Teacher personal and professional characteristics: contributions to emotional support and behavior guidance in early childhood classrooms

Emotional support and behavior guidance in early childhood classrooms have important influences on the social and emotional competence of the children within them. Accumulating evidence suggests that a higher percentage of children than ever before are entering early childhood programs prior to kindergarten and are doing so at a younger age. At the same time, research in the field has demonstrated associations between teacher emotional support and behavior guidance and outcomes for children. Many professional characteristics of teachers have been studied as predictors of emotional support and behavior guidance in early childhood classrooms but to date, little attention has been focused on teacher personal characteristics. The current study examined teacher personal characteristics in relation to the emotional support and behavior guidance in toddler and preschool classrooms. Data from the Comparison of Quality Assessment Tools (CQAT) study in North Carolina was used to address this aim with a sample of 135 teachers. Teachers completed questionnaires on personality, negative feelings, education, and professional development activities. A linear relationship between teacher personality characteristics and emotional support and behavior guidance was not evident in the study. However, results indicated relationships among several of the other study variables and found several examples of moderation of relationships by toddler or preschool class type. Results are discussed in terms of implications for future research and practice in early childhood education

Developing Teachers' Classroom Interactions: A Description of a Video Review Process for Early Childhood Education Students

Abstract: This article describes a video review process for providing feedback to students and documents students' teaching practices using the CLASS in a practicum course and student teaching. Students videotaped themselves in their field-based settings and then met with the course instructors and classmates in small groups to review strengths and challenges of their teaching using the CLASS framework of teacher-child interactions. These videos were also coded by trained CLASS observers across 10 dimensions in the areas of emotional support, classroom organization, and instructional support. Results from preservice teachers' CLASS ratings indicate a pattern similar to national data sets using the CLASS, higher scores in the emotional support and classroom organization domains than in the domain of instructional support. Also, findings from the current study revealed that CLASS scores declined from students' practicum placement to the end of student teaching in the domain of emotional support and specifically in the dimensions of regard for student perspectives and behavior management. The process of using videos for providing feedback in field-based experiences is discussed as well as implications for teacher development in light of students' CLASS scores and changes in CLASS scores. Keywords: Teacher education | Preservice teachers | Student teaching | Early childhood education | Instruction | Video review process | Observation Article: Preparing teachers is a complex process, particularly in teacher preparation programs that seek to prepare students to work with very young children. Early childhood teachers must be knowledgeable of child development, learning theory, content areas, and early childhood pedagogy. At the same time, they must understand how to apply what they have learned throug

Behavioral Coping Phenotypes and Associated Psychosocial Outcomes of Pregnant and Postpartum Women During the COVID-19 Pandemic

The impact of COVID-19-related stress on perinatal women is of heightened public health concern given the established intergenerational impact of maternal stress-exposure on infants and fetuses. There is urgent need to characterize the coping styles associated with adverse psychosocial outcomes in perinatal women during the COVID-19 pandemic to help mitigate the potential for lasting sequelae on both mothers and infants. This study uses a data-driven approach to identify the patterns of behavioral coping strategies that associate with maternal psychosocial distress during the COVID-19 pandemic in a large multicenter sample of pregnant women (N = 2876) and postpartum women (N = 1536). Data was collected from 9 states across the United States from March to October 2020. Women reported behaviors they were engaging in to manage pandemic-related stress, symptoms of depression, anxiety and global psychological distress, as well as changes in energy levels, sleep quality and stress levels. Using latent profile analysis, we identified four behavioral phenotypes of coping strategies. Critically, phenotypes with high levels of passive coping strategies (increased screen time, social media, and intake of comfort foods) were associated with elevated symptoms of depression, anxiety, and global psychological distress, as well as worsening stress and energy levels, relative to other coping phenotypes. In contrast, phenotypes with high levels of active coping strategies (social support, and self-care) were associated with greater resiliency relative to other phenotypes. The identification of these widespread coping phenotypes reveals novel behavioral patterns associated with risk and resiliency to pandemic-related stress in perinatal women. These findings may contribute to early identification of women at risk for poor long-term outcomes and indicate malleable targets for interventions aimed at mitigating lasting sequelae on women and children during the COVID-19 pandemic

