00 2.08–4.00 2.69–4.98 1.76–4.07

48 22

note: ses = socio-economic-status, hLe = home learning environment.

for their participation in the study. Since preschools are typically age-mixed in Germany, only those parents with children around age three that were due to be enrolled in fall 2008 in primary school were asked for consent in order to create an age-homogeneous group of children. The average number of children assessed per class was 5.48. The sample included 48% girls, and the mean age of the children at first assessment was 45 months (SD = 4.5 months). Nearly one quarter (21.8%) of the children had at least one parent whose native language was not German, and 34.1% of mothers had graduated from the academic track of the three-tier German secondary system. Over half of the children (65.2%) were from Bavaria. The preschool teachers were mainly female (95%), and 89% were qualified on the vocational level. The mean years of teaching experiences were 18 years in the final preschool year. See Table 1 for further descriptive characteristics. Procedure and measures The children’s literacy skills were assessed via standardised tests at the end of preschool (Spring 2008, time 3, third preschool year) in individual tests and by teacher ratings at the same time point. Process quality was observed at the beginning (time 1, first preschool year) in the middle (time 2, second preschool year) and end (time 3) of preschool at approximately one-year intervals. The structural characteristics of the preschool and the beliefs of the preschool teachers were assessed at the same time points via standardised questionnaires. Background variables were collected at the beginning of the study (time 1) when children were about 3 years of age. Descriptive information and correlations of all the included variables can be found in Tables 1 and 2. Emergent literacy skills Competence test Letter knowledge. Five to six uppercase letters of the German alphabet (a total of 26 letters) were incidentally grouped and presented to the children on five paper cards. All

Letter knowledge oral skills interest and skills in communication interest and skills in print Gender (1 = female, 0 = male) Parental native language status age of child ses hLe Group size Mean age of children spatial resources (m²/child) support creativity and social adjustment convey knowledge/cultural tools eceRs-R total eceRs-e total

1 – .29 .23 .35 .21 −.01 .05 .18 .25 −.08 −.07 .01 −.09 −.01 .07 .11 – .45 .47 .10 −.33 .10 .37 .44 −.09 .00 .01 .03 .06 .11 .09

2

– .46 .19 −.11 −.02 .15 .18 −.04 .00 .03 .22 .19 .15 .16

3

– .20 −.10 .13 .18 .14 −.12 −.02 −.03 .19 .18 .09 .13

4

– −.06 −.03 −.01 .05 .03 .03 −.03 .02 .04 −.01 −.04

5

– −.04 −.21 −.33 −.13 .05 −.05 −.12 −.06 −.21 −.20

6

– −.03 .02 −.16 .21 .11 .00 −.14 −.09 −.10

7

– .47 .03 −.02 .08 −.01 −.08 .07 .05

8

– .01 −.02 .10 .02 .03 .14 .14

9

– −.04 .10 .13 .19 .03 .09

10

– .10 −.17 −.14 .07 −.04

11

– .06 .00 .17 .07

12

– .55 .09 .17

13

– .14 .30

14

– .78

15

notes: N = 547; ses = socio-economic status, hLe = home learning environment; Parental native language (1 = at least one parent non-German; 0 = German); all values above .09 are significant at p