1
Chapter 1
INTRODUCTION
Statement of the Problem
Head Start is the nation's largest federally sponsored early childhood program
developed to serve at-risk, vulnerable, young children by promoting school readiness.
Informed by a comprehensive developmental model, Head Start targets eight key
domains of development: language, literacy, mathematics, science, creative arts, physical
health, approaches to learning, and social and emotional development (Fantuzzo,
Bulotsky-Shearer, McDermott, Douglas, & Perlman, 2007).
The development of early childhood programs for at-risk preschoolers has
prompted childhood research that examines the relationships between approaches to
learning, social and emotional competencies, and early academic success. Preschoolers'
emotional skills are central to their ability to interact with others and to form positive
relationships. Researchers and practitioners have described key social-emotional skills
that children need as they enter school, including self-confidence, the capacity to develop
positive relationships with peers and adults, concentration, persistence on challenging
tasks, an ability to effectively communicate emotions, an ability to listen to instructions
and be attentive, and skills in solving social problems (Hemmeter, Ostrosky, & Fox,
2006). Children's emotional responses to others communicate their openness and
availability for social engagement. Once engaged in social contacts, children must learn
2
to flexibly maximize and regulate emotional expression and experiences to meet both
their own goals and others' expectations for their behavior (Spritz, Sandberg, Maher, &
Zajdel, 2010). The ability of young children to manage their emotions and behaviors and
to make meaningful friendships is an important prerequisite for school readiness and
academic success. Social emotional competence is important for school readiness
because if a child cannot self regulate their emotions or problem solve on their own they
may not be able to stay focused in their classroom settings and learn. Teachers view
children's "readiness to learn" and "teachability" as marked by positive emotional
expressiveness, enthusiasm, and ability to regulate emotions and behaviors (Denham et
a1., 2003; Fantuzzo et al., 2007; Spritz, Sandberg, Maher, & Zajdel, 2010).
Research suggests that a child's state of emotional development is linked to
development in all domains. According to the National Association for the Education of
Young Children (2004), development in physical, social, cognitive, and emotional
domains all contribute to a young child's ability to adapt to school life. Emotional
competence, especially, has been shown to link to social competence in profound ways
(Denham et a1., 2003). As Denham et al. have noted, schools are social places, and
learning is a social process (p.239). Even young students learn alongside and in
collaboration with teachers and peers, and must be able to access social-emotional skills
to facilitate learning. During schooling, a child's abilities to understand emotions of self
and others, regulate emotion, attention, and behavior, make good decisions regarding
social problems, express healthy emotions, and engage in a range of prosocial
3
behaviors—their social-emotional learning skills—all work together to create and
promote a successful school experience.
Research has documented positive outcomes in social-emotional development
from interventions targeting such skills as children's ability to communicate their
emotions in appropriate ways, regulate their emotions, solve common problems, build
positive relationships with the peers and adults in their environments, and engage in and
persist in challenging tasks (Bulotsky-Shearer et al., 2008). These findings suggest that
classroom based interventions can help promote these types of behaviors that are
essential for preparing children for social and academic success as they transition from
early childhood settings to formal schooling (Hemmeter et al., 2006).
Purpose of the Study
The purpose of the current project was the development of a workshop for Head
Start teachers. The workshop was designed to help teachers acquire strategies for the
promotion of social-emotional skills in Head Start classrooms. Therefore, the workshop
focused on providing teachers with tools for identifying problem socioemotional
behaviors and strategies for supporting the child’s needs through social-emotional
understanding.
The project also focused on providing important information about socialemotional development to Head Start teachers, including defining social and emotional
development and how it is linked directly to academic performance, emotion
4
understanding, emotion regulation, peer relationships, problem solving, conflict
negotiation, positive teacher-child relationships, and classroom environments.
According to current research, six instructional practice/tools have been found to promote
social and emotional development in Head Start students: (a) curricular interventions, (b)
play, (c) reading children’s literature with topics of socialization and/or emotion
regulation, (d) family/parent involvement, (e) environment/atmosphere, and (f) positive
student-teacher interactions (Hemmeter at el., 2006). In this project, in addition to
information about the development of social-emotional competence, the researcher
elected to focus on the last two elements – positive interactions and environment – as a
means of improving social competence.
Significance of the Study
Historically, the primary goal of the federally funded Head Start program was to
enhance preschoolers' social competence. In recent years, the focus in Head Start has
shifted to emphasize cognitive and school readiness skills in conjunction with the No
Child Left Behind legislation. This has resulted in a greater emphasis in Head Start on
early reading competencies and other cognitive competencies (Fantuzzo et al., 2007).
This shift has generated concern for many early childhood advocates that the promotion
of social-emotional competencies has been deemphasized in the Head Start curriculum,
resulting in greater risk for poor school adjustment in Head Start children. Promoting
social and emotional competence in Head Start programs is especially critical because of
5
the high number of children in Head Start who exhibit socio-emotional difficulties. It is
estimated that between 20% and 25% of Head Start children display social and
behavioral problems associated with low social competence, including poor social skills,
aggression, oppositional behavior, and dependency (Spritz et al., 2010).
According to Hemmeter et al. (2006), there are multiple factors that potentially
contribute to the development of child behavior difficulties. At the individual child level,
early predictors of problem behavior include temperamental difficulties, aggression,
language difficulties, and noncompliance. Family factors associated with problem
behaviors in young children include maternal depression, harsh parenting, stressful
family life events, limited social support, and family instability. Lastly, low-quality early
childhood settings have been linked to poor child outcomes related to social-emotional
development (Hemmeter et al., 2006). Such risk factors are more likely to be present
among children in Head Start settings. As such, this population may need more support
for developing important social-emotional skills.
Research suggests that building positive teacher-child and parent-teacher
relationships is beneficial for children's adjustment and social-emotional competence
(Hemmeter et al., 2006). Similar to parent-child relationships, teacher-child relationships
appear to serve a regulatory function with regard to children's social and emotional
development and therefore have the potential to exert a positive or negative influence on
children's ability to succeed in school (Pinata & Stuhlman, 2004). In fact, the
development of children's early competencies in several domains has been linked to the
quality of the teacher-child relationship. Close and supportive relationships with teachers
6
are associated with a decreased risk of negative outcomes for students who might
otherwise have difficulty succeeding in school (Pinata & Stuhlman, 2004).
Research also indicates that supportive classroom environments can promote
positive teacher-child and child-child interactions, thereby improving children's social
and emotional competence. For example, Rimm-Kaufman et al. (2005) found that in
classrooms with high-quality teacher child interactions, teachers show familiarity with
children's academic needs, sensitivity toward individual children, and modification of
lessons and activities to fit the emotional and academic needs of their students. In
addition, teachers in these higher-quality classrooms use proactive approaches to
discipline: they establish stable routines, monitor their students carefully to keep them
engaged, and manage behavior problems proactively. Furthermore, in classrooms
observed to have high rates of quality teacher-child interactions, teachers tend to promote
children's learning through scaffolding and support, establish episodes of joint attention
with children, and offer appropriate questioning and feedback. In addition, these teachers
help children regulate their classroom behavior, especially engagement, compliance, and
cooperation, by guiding their attention, assisting in the interpretation of emotions, and
regulating the emotional demands of the classroom. Creating and maintaining effecting
environments for students can promote social and emotional competence in children
(Rimm-Kaufman et al., 2005).
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Theoretical Framework
A developmental- ecological theoretical framework served as the basis for the
current project. Such a framework can be used to examine emotional and behavioral
problems as a function of preschool classroom learning demands. Bronfenbrenner's
ecological theory assumes that there are multiple natural environment layers that
influence child behavior (1979). As an early context with direct effects on children's
development, the preschool classroom is an important microsystem influence for young
children. Each situation or learning opportunity in the classroom contains distinct
cognitive and social demands that require an abundance of complex skills and behavior.
Teacher and peer social expectations, classroom rules, attention to tasks, appropriate
play, and the establishment of friendship patterns are examples of some of these
preschool classroom demands. Another microsystem includes a child's family. When
situations from a child's home are severe enough it can affect the way the child behaves
in school (Bultosky-Shearer et al., 2008). Home-school connections, and connections
between preschool and elementary school settings are examples of Bronfenbrenner's
(1979) concept of mesosystem effects, or connections between microsystems.
More recently, Brofenbrenner and Morris (2006) have made modifications and
additions to this previous theory, which is now referred to as Bronfenbrenner’s
Bioecological theory. In the new theory, proximal processes are identified as a construct
encompassing particular forms of interaction between organism and environment and
over time are the primary mechanisms for producing human development
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(Bronfenbrenner & Morris, 2006). The quality and quantity of such processes can
influence development and can vary substantially as a function of the characteristics of
the developing person, or the immediate environmental contexts, and the time periods in
which the proximal processes take place (Bronfenbrenner & Morris, 2006). In the
current project, the workshop developed was founded on Bronfenbrenner's contextual
framework. The idea of proximal processes was developed to help teachers become
aware of how important the classroom environment and their relationships with their
students are in predicting their students’ development.