Plakophilin-3 Is Required for Late Embryonic Amphibian Development, Exhibiting Roles in Ectodermal and Neural Tissues

The p120-catenin family has undergone a significant expansion during the evolution of vertebrates, resulting in varied functions that have yet to be discerned or fully characterized. Likewise, members of the plakophilins, a related catenin subfamily, are found throughout the cell with little known about their functions outside the desmosomal plaque. While the plakophilin-3 (Pkp3) knockout mouse resulted in skin defects, we find larger, including lethal effects following its depletion in Xenopus. Pkp3, unlike some other characterized catenins in amphibians, does not have significant maternal deposits of mRNA. However, during embryogenesis, two Pkp3 protein products whose temporal expression is partially complimentary become expressed. Only the smaller of these products is found in adult Xenopus tissues, with an expression pattern exhibiting distinctions as well as overlaps with those observed in mammalian studies. We determined that Xenopus Pkp3 depletion causes a skin fragility phenotype in keeping with the mouse knockout, but more novel, Xenopus tailbud embryos are hyposensitive to touch even in embryos lacking outward discernable phenotypes, and we additionally resolved disruptions in certain peripheral neural structures, altered establishment and migration of neural crest, and defects in ectodermal multiciliated cells. The use of two distinct morpholinos, as well as rescue approaches, indicated the specificity of these effects. Our results point to the requirement of Pkp3 in amphibian embryogenesis, with functional roles in a number of tissue types

Teachers\u27 Commitment to the Field and Teacher-Child Interactions in Center-Based Child Care for Toddlers and Three-Year-Olds

Defining teacher characteristics that are associated with effective teaching continues to be a challenging task for the field of early care and education. Much of the research examining classroom quality has focused solely on teacher characteristics such as education and experience; However, teachers\u27 commitment to the field of early care and education defined as including job satisfaction, perception of the job as a long-term career, education level, years of experience, and membership in a professional organization may be an important characteristic to consider in teachers\u27 interactions with children in the classroom, especially teachers of very young children. Using the NICHD Study of Early Child Care data at 15, 24, and 36 months, the present paper examines characteristics of early childhood teachers\u27 commitment to the field and the assessed quality of teacher-child interactions in the classroom. Results indicate that overall, these characteristics significantly predict the quality of teachers\u27 emotional and cognitive support provided to children as measured by the Observational Record of the Caregiving Environment (ORCE). Characteristics of commitment to the field were stronger predictors of the cognitive support than the emotional support teachers\u27 provide in classrooms. The current work provides important information to consider in discussions of how characteristics of early childhood teachers influence their interactions with children in classrooms. © 2012 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC

Examining the definition and measurement of quality in early childhood education: A review of studies using the ECERS-R from 2003 to 2010

The field of early childhood education continues to grapple with the issue of understanding quality in classrooms. The lack of clarity in definition (or conceptualization) and related ability to assess (or operationalize) quality has contributed to a reliance on the Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale (ECERS-R), which is often interpreted to be synonymous with the quality of a classroom. Likewise, the ECERS-R (although a measurement tool) is often used to define quality. Because of the widespread use of this measure as an evaluation tool, early childhood programs have strived to achieve high ratings on this measure, and subsequently the item content of the ECERS-R has often become a focus for quality enhancement initiatives. The present study examines the definitions of quality (i.e., how quality is operationalized) in research studies using the ECERS-R over the past 8 years (2003-2010). A content analysis of 76 studies conducted in the United States indicates that studies using the ECERS-R to operationalize quality do not use a consistent definition; instead they conceptualize quality in a variety of ways ranging from quality is ECERs or classroom quality to environmental quality. In light of these varying definitions, implications for research and policy in early childhood education are discussed. © 2012 The Author(s)