Emotion Knowledge, Teacher Expectations & Academic Achievement in Preschool Children

Annabelle � Denise � Maxine � Saul

•  Introduction –  Objective of Study

–  Background Research

–  Hypotheses

–  Variables

•  Methods

•  Results & Analysis

•  Discussion –  Theoretical &

Practical Implications

–  Limitations

–  Future Research

•  Q & A

Outline

Introduction

Early academic achievement leads to:

Higher self-esteem, better health &

ongoing academic success

Thus, it is crucial to find ways to boost it, and this study explores 2 possible ways:

Emotion Knowledge & Teachers’ Expectations

Did you know...

•  To explore how early academic achievement can be enhanced through emotion knowledge & teachers’ expectations

•  To see if a developmental trajectory is present for emotion knowledge in Singaporean children

Objectives of Study

Background Research

•  Develops during preschool

•  Key predictor of academic success

•  Made up of: – Receptive emotion knowledge (recognition)

– Expressive emotion knowledge (labeling)

– Emotion situation knowledge (understanding causes and consequences)

Emotion Knowledge

EK & Academics

Development and use of EK components  

Better behavioral and emotional regulation  

Able to pay better attention when learning  

ACADEMIC SUCCESS!  

Teachers’ Expectations

Young children go to preschool everyday  

Spend time interacting with their teachers  

Teachers develop expectations of them  

•  Expectations may influence children’s – Behavior, to match these expectations

– Early educational opportunities

– Early learning environment

•  Any combination of these would influence academic success

Expectations & Academics

•  Emotion knowledge is related to academic achievement

•  Teachers’ expectations are related to children’s academic achievement

•  A developmental trajectory is observed for emotion knowledge

And so, our hypotheses...

•  Emotion knowledge –  Emotion Matching Task (EMT)

•  Teacher’s expectations –  Questionnaire on child’s school readiness

(to include all aspects)

•  Academic achievement –  Math: Test of Early Mathematical Ability (TEMA-III)

–  Language: Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (PPVT-IV)

•  Age in months

Variables/Measures

Methods

•  Participants – 65 preschoolers (36 male, 29 female) and

their teachers via convenience sampling

– Age of children: 37-72 months (3-6 years)

– Main language spoken is English

•  Correlational study (no manipulation)

Background Info

Recruitment

(2-3 weeks)

Assessment of children

(3 x 20 min)

Debrief

(1 week)

Procedure

•  Information session with preschool principal •  Consent forms given to teachers and parents/guardians

•  Questionnaire given to teachers

•  Questionnaire on expectations of child’s school readiness – Covers social, emotional, behavioral and

cognitive domains

•  Adapted from 1993 National Household Education Survey – Certain questions were adjusted to suit a

standard rating scale

Teacher Questionnaire

Sample question:

The child can recognize ____ of the letters of the alphabet.

Teacher Questionnaire

Rating Rating Scale

5 All

4 Most

3 Some

2 A few

1 No/None

Recruitment

(2-3 weeks)

Assessment of children

(3 x 20 min)

Debrief

(1 week)

Procedure

•  3 separate sessions on different days for each child •  Each session (emotion knowledge, math & language) was

20 minutes with a debrief

•  The order of sessions was randomized for every child

•  Environment was conducive with minimal distraction

Recruitment

(2-3 weeks)

Assessment of children

(3 x 20 min)

Debrief

(1 week)

Procedure

•  Emotion Knowledge session: Emotion Matching Task •  Math session: Test of Early Mathematical Ability

•  Language session: Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test

•  Assesses early emotion knowledge

•  Has 4 sections (12 questions each)

•  Only requires child to point, except for part 3 which requires a verbal response

•  Focuses on 4 main emotions: –  Happy, Sad, Angry and Scared/Surprised

Emotion Matching Task

Part 1: Matching expressions of the same emotion

Her face shows how she feels. Show me which one of these feels the same way.

Part 2: Matching the appropriate emotion for a given scenario

Show me the one who got a nice new toy, just what they wanted.

Emotion Matching Task

Part 3: Labeling expressions of different emotions

Look at his face. Can you tell me how he feels?

Part 4: Matching the appropriate expression for a given emotion

Show me the one who is happy.

Emotion Matching Task

•  Assesses early mathematical ability through standardized testing

•  Tests both formal and informal skills, such as addition, problem solving, counting and number recognition

•  Made up of short, game-like activities

•  Uses concrete, pictorial and abstract forms

•  Involves verbal, non-verbal and writing items

TEMA-III

Sample questions:

•  Show me 4 fingers

•  How many cats are there?

•  If you have 4 tokens and you get 1 more, how many do you have altogether?