The Pyramid model (Hemmeter et al., 2006) also served as a model for the current
workshop project focused on evidence based practices for promoting social and
emotional competence in young children. The teaching pyramid represents a hierarchy of
strategies. This pyramid framework includes four levels of practice to address the needs
of all children, including children with persistent challenging behaviors. The bottom tier
consists of building positive relationships with children, families, and colleagues; the
second tier is the design of supportive environments; the third tier is the social emotional
teaching strategies; and the top tier is for intensive individualized interventions
(Hemmeter et al., 2006).
9
Methods
Design of the Project
The researcher created a workshop for SETA Head Start teachers designed to
promote teachers’ understanding of children’s social and emotional development. The
workshop provided training on social-emotional development, specifically research based
on information on emotion understanding, emotion regulation, peer relationships, social
problem solving, and conflict negotiation. Specific, evidence based strategies SETA
Head Start teachers might implement in their classrooms were also discussed in two
different areas: (a) facilitation of positive relationships, and (b) establishment of positive
classroom environment.
Target Population
Head and associate teachers from SETA Head Start classrooms in the Sacramento
area were the target population of the workshops developed in the current project. Head
Start teachers were recruited for participation on a volunteer basis. Needs assessments
were mailed to all teachers at their assigned sites with a request to complete and mail
them back to the researcher. Data from the needs assessment surveys were used to
inform development of the workshop content. Teachers voluntarily attended the
workshop, and provided an assessment of the workshop delivery and content at the end.
Out of the 490 needs assessments distributed to Head Start teachers,
approximately 155 needs assessment surveys were mailed back to the researcher. The
10
workshop was implemented with 18 teachers in the morning workshop session and 17
teachers in the afternoon workshop session. The teachers were encouraged to attend the
workshop through flyer advertisements and e-mails from their Program Officer but were
not required to attend as part of their regular in-service training.
Development of Presentation and Workshop Materials
Development of workshop materials began with a review of research literature on
children's social and emotional development, published curricula, and other evidencebased preschool-based trainings and workshops. Next, the researcher created and
distributed a needs assessment survey to all SETA Head Start teachers. The survey (see
Appendix A) consisted of Likert items and open ended questions designed to gather
teachers' input about possible content for the workshop. The researcher gathered and
analyzed the survey responses to help generate materials and activities to be presented in
the workshop. The researcher searched for common concerns found throughout the needs
assessments forms and looked for reoccurring topics mentioned in terms of the teachers’
reported needs for support.
Based on the needs assessment and socioemotional research the workshop was
organized around three major topics: (a) creating a positive classroom environment, (b)
the importance of teachers' relationships with their students, and (c) curriculum and
practices that promote social development and emotional competence. The goal of this
project was to have the teachers leave the workshop feeling inspired and motivated to
11
create a positive environment in their preschool classrooms and feel prepared when
dealing with children who have social and/or emotional developmental delays.
Following the workshop participants were asked to evaluate the content delivery
and materials presented in the workshop. The evaluation consisted of Likert items and
open ended questions designed to provide constructive feedback for the workshop trainer
to improve future content and delivery of the workshop (see Appendix J).
Definition of Terms
The current project was designed to provide preschool teachers information and
teaching tools in relation to children’s social-emotional development, in particular
challenging behaviors. Children’s socioemotional adjustment consists of success in
meeting age-appropriate developmental goals like persistence in task performance,
conflict resolution, impulse regulation, and emotional expression. Social competence is
the ability to achieve personal goals in social interactions while maintaining positive
relationships with others (Shaffer, 2005). Children high in social competence possess
important social and social cognitive skills such as positive engagement and selfregulation during peer interaction as well as emotional competence. Such emotional
competence includes emotion understanding, defined as the ability to correctly identify
others’ emotions, and the ability to identify the situational causes and consequences of
emotions, as well as emotion regulation, defined as the ability to display predominantly
positive (rather than negative) emotions, and to adjust one’s own emotions to appropriate
12
levels of intensity in order to achieve one’s goals (Shaffer, 2005). Emotion understanding
and emotion regulation coincide and together help in the development of social
competence.
Limitations
There were a few limitations to this project. One limitation was that workshop
attendance was conducted solely on a volunteer basis. While voluntary participation may
have increased motivation among participants, overall the attendance was low because
the teachers were not required to attend the workshop. The lack of participation may have
affected the outcome of the workshop. When the teachers did not participate it was
difficult for the presenter to justify whether or not the teachers were comprehending the
information. The timing of the workshop was also problematic and contributed to the
low attendance. Administrators only granted permission for the workshop to be
conducted twice in one day. Since there are approximately 90 lead preschool teachers and
400 associate preschool teachers at SETA Head Start there were not enough substitutes to
cover the absence of all the teachers who might have been interested in attending the
workshop therefore only allowing a certain number of teachers to attend.
Although the workshops provided teachers with information and strategies for
promoting children’s social and emotional development, another limitation of the project
was the lack of any follow up assessment of teachers’ understanding of the workshop
content and skills. Similarly, the researcher did not conduct any in class observations to
13
determine if teachers were implementing any of the strategies they might have learned in
the workshop.
The content of the workshop in this project focused on social-emotional
development in preschool children. The project was therefore not designed to address
other important areas of research and may not be appropriate or relevant for older age
groups.
Organization of the Project
The current chapter has served as the introduction to the project. Chapter 2
contains a literature review of research used to develop workshop content, including
Bronfenbrenner’s theoretical framework, social competence, emotion understanding and
regulation, importance of teacher-child relationships, positive classroom environments,
and lastly, information on educating adult learners. Chapter 3 describes the methods and
procedures used to develop and implement the project. Chapter 4 contains a discussion
of the outcomes from the workshop as well as recommendations for future workshops
and trainings of this type. All the materials used for the project are presented in the
appendices.
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Chapter 2
REVIEW OF LITERATURE
Research suggests that a child's social-emotional development influences
development in all other domains. According to the National Association for the
Education of Young Children (2004), development in physical, social, cognitive, and
emotional domains all contribute to a young child's ability to adapt to school life. As
Denham et al. (2003) have noted, “schools are social places, and learning is a social
process" (p.191). Even young students learn alongside and in collaboration with teachers
and peers, and must be able to manage their emotions to facilitate learning. During
schooling, a child's abilities to engage in social situations effectively, to understand
emotions in self and others, to regulate emotion, attention, and behavior, to make good
decisions regarding social problems, and engage in a range of prosocial behaviors—in
other words, their social-emotional learning skills—all work together to create a
successful school experience (Denham & Brown, 2010).
Head Start is the nation's largest federally sponsored early childhood program
developed to serve at-risk, vulnerable, young children by promoting school readiness.
Informed by a comprehensive developmental model, Head Start targets eight key
domains of development to enhance readiness; these include language development,
literacy, mathematics, science, creative arts, physical health, approaches to learning, and
social and emotional development (Fantuzzo et al., 2007). Historically, Head Start's
primary goal was to enhance social competence. In recent years, the focus has shifted to
15
emphasize cognitive, school readiness skills in conjunction with the No Child Left
Behind legislation. This has resulted in a greater emphasis in Head Start on early reading
and other cognitive competencies (Fantuzzo et al., 2007). This shift has generated
concern by many early childhood advocates that the promotion of academic approaches
to learning will result in the de-emphasis of social-emotional competencies placing these
children at greater risk for poor school adjustment. The policy debate about the primary
focus of early childhood education has prompted research that examines the relationships
between approaches to learning, social and emotional competencies, and early academic
success.
It is estimated that between 20% and 25% of Head Start children display social
and behavioral problems associated with low social competence, including poor social
skills, aggression, oppositional behavior, and dependency (Spritz et al., 2010).
According to Hemmeter et al. (2006), there are multiple factors that potentially contribute
to the development of child behavior difficulties. At the individual child level, early
predictors of problem behavior include temperamental difficulties, aggression, language
difficulties, and noncompliance. Family factors that are associated with problem
behaviors in young children include maternal depression, harsh parenting, stressful
family life events, limited social support, and family instability. And lastly, low-quality
early childhood settings have been linked to poor child outcomes related to socialemotional development (Hemmeter et al.).
The purpose of the present project was to develop and present materials for a
workshop for SETA Head Start teachers to give them skills in promoting social-
16
emotional competence through a positive environment and encouragement of positive
teacher-child relationships. Currently, the only SETA Head Start employees who receive
professional social-emotional training are the social services specialists. Classroom head
teachers are told to refer any child expressing behavioral difficulties to those specialists
who then create a Child Study Team (CST). The focus of the CST is to meet and develop
recommendations or classroom assistance for the child through Head Start resources
(http://headstart.seta.net/cst.htm).
Head Start utilizes the CST process as the first level of assistance for children
who need classroom intervention, prior to a referral for special services. The CST is a
regular function of planning alternative instructional strategies for children. Ideally,
participants in the CST meeting should be knowledgeable about the child. Child Study
Team members may include but are not limited to parents/guardians, program officers,
head teacher, associate teachers, family services worker, special education field
technician, content coordinators, social worker, consultants, education specialists, school
district staff or other agency staff as needed (http://headstart.seta.net/cst.htm). The CST
will then meet to generate strategies for helping the child socially and emotionally.
