Kindergarten

Readiness For Kindergarten

Last Updated Oct 5, 2008 03:51 PM

READINESS FOR KINDERGARTEN: PARENT AND TEACHER BELIEFS

Today, nearly all children attend a public or private kindergarten before first grade (West et al., 1991). As kindergarten enrollments have grown, so too has the range of backgrounds and experience that children bring to these programs. Kindergarten programs have also changed and often stress academic skills that were previously reserved for older children (Freeman and Hatch, 1989; Hitz and Wright, 1988; Karweit, 1988; Shepard and Smith, 1988). On the other hand, a leading professional association in early childhood education--the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC)--has adopted the position that kindergartens should have programs and practices that are more age appropriate and that better accommodate individual differences in background, learning, and experience (Bredekamp, 1987). This view seems to have gained wide acceptance among early childhood educators (Hitz and Wright, 1988).


As kindergarten has grown in popularity and as the nature of these programs changes, there has been discussion about the attributes and attitudes children need at entry to reach their full potential. Opinions about what young children should know or be capable of doing to be ready for kindergarten vary widely. 1 This paper looks at the beliefs held by two groups who play critical roles in the early education of children--parents of preschoolers and kindergarten teachers.


Parents hold a range of beliefs about what attributes and attitudes their children will need to succeed in kindergarten. Parent beliefs influence the activities they engage in with their children and the programs and experiences they arrange for the children (Graue, 1992). Parents may evaluate their child's readiness to start kindergarten on the basis of these beliefs and rely on these beliefs to decide when to enroll their child in kindergarten.


Kindergarten teachers, who are responsible for guiding the school-related development of children once they enter school, also hold beliefs about the attributes and attitudes children will need in kindergarten. A teacher's beliefs can influence his or her early evaluations of a child's abilities and expectations for the child's chances of succeeding in the program. These early evaluations may be used in determining the child's placement and in making decisions about his or her promotion (Shepard and Smith, 1986).

The extent to which parents of preschoolers and kindergarten teachers share a common understanding of the attributes and attitudes children need as they enter school is important. If parents and teachers hold similar beliefs, then there is a greater opportunity for congruence between the skills parents encourage in their children prior to school entry and the skills teachers look for as children enter kindergarten. Such congruence may contribute to a teacher's positive evaluation of the child early in his or her school life and to the child having a successful early school experience.


NATIONAL DATA ON PARENTS AND TEACHERS

Two surveys sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education's National Center for Education Statistics and conducted in the spring of 1993 collected information on parent and teacher beliefs about characteristics important to a child's readiness for kindergarten. The 1993 National Household Education Survey (NHES: 93) asked the parents of preschoolers 2 to rate several attributes and attitudes in terms of how important they were for any child to be ready for kindergarten. 3 The Fast Response Survey System (FRSS) Kindergarten Teacher Survey on Student Readiness asked public school kindergarten teachers similar questions. 4


The questionnaire items that were common to the two surveys represent a small set of the attributes that have traditionally been viewed as related to children's readiness for school. These questionnaire items were clustered into two groups--behavioral items and school-related items. The specific behavioral items were:

Communicates needs, wants, and thoughts verbally;

Takes turns and shares;

Is enthusiastic and curious in approaching new activities; and

Sits still and pays attention.

School-related items were:

Is able to use pencils and paint brushes;

Can count to 20 or more; and

Knows the letters of the alphabet.

This report compares the beliefs expressed by parents of preschoolers and by public school kindergarten teachers about the importance of these two sets of items. The reported beliefs held by parents with different levels of educational attainment are also compared.

PARENT AND TEACHER BELIEFS

Parents of preschoolers and kindergarten teachers were asked to rate each of these characteristics in terms of how important it is for a child to know or do each in order to be ready for kindergarten. 5 Both were asked whether each characteristic is not at all important, not very important, somewhat important, very important, or essential for any child to be ready for kindergarten.


PARENTS OF PRESCHOOLERS AND THE KINDERGARTEN TEACHERS ARE SIMILAR IN THEIR BELIEFS ABOUT THE IMPORTANCE OF SOME CHARACTERISTICS AND DISSIMILAR IN THEIR BELIEFS ABOUT OTHERS. 6

Parents and kindergarten teachers shared similar opinions on the importance of some characteristics. Parents and teachers agreed that it is very important or essential for the child to communicate his or her needs, wants, and thoughts verbally, and that the child be enthusiastic and curious in approaching new activities

See also Kindergarten 564 1 - 7