TEMA-III

•  Assesses receptive vocabulary ability in children and adults through standardized testing

•  Predicts a person’s acquisition or mastery of the English language (language competency)

•  All items are presented in a 4-picture page layout and require the person to point to the picture that depicts a certain word

PPVT-IV

Sample question:

Put your finger on laughing.

PPVT-IV

Recruitment

(2-3 weeks)

Assessment of children

(3 x 20 min)

Debrief

(1 week)

Procedure

•  Debrief for principal, teachers and children •  Collection of teacher questionnaires

Results

Variable Measure Reliability (alpha)

Emotion knowledge

Total score on EMT > .7

Academic achievement

Mean standardized math and language ability scores from the TEMA and PPVT

> .9 (TEMA and PPVT)

Teacher expectations

Mean score on questionnaire

> .7

Age Age in months -

Measures & Reliability

•  Bivariate correlation (Pearson) –  Emotion knowledge and academic achievement

–  Teacher expectations and academic achievement

•  Linear regression –  Age as a predictor of emotion knowledge

Statistical Tests

60

70

80

90

100

110

120

130

0 10 20 30 40 50 Emotion Knowledge

Academic Achievement

Linear (Academic Achievement)

EK & Academics

r (63) = .52, p < .001

Emotion knowledge has a significant, positive correlation with academic achievement

0

0.1

0.2

0.3

0.4

0.5

0.6

Academic achievement

Language ability Math ability

Correlation with emotion knowledge

EK & Academics

L: r (63) = .43, p < .001 M: r (63) = .38, p < .01

Emotion knowledge is significantly correlated with individual components of academic achievement (language and math)

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

0 10 20 30 40 50 Emotion Knowledge

Teacher expectations

Linear (Teacher expectations)

Expectations & Academics

r (63) = .01, p > .05

Teacher expectations has no relation with academic achievement

EK and Age

0

10

20

30

40

50

35 40 45 50 55 60 65 70 75 Age (in months)

Emotion Knowledge

Linear (Emotion Knowledge)

Age is a significant predictor of emotion knowledge

b = .43, t (63) = 3.99, p < .001

•  Emotion knowledge is related to academic achievement: SUPPORTED! –  Emotion knowledge is significantly positively related

to academic achievement

–  Emotion knowledge has the highest correlation with academic achievement (as a whole), followed by language and then math

Hypotheses

•  Teachers’ expectations are related to children’s academic achievement: NOT SUPPORTED

•  A developmental trajectory is observed for emotion knowledge: SUPPORTED! –  Age is a significant predictor of emotion knowledge

Hypotheses

Discussion

Significant positive correlation found between emotion knowledge and academic achievement.

•  Both emotional and cognitive parts are linked and develop together

•  Relationship between EK and academics is universal across different cultures

– Singapore is a multicultural society

Theoretical Implications

Significant positive correlation found between emotion knowledge and language/math (individual

components of academics). •  Development of understanding and regulating emotions

in very young children is closely related with general language ability (as found in previous research)

•  Mathematical ability is also important and plays a part in emotional development (and vice versa)

Theoretical Implications

There is no relationship found between teacher expectations and academic achievement.

•  It does not matter what is expected of a child, because it has no effect on their academic achievement

•  The effect of expectations may not always be present (may only be present in older children)

•  Preschoolers, especially the younger ones may not be old enough to understand what their teacher’s expectations are or to let these expectations affect them

Theoretical Implications

Age is a significant predictor of emotion knowledge.

•  Emotion knowledge develops with age, suggesting the presence of a developmental trajectory

•  Although we can try to help children learn EK skills at an earlier age, not all of them may be ready

•  Emotion knowledge may increase with age because of the increased number of social & emotional experiences of the child and their interactions with other people

Theoretical Implications

•  Learning of emotion knowledge skills should be incorporated into the preschool curriculum

–  It may help to boost academic achievement and thus, school readiness (which involves both socio-emotional and cognitive areas)

•  Emotion knowledge develops with age, so a younger child cannot typically be expected to have the same level of emotion knowledge as an older child

Practical Implications

•  Lack of standardized scoring for EMT •  Majority of the testing items and tasks were verbal

–  May not be truly representative of the child’s academic achievement (which also includes written ability and their performance in class)

•  Teachers may rate all their students high because of social desirability (may not be how they really feel)

•  Singapore is multicultural

Limitations

•  Use written as well as verbal tasks, along with child’s performance in class

•  Compare different cultures

–  Parenting style and involvement

–  Parental expectations

•  Look at presence of older siblings

•  Mixed-age group preschools (Full/partial/none)

•  Look at the school’s syllabus/culture - some may focus on individual work while others may focus on group activities

Future Research

Q and A