The problem with the CST system is that the primary teacher, with whom the
child typically spends a majority of their day, may not be properly trained in socialemotional development. The current project addressed this lack of training by offering a
workshop that provided information on what constitutes healthy social-emotional
development and strategies for supporting preschoolers' social-emotional development
through classroom environments and positive teacher-child relationships.
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In order to inform the development of the workshop, the researcher conducted a
review of empirical research on the importance of promoting social and emotional
development in the preschool classroom. The following chapter includes the results of
this review of the literature, as well as a review of available instructional tools and/or
classroom practices that can be used to support and promote social/emotional
development in Head Start preschoolers.
Social-Emotional Competence
Social-emotional development includes the child’s experience, expression, and
management of emotions as well as the ability to establish positive and rewarding
relationships with others. Children who are unable to regulate their emotions and/or may
not have the skills needed to be socially or emotionally competent may express
maladaptive behaviors. Maladaptive behaviors (or challenging behaviors) occur when
children are unable to adapt to a situation or environment (Kaiser & Rasminsky, 2012).
Therefore, it is important that teachers realize the importance of helping children adapt
successfully to various situations or environments. Children need routines, positive
environments, and consistent, dedicated teachers to achieve healthy social-emotional
development and academic success. Head Start children may not have routines,
consistency, and positive environments at home which may put them at-risk for poor
academic skills and development (Spritz et al., 2010). The preschool classroom may be
the only positive environment these particular children have in their lives. This is all the
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more reason why Head Start teachers need support and new instructional practices to help
promote social-emotional development in their preschool students.
Social Competence
Social competence can be defined as a person's capacity to exhibit socially
acceptable behaviors that allow that person to reach his or her goal (Denham, 2006).
Denham discusses social competencies as including (a) social interpersonal competence
including problem-solving ability and peer relations (play, prosocial behavior); and (b)
intrapersonal skills related to self-management abilities, namely compliance to rules and
frustration tolerance.
Interpersonal skills refer to a child's ability to interact with peers during play.
One such interpersonal skill is prosocial behavior. At preschool age, prosocial behaviors
include sharing toys, asking and giving help, and turn taking during play interactions.
During preschool, children gradually learn to interact in larger groups, usually with samesex peers (Colwell & Lindsay, 2005). One prerequisite for more complex interactions is
pretend play (Wilburn, 2000). Children who engage more frequently in pretend play have
positive interactions with their peers and are perceived by teachers as more socially
competent (Sebanc, 2003). Pretend play is predictive of children's academic success in
the first years of school, mainly because pretend play sustains language development and
a number of preacademic abilities related to school readiness (Mendez, McDermott, &
Fantuzzo, 2002). In turn, children lacking these abilities may have limited interactions
19
with their peers and as a result may become isolated or develop aggressive behaviors, or
other externalizing problems (Mendez, McDermott, & Fantuzzo, 2002).
Social Skills
Another transition children make during preschool is from isolated or parallel
play, requiring a minimum of verbal interactions, to more complex cooperative games
(Mendez, et al., 2002). The ability to initiate play or answer adequately to other children's
requests is highly correlated with peer acceptance and popularity. On the other hand,
children lacking cooperation skills are at risk for peer rejection (Mendez, et al., 2002).
When compared to other children with well developed cooperative skills, children with
poor social skills are at risk for impaired academic performance.
The second category of interpersonal skills is problem-solving abilities. Problemsolving in preschool children reflects their abilities to find solutions to conflicts during
play. Conflicts between children can generally be categorized as related to either
continuing a play scenario; issues related to play space; or conflicts related to play
activities (Howe et al., 2002). Many children between three and five years old interact
more often through aggressive strategies (Howe et al., 2002). Problem solving skills
appear to demonstrate a developmental trend in which aggression declines as children
grow and learn more adaptive styles of interaction (Howe et al., 2002). However,
without support, maladaptive conflict negotiation strategies can influence information
processing abilities.
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Social Cognitive Skills
The second classification of social competencies discussed by Denham (2006) is
intrapersonal skills, which refers to those skills and communications that occur within a
person’s own mind. Intrapersonal skills initiate an appropriate reaction and attitude
because of positive internal dialogue, occurring within the mind. Intrapersonal social
competence is related to an individual’s skills in emotional regulation. Research
indicates that emotional competencies are highly predictive of social competencies
(Denham, 2006). Children may not be able to socialize appropriately if they do not
understand their own emotions or the emotions of others. For example, if a child who has
poor emotion regulating skills is upset because another child is using the same crayons
the upset child may not be able to calmly ask to share the crayons and instead may
become physically aggressive.
Emotional Competence
Emotional competence includes both emotion understanding and emotion
regulation. Emotion competence includes the skills needed to recognize, interpret, and
respond constructively to emotions in yourself and others. Emotional competence can be
defined as the ability to reflect self-efficacy in dealing with emotion eliciting social
interactions (Buckley, Storino & Saarni, 2003). This concept encompasses three types of
abilities: (a) emotion recognition/understanding, (b) emotional expressiveness and (c)
emotion regulation (Denham, 2006). Emotion knowledge has an expressive, as well as
receptive component involved in emotion recognition (Denham, 2006). The expressive
21
component involves children's ability to adequately label emotions, while the other is
related to their ability to identify emotions based on their labels. Children unable to
recognize others' as well as their own emotions have difficulties in interpreting emotional
cues (Halberstadt et al., 2001). For example, a child who misinterprets another child's
emotional expression of sadness as anger during play is more likely to infer that the other
child does not want to share his toy and then react in an aggressive manner. Research
confirms that children who are unable to correctly recognize emotions are prone to
aggressive behavior in conflict situations, are rejected by their peers, and are also more
likely to develop externalizing problems (Denham et al., 2001; Denham et al., 2002).
Emotional expressiveness refers to the ability to convey emotional messages in a
socially acceptable manner. (Denham, 2007). Researchers often make a distinction
between positive and negative emotional expressiveness. Positive emotional
expressiveness has been associated with a higher frequency of prosocial behavior, peer
acceptance and higher ratings of social competence (Denham et al., 2001). On the other
hand, negative emotional expressiveness, especially anger expressions are predictive of
low levels of empathy, and higher rates of aggressive behavior (Strayer & Roberts, 2004).
A possible explanation for this phenomenon may reside in the way children's
emotions are socialized by their caregivers. Preschoolers who are socialized to suppress
negative emotions may be deprived of learning contexts in which they can be taught how
to effectively manage such emotional reactions. By contrast, children who are allowed to
express their emotions are more likely to acquire and internalize rules for socially
acceptable emotional displays (Chaplin, Cole, & Zahn-Waxler, 2005). Children who can
22
appropriately display their emotions and contain their intensity have the skills to regulate
their emotions.
Emotional abilities are also linked to social competence. For example, children
with difficulties regulating anger are less popular among their peers, and have impaired
social functioning (Spinrad et al., 2006). Poor emotional regulation is related to social
adjustment problems, which in turn may lead to an early onset of conduct problems.
Such disruptive behavior problems represent the most common mental health referral
concern for preschool aged children (Egger & Angold, 2006). Early disruptive behavior
problems are characterized by a range of different symptoms, including aggressiveness,
noncompliance, temper tantrums, and generally coercive and unpleasant interactions with
others. Such problems can co-occur with poor attention and difficulties inhibiting
impulses and activity level (Cole & Zahn-Waxler, 1992).
Theories to explain the emergence of disruptive behavior problems have
historically focused on learning and socialization mechanisms that lead to increasingly
coercive and negative interactions between children and their caregivers (Egger &
Angold, 2006). That is, children learn that aggressive and uncooperative behaviors are
effective in achieving their immediate goals, such as the gain of a desired object, the
removal of a limit, or the termination of an unpleasant interaction. There is clear
evidence to support these perspectives, which has laid the groundwork for the
development of effective treatments for disruptive behavior symptoms in young children.
What has been less evident in many theories focusing on the development of disruptive
behavior problems is an understanding of the emotional facets of these problems. When
23
emotions are considered, the focus is typically placed on anger, in particular on disruptive
children's inability to safely express and regulate their angry, hostile, and frustrated
feelings (Egger & Angold, 2006). Perhaps because these anger expressions are so
impairing to the child's social functioning, interventions often focus specifically on
teaching children (and caregivers) skills for anger regulation and self-control.
While episodes of anger and frustration are prominent, equally striking is the
extent to which these children often struggle to initiate and maintain positive feelings,
such as joy or interest. This lack of positive engagement can compromise children’s
ability to be good interaction partners, making it is hard for them to achieve any positive
emotional momentum in their relationships with peers and adults alike (Egger & Angold,
2006).
Theoretical Models
The current workshop project was based on developmental frameworks for social
competence. These include Bronfenbrenner and Morris’ (2006) Bioecological theory
which examines the proximal processes and contexts that contribute to human
development (2006) and The Teaching Pyramid as a model of classroom strategies for
promoting the social-emotional development of all children and addressing the needs of
children who are at-risk for or who have challenging behavior (Hemmeter et al., 2006).
24
Bronfenbrenner's Bioecological Theory
Bronfenbrenner’s developmental-ecological theoretical framework examines
emotional and behavioral problems as a function of preschool classroom learning
demands. Bronfenbrenner's ecological theoretical concept (1979) posits there are
multiple natural environments that influence child behavior. These contexts of
development can be conceptualized as interconnected nested systems. Microsystems
include contexts closest to the child that contain the structures with which the child has
direct contact. The microsystem encompasses the relationships and interactions a child
has with his or her immediate surroundings. Structures in the microsystem include
family, school, neighborhood, or childcare environments. The microsystem exerts the
greatest influence on children's behavior (Bronfenbrenner, 1979).
Not only are children influenced by the environment, but the environment is also
responsive to individual characteristics of children. The preschool classroom is an
important microsystem influence for young children. Each situation or learning
opportunity in the classroom contains distinct cognitive and social demands that require a
complex set of skills and behaviors. Teacher and peer social expectations, classroom
rules, attention to tasks, appropriate play, and the establishment of friendship patterns are
examples of some of these preschool classroom demands. The microsystem also includes
a child's family which exerts the most influence on a child's behaviors. When situations
in a child's home are severe enough they can affect the way the child behaves in school
(Bultosky-Shearer et al., 2008).
25
Bronfenbrenner's next level, the mesosystem, describes how the different parts of
a child's microsystem work together for the development of the child (Bronfenbrenner,
1979). For example, if a child's caregivers take an active role in a child's school, such as
going to parent-teacher conferences and watching their child's baseball games, this will
help ensure the child's overall growth. In contrast, if the child's two sets of caretakers, for
example, mom with boyfriend and dad with step-mom, disagree on how to best raise the
child and give the child conflicting lessons when they see him, this will hinder the child's
growth.
The exosystem layer includes the other people and places that the child himself
may not interact with directly but that still exert an influence, such as parents'
workplaces, extended family members, and/or the neighborhood (Bronfenbrenner, 1979).
For example, if a child's parent gets laid off from work, that may have negative effects on
the child if his parents are unable to pay rent or to buy groceries; however, if her parent
receives a promotion and a raise at work, this may have a positive effect on the child
because his parents will be better able to meet his physical needs. This system is
particularly important for Head Start children. For children to be enrolled in any Head
Start program families must be income eligible and parents or guardians need to be
working, seeking work, or going to school. This requirement for preschoolers to be
enrolled at Head Start means that a majority of Head Start preschoolers may already be at
risk for developmental deficits because of the stress of low family income occurring
within their exosystems.
26
Bronfenbrenner's outer layer system is the macrosystem, which is the largest and
most distant set of people and contexts but which still exerts a great influence over the
child (1979). The macrosystem includes things such as cultural values, the economy,
and/or attitudes and ideologies of the culture.
Bronfenbrenner and Morris (2006) have transitioned from a focus on the
environment to a focus on processes occurring in the environment that promote
development. Proximal processes are identified as a construct encompassing particular
forms of interaction between organism and environment which act over time as the
primary mechanisms for producing human development (Bronfenbrenner & Morris,
2006). However, the power of such processes to influence development can vary
substantially as a function of the characteristics of the developing person, the immediate
environmental contexts, and the time periods in which the processes take place.
Bronfenbrenner and Morris’ Bioecological (2006) model also introduces the idea
that development of proximal processes involves interaction not with just people but with
objects and symbols. These are the activities that can be carried on in the absence of other
persons, and therefore the magnitude and effectiveness of the proximal process are not
influenced by another participant’s behaviors. Concepts and criteria were also introduced
that differentiate between those features of the environment that foster versus interfere
with the development of proximal processes. For example, the growing instability and
chaos in the settings which human competence and character are shaped (in the family,
child-care, schools, peers groups, and neighborhoods) are all forces that may interfere
with rather than promote development. Therefore, in the current project, a workshop
27
using Bronfenbrenner's framework was developed to help teachers become aware of how
important the classroom environment and their relationships with their students are in
predicting their students’ development.
Bronfenbrenner and Morris (2006) identify three types of person characteristics
that are the most influential in shaping the course of future development and affect the
direction and power of proximal processes through the life course. Dispositions can set
proximal processes in motion in a particular developmental domain and continue to
sustain their operation (Bronfenbrenner & Morris, 2006). Active behavioral dispositions
include such characteristics as impulsiveness, explosiveness, distractibility, in ability to
defer gratification, or in a more extreme form, ready to resort to aggression and violence;
in short, difficulties in maintaining control over emotions and behaviors. At one extreme
side, Person attributes include apathy, inattentiveness, unresponsiveness, lack of interest
in the surroundings, feelings of insecurity, shyness, or a general tendency to avoid or
withdraw from activity (Bronfenbrenner & Morris, 2006). By contrast, developmentally
appropriate characteristics involve active orientations as curiosity, tendency to initiate
and engage in activity alone or with others, responsiveness to initiatives by others, and
readiness to defer immediate gratification to pursue long-term goals. Next, bioecological
resources such as ability, experience, knowledge and skill are required for effective
functioning of proximal processes at a given stage of development. Lastly, demand
characteristics encourage or discourage reactions from the social environment that can
foster or disrupt the operation of proximal processes (Bronfenbrenner & Morris, 2006).
Demand characteristics are the capacity to invite or discourage reactions from the social
28
environment that can disrupt or foster processes of psychological growth: for example, a
fussy baby versus a happy baby, attractive versus unattractive physical appearance, or
hyperactivity versus passivity. Various combinations in patterns of person structure can
also influence the resulting proximal processes and their development affects. This can be
translated to the notion that everyone develops differently and at their own pace as well
as the idea that individual differences contribute to children's abilities to learn and
develop important competencies.
To put theory into practice, Bronfenbrenner and Morris (2006) mentioned key
features of the bioecological framework: (a) for development to occur, the person must
engage in an activity, (b) to be effective, the activity must take place on a regular basis,
over an extended period of time, (c) there must be influence in both directions of
developmentally effective proximal processes, and (d) proximal processes are not limited
to interactions with people, they can also involve interaction with objects and symbols.
For preschool teachers, this means routines and consistency are very important for a
child’s development. For proximal processes to be effective there needs to be some
degree of reciprocity in an exchange. For example, if two children are fighting over a toy
the teacher needs to model conflict negotiation skills providing opportunities for dialogue
to go between both children. The teacher should not simply take the toy away without
guiding and teaching problem solving skills. And lastly, for reciprocal interaction to
occur involving objects and symbols, the objects and symbols in the immediate
environment must be of a kind that invites attention, exploration, manipulation,
elaboration, and imagination (Bronfenbrenner & Morris, 2006). This would include
29
things such as clean, clearly labeled, and organized shelving displays for toys that are
placed at a child’s eye level. Attractive posters or pictures to define each area of the
classroom would also hope to invite attention and exploration of those areas.
The Pyramid Model
Hemmeter et al. (2006) created The Teaching Pyramid as an evidence-based
model of classroom strategies for promoting the social-emotional development of all
children and addressing the needs of children who are at-risk for or who have challenging
behavior (see figure 1). This model has been effective at reducing problem behavior and
increasing academic learning time (Sugai et al., 2000). This pyramid framework includes
four levels of practice to address the needs of all children, including children with
persistent challenging behavior. The bottom tier of the Teaching Pyramid consists of
"building positive relationships with children, families, and colleagues" (p. 589). The
second tier is "designing supportive environments" (e.g., walls of classroom could have
pictures of different types of emotions); the third tier is "social emotional teaching
strategies"(e.g., reading children's stories where the character is in a situation where he or
she is having a hard time with a friend or peer and they use conflict negotiation to work
out their problem could be one teaching strategy); and the top tier is "intensive
individualized interventions" (Hemmeter et al., p. 589).
The teaching pyramid represents a hierarchy of strategies. Implementing
successive levels solves more of the social and behavioral problems experienced in
classroom settings. Providing a warm and responsive environment in which teachers
30
work hard to build positive relationships with all children can prevent many problem
behaviors and provides the foundation for the next levels of the pyramid. To support
other children’s meaningful participation in daily routines and activities, teachers may
need to put in place classroom preventive practices involving more structure and
feedback. A few children may need a well-planned, focused, and intensive approach to
learning emotional literacy, controlling anger and impulse, interpersonal problem solving,
and friendship skills. The key implication here is that most solutions to challenging
behaviors are likely to be found by examining adult behavior and overall classroom
practice, not by singling out individual children for specialized intervention.
For Head Start programs, the only professional social-emotional training currently
given to any SETA Head Start employees is for the social services specialists. Head
teachers are told to refer any child expressing behavioral difficulties to those specialists
who then create a Child Study Team (CST). The focus of the CST is to develop
recommendations or classroom assistance for the child through Head Start resources
(http://headstart.seta.net/cst.htm). The problem with the CST model is that the primary
teacher, whom the child typically spends a majority of their day with, may not be
properly trained in social-emotional development. The current project addressed this lack
of training by offering a workshop that provided information on what constitutes socialemotional development and how to support preschoolers' social-emotional development
through classroom environments and positive teacher-child relationships.
At the child level, the Teaching Pyramid model suggests that social-emotional
interventions should target children's ability to communicate their emotions in
31
appropriate ways, regulate their emotions, solve common problems, build positive
relationships with the peers and adults in their environments, and engage in and persist in
challenging tasks. These types of behaviors are essential for preparing children for social
and academic success as they transition from early childhood settings to formal schooling
(Hemmeter et al., 2006).
Fostering Social and Emotional Competence
for School Success
It is clear that a child's first 5 years of life are critical for the establishment of
early cognitive, social-emotional, and regulatory skills and competencies that serve as
precursors for lifelong adaptation and functioning (Shonkoff & Phillips, 2000). The
settings in which young children grow and develop, and the interactions and experiences
they encounter in these highly formative years, set the stage for later learning. The first 5
years are filled with antecedent events, experiences, and relationships that either support
or diminish children's abilities to benefit from new ongoing opportunities and acquire
basic and complex social-emotional and cognitive skills (Sheridan et al., 2010). Thus, the
degree to which children are ready for learning upon entering the formal school
environment is largely based on what transpires well before they enter the school door.
Concern about children's readiness for school is perhaps greatest in many
American communities where disparities are prevalent among children and families. The
cumulative effects of interrelated factors such as poverty, low parental education,
32
parental mental health concerns, and linguistically isolated households present particular
challenges for the development of young children (Zill & West, 2001). Early differences
in performance do not necessarily disappear as these children progress through school; in
fact, the achievement gaps among ethnic groups and between children of advantaged and
disadvantaged backgrounds tend to widen over time (Brooks-Gunn et al., 2007). It is
necessary to now identify effective methods of enhancing the early learning experiences
of children across diverse environments that support school preparedness.
The current project emphasized developing a positive climate in preschool
classrooms and improving teacher-student relationships as a means of promoting social
competence (Hemmeter et al., 2006) that is strongly linked to academic success. A
positive classroom environment is essential for any child to develop healthy social and
emotional competence. This also includes having positive teacher-child relationships.
This attachment helps create a sense of trust among a child’s peers and teachers when
expressing various emotions and provides models of appropriate ways for dealing with
various social situations.
Classroom Environment
Elements of the classroom environment include a broad range of educational
concepts, including the physical setting, the psychological environment created through
social contexts, and numerous instructional components related to teacher characteristics
and behaviors (Riley et al., 2008). Early childhood classrooms serve as the physical
environment for adults and young children for most of their waking hours. Providing
33
stimulating materials and opportunities to promote social and emotional development is
important to any preschool classroom. This can be pictures or books which display a
variety of emotions. In addition, the provision of a sufficient portion of the day dedicated
to play helps promote social skills (Ashiabi, 2007). Although it is important for
classrooms to be attractive to the eye, it is equally, if not more important, that they
function effectively.
The physical setting should include an organized floor plan with clear labels
within defined areas of the classroom. When space is well-organized, with open pathways
that clearly lead to activities that offer enough to do, children manage on their own. They
can move freely from one activity to another, giving the teacher an opportunity to
individualize children according to their needs. Space that is not well-organized creates
problem areas. These include dead spaces that encourage wandering and unruly behavior,
and pathways that lead nowhere or interfere with play already in progress. In the current
workshop a systematic way of managing the various areas of a preschool classroom were
discussed (Riley et al., 2008).
According to Ashiabi (2007), children's play can be conceptualized in terms of
creativity, adaptation, exploration, experimentation, learning, communication,
socialization, acculturation, and mastery. Play enables children to build and extend their
knowledge and skills as they interact with their environment and play with others and on
their own. Research supports sociodramatic play as a means for the development and
promotion of children's socioemotional skills because it requires the capacities for
reflecting before acting, sensing the perspective of others, and emotional understanding
34
and regulation. Pretend play has also been found to be associated with children's
understanding of other people's emotions (Ashiabi, 2007; Denham & Brown, 2010).
Child-initiated and teacher-guided play involves different kinds of teacher
interactions with children. Teachers have to observe what children are doing, support
their efforts and get involved thoughtfully to support additional learning. In play with
peers, children's negotiation and problem-solving skills are promoted, as are their abilities
to cooperate with others, share, take turns, self-restrain, work in a group, and get along
with others. Play also promotes children's ability to read intentionality in others (Ashiabi,
2007). Early childhood teachers have to recognize the developmental significance and
appropriateness of play in promoting children's socioemotional development, and engage
in practices that scaffold children's experiences and socioemotional skills during play.
Reading may also contribute to children's socioemotional development. Literature
is known to be an effective vehicle for evoking feelings, empathy, and social cognition
(Miller, 2001). Storybooks for young children frequently center on interactions between
people or personified animals, so they offer opportunities to refer to emotional states and
social situations. For example, Dyer, Shatz, and Wellman (2000) studied words,
expressions, pictures, and situations presented in various children’s books that referred to
the characters’ thoughts, feelings, or intentions. They found that, on average, a reference
to emotions or social events occurred every three sentences. Thus, emotions and
relationships appear to be an integral part of children’s literature. As to the nature of the
conversations between reader and child during joint reading, children’s books frequently
evoke references to characters’ mental states. For example, Garner et al. (1997) found
35
that mothers’ empathy-related statements predicted preschoolers’ understandings of
normative reactions to emotionally charged situations. Garner et al. suggested that, by
encouraging children to focus on the feelings of others while reading to their children,
mothers may be teaching them about effective reactions to such socioemotional
scenarios. Such adult-child reading interactions also commonly occur in preschool
settings.
Aram and Aviram (2009) studied words, expressions, pictures, and situations
presented in certain children's books that referred to the characters' thoughts, feelings, or
intentions. Participants were 40 middle-class Israeli mothers and their children (on
average, 5 years old). The frequency of storybook reading and maternal expertise in
choosing books were measured. They found that references to emotions and relationships
appear to be an integral part of children's literature. By encouraging children to focus on
the feelings of others while reading books, readers may be teaching them about affective
reactions to such socioemotional scenarios (Aram & Aviram). Children's socioemotional
adjustment requires success in meeting age-appropriate developmental goals like
persistence in task performance, conflict resolution, impulse regulation, and emotional
expression. Perhaps reading books based on problem solving in social situations or what
to do when a character expresses a certain emotion may help provide examples and ways
to help a child who is experiencing deficits in their social and emotional competence.
This social-emotional support strategy was encouraged in the workshop for Head Start
teachers to try in their own classrooms with a list of books categorized by social-
36
emotional topics distributed to each teacher in attendance at the workshop (see Appendix
G).
Teacher-Child Relationships
During the past two decades there has been an increase in research on the
importance of effective teacher-student relationships for students' school adjustment. The
quality of teacher-student relationships has been shown to be significantly associated
with students' social functioning, behavior problems, engagement in learning activities,
and academic achievement. For example, Hamre and Pinata (2001) showed that the
degree of conflict in children’s relationship with kindergarten teachers predicted their
grades, positive work habits, and disciplinary infractions in lower and upper elementary
school, and for boys, extended into middle school.
Although the ability to independently regulate one's emotions increases
dramatically from age two to five years, young children are likely to continue to rely on
teachers for assistance in managing their emotions in the classroom environment.
Research has demonstrated that children who form positive relationships with their
preschool teachers display more positive and less negative emotion (Spernak,
Schottenbauer, Ramey, & Ramey, 2006). Adaptive emotion regulation is likely to build
upon children's social skills to foster prosocial responses through more complex
socioemotional process such as emotion understanding and empathy, processes that are
likely to facilitate children's positive social relationships (McWayne et al., 2008). These
findings suggest that within the preschool setting, these skills are particularly important
37
for children to establish close, positive relationships with their classroom teachers.
Because young children recognize the importance of early social relationships with
teachers and display reciprocity in their perceptions of these relationships, children who
experience greater closeness with their teachers may develop more positive beliefs about
themselves and more positive attitudes toward school (Spritz et al., 2010).
Many studies of child relationships with adults other than their parents are guided
by an extended attachments perspective, which is founded on theory and research about
mother-child relationships (Bowlby, 1969). The central idea in attachment theory is that
positive relationships between parents and children promote feelings of security in the
child. Emotional security in turn is considered to be a necessary precondition for
exploration of the environment. According to an extended attachment perspective,
sensitive teachers can serve as a secure base from which children can explore the school
environment and become engaged in learning activities (Thijs & Koomen, 2008).
Self-system theory (Connel & Wellborn, 1991) or self-determination theory
explains the association between teacher-student relationships and school adjustment
slightly differently. According to these theories, for children to become motivated their
basic psychological needs must be fulfilled: the needs for relatedness, for competence,
and for autonomy. Teachers can support these needs by showing involvement (i.e.,
caring for and expressing interest in the student), providing structure (i.e., setting clear
rules and being consequent), and supporting autonomy (i.e., giving students freedom to
make their own choices and showing connections between schoolwork and students'
interests). If children's basic needs are met, their engagement in learning activities will
38
increase (Skinner & Belmont, 1993). Consequently, they will perform better on
achievement tests and receive higher grades (Skinner et al., 1990). Teacher involvement
represents the affective dimension of teacher-student interactions and is conceptually
derived from attachment theory (Connell & Wellborn, 1991). Likewise, relatedness is
connected to the concept of emotional security. Of the three supporting behaviors,
teacher involvement seems to be the most important predictor of engagement (Skinner &
Belmont).
Thijs and Koomen (2008) have found support for the central role of children's
emotional security as a mediator between teacher support and children's engagement in
learning tasks. A favorable teacher-student relationship can stimulate learning behavior
and support the child’s ability to deal with the demands of the school context. A negative
teacher-student relationship, on the other hand, reflects a lack of security and is believed
to hamper and interfere with the child's ability to cope with demands in school (Thijs &
Kooman).
Nissen and Hawkins (2010) discuss ways to promote healthy relationships
between teachers and students in terms of promoting emotional competence. There are
three defined roles that describe a teacher according to Nissen and Hawkins (2010): (a)
teacher as relationship builder, (b) teacher as coach and role model, and (c) teacher as
creator of healthy environments. As a relationship builder, the teacher observes children's
abilities to regulate emotional responses; establishes nurturing, individualizing
relationships with children; responds in ways that demonstrate the child is valued; and
tailors interactions to the characteristics and needs of each child. As a coach and role
39
model, teachers coach children in problem solving during activities and peer interactions;
help children verbalize their frustrations and use language in solving problems, coach
children in recognizing and naming their feelings; and model appropriate expressions of
emotions. As a creator of healthy environments, teachers establish a "good fit" between
children's needs and the characteristics and expectations of the learning environment;
provide appropriate choices and challenges; create soft spaces to serve as a retreat from
stress; establish predictable routines; organize an environment that encourages autonomy
and responsibility; provide blocks of time for free play; build understanding of emotions
through intentional teaching; establish a climate of respect; and believe that each child
can succeed (Nissen & Hawkins, 2010, p. 257). A handout (see Appendix H) was
distributed to all teachers in attendance at the workshop that addressed each teacher role
in detail.
Adult Learners
Because the current project was focused on Head Start teachers, part of the
workshop development has included a review of literature on adult learners. One concept
explored in adult learning research is learning styles, the view that different people learn
information in different ways. In recent decades, the concept of learning styles has
steadily gained influence. A learning style is a way in which each learner prefers to
concentrate on, process, absorb, and retain new and difficult information (Omrod, 2008).
For instance, Omrod discusses how cognitive styles can influence how and what students
40
learn. For example, some students seem to learn better when material is presented
through words (verbal learners), whereas others seem to learn better when concepts are
presented through pictures (visual learners). Thus, it is important for teachers to
understand that students have particular learning styles and that these styles should be
accommodated by instruction tailored to those learning styles.
For example, Chen and Sun (2012) examined a hypothesis made by Mayer and
Massa (2003) that some people process words more effectively (verbalizers) and some
people process pictorial representations more effectively (visualizers). Participants
included 160 fifth graders in Jhuang Jing Primary School in Taoyuan City, Taiwan to
take part in the experiment. Among the 160 students, 73 were identified as verbalizers
and 83 were identified as visualizers. The participants were randomly divided in 3
groups for learning. The 3 different learning based materials included: static text and
image-based, video based, and animated interaction-based. Each participant was given
10 minutes to view the multimedia materials and learn the content. Posttests were given
to assess learning performance. The experimental result partially supports the visualizeverbalizer hypothesis of Mayer and Messa (2003), stating that visualizers process
pictorial representations more effectively than word-based representations; however,
there was not support that verbalizers process words more effectively.
It is appealing to think that all people have the potential to learn effectively and
easily if only instruction is tailored to their individual learning styles. The LearningStyles hypothesis implies that learning will be ineffective, or at least less efficient than it
could be, if learners receive instruction that does not take into consideration their learning
41
style, or conversely, that individualizing instruction to the learner's style can lead to better
learning outcomes (Pashler et al., 2009). One consequence of this hypothesis that is
commonly seen in the education literature surrounding learning styles is the idea that
instruction should be provided in the mode that matches the learner's style. For example,
if the learner is a "visual learner," information should, when possible, be presented
visually.
To enhance the workshop for Head Start teachers, various modes of presentation
were represented. For the visual learners, a PowerPoint presentation was used to provide
a visual for the teachers to follow along with the content (see Appendix E). For auditory
learners, a thorough explanation, including examples were used along with in-depth
discussions about the various content presented in the workshop. For the physical
learners, skits and re-enactments were encouraged for the participants to gain a hands-on
experience/practice when dealing with children with challenging behaviors. For the social
learners there was ample time to discuss ideas and thoughts with the other attendees of
the workshop. For the solitary learners, various questions and statements were executed
for individual responses and ideas.
Along with keeping in mind the various learning styles of the Head Start teachers
in attendance, the workshop, design was based on an understanding of the mental
processes through which adult learners retain information. Tileston (2010) discusses
motivation in terms of three systems of mental processing. To start, the processes of the
self-system, or the "Do I want to?" system, determine whether learners will engage in
learning and how much energy or enthusiasm they will bring to the event. Students are
42
more likely to attend to learning if they perceive that it will help them reach a personal
goal such as learn a skill they want to use, make them look better in the eyes of their
peers, or find fulfillment (Tileston, 2010). Self-efficacy refers to the confidence a person
has that he or she has the ability to be successful. The difference between self-efficacy
and self-esteem is that, while both terms refer to a student's belief that they can be
successful, self-efficacy is based on past experience. When dealing with challenging
behaviors in children it can be frustrating and discouraging when the child persists in
expressing maladaptive behaviors even after the teacher has intervened. Therefore, it was
important to provide the participating Head Start teachers with encouragement and
motivation to continue working with their preschoolers who may be challenging and
taxing.
The needs assessment completed by the Head Start teachers prior to the workshop
not only allowed the researcher more insight into topics where teachers felt they needed
more support but it also allowed the teachers to initially see what the workshop was all
about. The needs assessment may have ignited teachers’ self-system and begun the
mental process of motivation to attend the workshop.
Once a student decides to pay attention to the learning, the metacognitive system
becomes engaged. Metacognition is controlled by the self-system. Once the student sees
the learning as important, believes that the learning can be done successfully, and has a
positive feeling about the learning, then the self-system passes to the metacognitive
system. This system is sometimes called the "How will I?" system because it is the
system of thinking that causes one to formulate a plan to tackle what they have learned
43
and use it in some way (Tilestone, 2010). The metacognitive system then sets personal
goals for the learning, makes decisions about what to do when problems with the task are
encountered, and pushes one to complete a task with high energy.
Once the metacognitive system is engaged, it is in communication with the third
system, the cognitive system. The cognitive system is responsible for helping students
process the information they will need to complete tasks at hand. It is responsible for
such operations as making inferences, comparing, and classifying, and applying the
knowledge that was taught (Tileston, 2010). Anytime that teachers present students with
new learning or new tasks, the brain looks for existing connections prior experiences and
learning. If such connections are found, the new information can be connected to them
(Marzano, 2001). Marzano argues that helping students establish these connections to
prior experience and knowledge is one of the most important strategies for helping
students [adult learners] to be successful. For that reason, one of the strategies that the
researcher employed in the workshop was to connect new learning to what the Head Start
teachers already knew and understood. The beginning of the workshop included a review
of the purpose of Head Start and how, as teachers, they implement those ideals.
Summary
The studies reviewed here provide evidence for the efficacy of classroom
practices that may promote social and emotional adjustment in preschool children.
Competencies young children acquire during these years form the foundation on which
44
they will develop and build future competencies (Fantuzzo et al., 2007), and also promote
academic achievement (Bultosky-Shearer et al., 2008). Young children exposed to social
and biological risk factors are at greater risk for not developing these foundational
competencies, placing them at future risk of poor school performance. But quality early
care and education can promote positive school outcomes for these vulnerable young
children.
Researchers and practitioners have described key social-emotional skills that
children need as they enter school, including self-confidence, the capacity to develop
positive relationships with peers and adults, concentration, persistence on challenging
tasks, an ability to effectively communicate emotions, an ability to listen to instructions
and be attentive, and skills in solving social problems (Hemmeter et al., 2006). In
particular, preschoolers' emotion skills are central to their ability to interact with others
and to form positive relationships. Children's emotional responses to others communicate
their openness and availability for social engagement. Once engaged in social contacts,
children must learn to flexibly maximize and regulate emotional expression and
experiences to meet both their own goals and others' expectations for their behavior
(Spritz et al., 2010).
Research on emotional development shows that emotions are not just internal
experiences with outward expression, but are deeply influenced by the social contexts in
which they occur (Frey, Park, Ferrigno, & Korfhage, 2010). The social context is also
crucial to the growth of emotion perception and emotional understanding by which
children develop an appreciation of the meaning of emotion to themselves and others. A
45
child's skills in emotion perception, understanding, and self-regulation are, in turn,
significant influences on the child's social acceptance and social competence (Thompson,
2010).
Promoting young children's well-being through early school experiences is a
central goal of the Head Start program. The social relationships developed at school are
particularly significant for preschool-age children who especially rely on others for
emotional and behavioral regulation. Children with difficulties regulating anger are less
popular among their peers, and have impaired social functioning (Spinrad et al., 2006).
In sum, poor emotional regulation is related to social adjustment problems, which in turn
may favor early onset conduct problems.
In this project, the researcher created a workshop for SETA Head Start teachers
designed to promote teachers’ understanding of children’s social and emotional
development. The workshop included training on social-emotional development,
specifically research based information on emotion understanding, emotion regulation,
peer relationships, social problem solving, and conflict negotiation. Specific, evidence
based strategies SETA Head Start teachers can implement in their classrooms were also
discussed in two different areas: (a) facilitation of positive relationships, (b)
establishment of positive classroom environment.
46
Chapter 3
METHODS
Project Design
In this project, the researcher created a workshop for SETA Head Start teachers
designed to promote teachers’ understanding of children’s social and emotional
development. The specific topics outlined in the workshop included: (a) social
competence, (b) emotion understanding and regulation, (c) peer relationships, (d) social
problem solving, and (e) conflict negotiation. Specific, evidence based strategies SETA
Head Start teachers might implement in their classrooms were also discussed in two
different areas: (a) facilitation of positive relationships and, (b) establishment of positive
classroom environment.
Target Population for the Workshop
Head and associate teachers from the SETA Head Start program in the
Sacramento area were the target population of the workshop. However, the workshop
was designed for use with new and continuing teachers in any Head Start program or
other program serving at-risk preschoolers. Since healthy social and emotional
development is critical for all preschoolers, the workshop may also be suitable for use by
teachers in private preschools.
47
Setting and Participants
The workshop was developed, conducted and evaluated with a small group of
teachers from the author’s work place, the Sacramento Employment Training Agency
(SETA). SETA Head Start operates 32 preschool programs in the Sacramento Region.
All of the 490 lead and associate teachers working in SETA Head Start
classrooms were recruited for voluntary participation in the needs assessment survey and
attendance at the workshop. Teachers were invited to attend the workshop through
advertisement flyers distributed by the researcher (see Appendix B). E-mails were also
sent to each site supervisor in charge of a SETA Head Start site in the Sacramento area.
Out of the 90 lead teachers and 400 associate teachers, 18 teachers attended the morning
workshop and 17 teachers attended the afternoon workshop. Each workshop was allotted
for 2 hours. The workshop took place at the main office building in a conference room,
which consisted of tables and chairs arranged in a horseshoe like shape with the presenter
in the front of the room positioned in front of the PowerPoint projection screen.
Development of Presentation and Workshop Materials
Review of Literature
Development of the workshop materials began with a review of scholarly research
on children's social and emotional development, published curricula, and other evidencebased trainings and workshops for preschool teachers. Curricula and training materials
48
were evaluated for consistency with scholarly research on children's social-emotional
development in order to be used in the proposed presentation. A literature review on
adult education and adult learners was also conducted to provide more effective training
for the teachers.
Needs Assessment
Next, the researcher created and distributed a needs assessment survey to all
SETA Head Start teachers in the agency. The needs assessment survey (see Appendix A)
consisted of Likert items and open ended questions designed to gather teachers' input
about possible content for the workshop. The survey allowed teachers to express what
they felt they needed to help support them when promoting social-emotional
development in the classroom. The surveys were distributed to all SETA Head Start sites
and given to each teacher to complete and return to their site supervisors by April 15th. A
total of 155 needs assessment surveys were mailed back to the researcher out of 490
teachers working for SETA Head Start.
The researcher then analyzed the survey responses to help generate materials and
activities to be presented in the workshop. On average, teachers reported having 3
children in their classroom who exhibit challenging behaviors. Common maladaptive
behaviors found in SETA Head Start classrooms included: hitting, biting, kicking,
spitting, inappropriate language, throwing objects, throwing objects at teachers or peers,
destroying property, and telling teachers "no." There were multiple common topics with
where teachers felt they needed more support. A majority of both lead teachers and
49
associate teachers described the challenging behaviors in their class as aggressive, noncompliant, and/or defiant. Most teachers were concerned that the difficult behaviors they
had to deal with, led to other children losing learning time. In approximately 75% of the
returned needs assessments, teachers reported they would like additional support in the
areas of discipline, managing challenging behavior, and transitions.
The second part of the needs assessment included a list of topics for participants
to rate based on their view of importance using a Likert scale. Out of the 155 returned
needs assessments, 35 teachers reported that they felt social-emotional development was
"most important." Eighty-seven teachers reported that social-emotional development was
"important," 18 teachers felt that social-emotional development was "somewhat
important," and 15 teachers felt social-emotional development was "not important." All
155 teachers who returned their needs assessments reported that they felt teacher-child
interactions were "most important." Four teachers felt learning environments were "most
important;" 69 teachers felt learning environments were "important; 55 felt learning
environments were "somewhat important;" 27 teachers reported they felt that learning
environments were "not important.”
Format and Content of the Workshop
Consistent with the Pyramid Model (Hemmeter et al., 2006), the workshop was
organized around three major topics: (a) creating a positive classroom environment, (b)
the importance of teachers' relationships with their students, and (c) curriculum and
practices that promote social and emotional competence. The goal of this project was to
50
provide teachers with an understanding of the components of social-emotional
development and why positive classroom interactions help to promote social
development and reduce problem behavior. It was hoped that the teachers would leave
the workshop feeling inspired and motivated to create a positive environment in their
preschool classrooms and feel prepared when dealing with children who have socialemotional developmental delays.
At the beginning of the workshop, the presenter welcomed the teachers,
introduced herself and explained the purpose of the workshop. Information obtained
from the needs assessment surveys was then shared and discussed. A review of the
purpose of Head Start and the population teachers serve was conducted including some
statistics about the Head Start preschooler population. The researcher led an icebreaker
activity designed to encourage staff to participate and interact with each other. Staff were
divided into groups of 3 or 4 and were asked to make an outfit for one of their group
members using only one roll of toilet paper. After the activity, teachers were asked to
brainstorm what kinds of skills were needed to work together to make an outfit (i.e.
teamwork, cooperation, impulse control, problem solving skills, etc…).
Next, the presenter provided an overview and definition of social-emotional
development, including the various elements of social and emotional competence.
Emotion understanding, emotion regulation, peer relationships, problem solving, and
conflict negotiation were defined and discussed leaving time to brainstorm ideas for ways
to promote and support preschooler’s development in each area. An article on how to
regulate children’s emotions was distributed during the workshop and was read by five of
51
the participants who volunteered to read a specific section of the article (see Appendix F).
The article suggested ideas and strategies to encourage teachers to help children regulate
their emotions in the classroom.
During the next part of the workshop a video by Dr. Paula Gardner was viewed.
Dr. Gardner is the coordinator of the Mild/Moderate Educational Specialist Program at
Sacramento State. The video discusses various perspectives on teaching children with
difficult behaviors and how sometimes teachers need to reflect on their own actions
before blaming the child. Dr. Gardner reminds the audience that children’s actions are
influenced by the environment and people in their lives. The teachers were then
encouraged to share their thoughts and feelings about the video and whether they agreed
or disagreed with Dr. Gardner.
Using all the information taught in the workshop, the teachers were then asked to
identify any ideas, tips, and strategies they may try in their own classroom, or strategies
they have tried and felt were effective for dealing with children with difficult behaviors.
After the discussion, evaluations were distributed to all attendees and collected as the
teachers left the workshop.
Information from several other sources were also included in the workshop. For
example, The Devereux Early Childhood Assessment (DECA) questionnaire is a
standardized instrument for children aged two to five that measures child protective
factors as well as screens for behavioral concerns (see Appendix D)
(http://www.devereux.org). The DECA is a tool to better understand a child's behavioral
and social strengths and needs as well as to determine when further assessment is
52
necessary, focusing on whether or not a child is at a level of social/emotional competence
typical for his/her age. A benefit to using this tool is that it is already used by
administrators of early education programs and has been normed on a representative
sample of children in the United States. The instrument is sensitive to children's cultural
backgrounds and is standardized, valid and reliable (http://www.devereux.org). A
limitation of using this instrument is that teachers vary in their opinions of what they feel
should be marked as "bad behavior" and "good behavior." In the workshop, this
instrument was used as a way to address specific examples of deficits in a child's emotion
understanding and then have the teachers come up with ideas on how they can help a
child with similar deficits in their own classrooms. Discussion groups were formed to
brainstorm ideas and then share with the rest of the group what they discussed.
The Desire Results Developmental Profile for preschool (DRDP-PS) was also
used to refer to the specific measures in the "Self and Social Development" domain (see
Appendix C). The California Department of Education (CDE), Child Development
Division (CDD) has established the Desired Results System to improve program quality
in early care and education programs across the state
(http://www.wested.org/desiredresults/training/index.htm). The DRDP-PS is a tool used
by SETA Head Start to assess the children in various areas of development. For purposes
of this training the first domain was examined: self and social development. This domain
measures the child's social development and social competence using a rating scale
starting with "exploring," then "developing," "building," and the highest rating is
"integrating." As the child progresses in each measure they can move up, for example,
53
from "exploring" to "developing" or they can also regress down from "developing" to
"exploring." It was hoped that because teachers have a better understanding on socialemotional development by attending this training, they would be able to efficiently and
appropriately complete the first domain in the DRDP-PS. To address the specific needs of
SETA Head Start children, teachers were asked to bring a copy of their previous DRDPPS rating scores and averages to share and discuss how we can improve those scores in
the next assessment period.
The researcher used a Powerpoint slideshow to present the workshop concepts
and material (see Appendix E). To encourage participation throughout the workshop
“sticker boards” were given to all teachers in attendance. Whenever someone participated
they were given a sticker to place on their boards. The four people with the most stickers
at the end of the workshop were able to choose one of four prizes. Additional handouts
were disbursed to all teachers in attendance upon their arrival to the workshop after
signing in on the sign-in sheet. Information for additional resources and ideas were
gathered together on one flyer including website links to the Center on the Social and
Emotional Foundation for Early Learning (CSEFEL) and Technical Assistance Center on
Social Emotional Intervention for Young Children (TACSEI) (see Appendix G). A
children’s booklist was also given to all the teachers at the workshop. The booklist was
obtained from the Center on the Social and Emotional Foundations for Early Learning
(CSEFEL) website which includes a list of books categorized by topic (i.e. being a friend,
feelings, caring about others and empathy, problem solving, self confidence, good
behavior expectations, family relationships, bullying and teasing) (see Appendix H). A
54
handout on promoting emotional competence was also distributed to each teacher for
their personal reference (see Appendix I). This handout explains the teachers’ role in
promoting emotional competence as “teacher as relationship builder”, “teacher as coach
and role model”, and “teacher as creator of healthy environments” (Nissen & Hawkins,
2010).
Evaluation of the Workshop
After the workshop had been conducted, the 18 morning workshop and 17
afternoon workshop participants were asked to evaluate the workshop and materials.
Feedback from this evaluation was to be used as information to modify future workshops
(see Appendix J). Evaluations were given to all attendees of the workshop. After the
conclusion of the presentation the presenter asked the audience to take a few minutes to
complete the evaluation. Questions on the evaluation included a Likert rating scale
asking the participants to rate the presentation based on the presenters preparedness,
knowledge of the topics discussed, whether they felt they learned something new,
usefulness of handouts, clarity of objectives, timeliness of materials presented, and
overall rating of workshop. The evaluation allowed the presenter to see whether or not
the content was helpful and if teachers felt they had a better understanding of what was
presented, as well as how to help promote social and emotional development in
preschoolers. Open ended questions were also included in the evaluation as to whether or
not the participant would recommend this workshop to others and why, any guidance
55
they could give the presenter to improve the participants’ learning experience, what they
learned from the workshop that they are most likely to try and to list any other topics they
are interested in. The results of these evaluations are presented in Chapter 4.
56
Chapter 4
CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Approximately 76% of children in the United States are enrolled in some form of
center-based child care or preschool prior to kindergarten entry (Capizzano et al., 2000).
Of these children, it is estimated that between 4 and 12% have behavioral or emotional
disorders; far more show evidence of social-emotional problems that may indicate
problems later in life (Lopez et al., 2000). These figures are substantially higher among
children from low-income backgrounds. At the same time, many children, especially the
most vulnerable, often spend substantial amounts of time in low-quality child care
settings where staff have little knowledge or experience in supporting the socialemotional development of children or in working with children with severe
emotional/behavioral challenges (Cost, Quality, and Child Outcomes Study Team, 1995).
Providing early childhood educators and child care staff (in the current study,
SETA Head Start teachers) with the skills, supports, and resources they need to
successfully promote children's positive social-emotional development and to work with
children with challenging behaviors has been recognized as critical to children's
wellbeing. Without effective intervention, these children are likely to experience
academic deficits throughout their school years and are at risk for developing antisocial
patterns that persist into adulthood. Thus, the purpose of this project was to develop and
present evidence-based materials to SETA Head Start teachers that will help them
57
support and promote social and emotional development for preschoolers in their care.
The workshop was focused on developing positive teacher child interactions and
positive classroom environments as a means to prevent behavioral difficulties. These
tools and practices were shared with SETA Head Start teachers in the workshop about
social-emotional development.
The 2-hour workshop was presented to a group of SETA Head Start lead and
associate teachers. To accommodate enough space and substitutes for the teachers in
attendance two identical workshops were offered on the same day.
Evaluation of the Workshop
Based on the evaluations received from the attendees of the workshop, 90% of all
attendees rated their learning experience as "excellent." About 10% thought it was
"good." Ninety-eight percent indicated that they "strongly agreed" with the statement that
they had learned something new from the workshop. The same 98% also "strongly
agreed" that they felt inspired and excited to try the new tools/ideas they learned from the
workshop in their classrooms.
There was a tremendous amount of positive feedback from the evaluations along
with some constructive criticism from the Education Coordinator for SETA Head Start
who supervised and attended the second workshop of the day. She felt overall the
workshop went smoothly. She and two other teachers mentioned they would have liked a
copy of the PowerPoint presentation in front of them to follow along and take their own
58
personal notes. Two evaluations also mentioned that they would have preferred more
hands-on experiences during the workshop. They suggested the use of skits and
reenacting scenarios to practice their newfound knowledge.
One important limitation to the workshop the author observed was the amount of
time allotted for each workshop. The first workshop of the day had to be wrapped up
quickly because it was nearing the end of the allowed 2 hours. Participants in the first
workshop expressed many ideas shared among the teachers and the discussions lasted
longer than what was predicted. At the end of the workshop, it was difficult for the author
to tie ideas together and as one evaluation mentioned "come full circle with the new skills
and knowledge mentioned." In the second workshop of the day, there was less
participation from the teachers resulting in a quieter learning environment. The author did
not quite feel the attendees of the second workshop understood some of the content based
on their responses to the evaluations and their lack of participation. In the future, it
would be beneficial to have more time per workshop and provide more scenarios and
visual aids, including a copy of the PowerPoint to each participant.
Conclusions and Recommendations
Based on feedback from the participants and reflections of the researcher, there
are several conclusions and recommendations that can be made about the development,
implementation, and evaluation of the workshop. Besides the changes already
mentioned, another change to the presentation would be to conduct a post-workshop
59
content based assessment along with the evaluation to determine if the information
presented was actually being understood and processed by the teachers.
Second, a follow up survey to the workshop would have been valuable to
determine whether or not the information and ideas shared at the workshop have been
implemented by the teachers in their classrooms and evaluated for successful outcomes.
It was hoped that teachers who attended the workshop, left the training feeling inspired
and motivated to try the mentioned strategies or ideas on how to promote socialemotional development in their classrooms. A follow up survey would also allow the
presenter to see if what was discussed in the workshop was being utilized in SETA Head
Start sites.
A possible expansion of this workshop would be to continue promoting socialemotional development for teachers through a longer series of workshops that examine
the effects of classroom management, lesson planning, transitions, discipline, creative
projects, and communication with parents on a child's social-emotional development. For
each listed topic there could be a potential workshop to discuss in detail how those topics
can influence a child's social-emotional development. The additional workshops could
include a description of each topic followed by strategies and ideas on how to promote
social-emotional development through that specific modality. For example, a workshop
on lesson planning may incorporate ideas on activities to implement that promote socialemotional development. Intentional teaching would also be defined and discussed in
terms of lesson planning and how lesson plans need to directly reflect the learning behind
each activity planned.
60
Another possible expansion would be to invite the parents and/or guardians and
families of SETA Head Start preschool children to a related workshop targeted to parents
and families. Research has indicated that the onset of problem behavior is associated
with multiple factors, one being family environmental risk factors. Campbell et al.
(1982) notes associations among poverty, caregiving instability, maternal depression,
family stress, and poor family relationships. Campbell (1995) further indicated that
parenting difficulties are among the factors associated with the onset and persistence of
problem behavior. A lack of parental warmth and responsiveness, problems in setting
limits, poor disciplinary styles, and interaction problems are related to young children's
defiant, oppositional, and aggressive behaviors. These difficulties may be further
exacerbated by maternal depression, maternal discord, and family stress because they
create situations where parents are likely to engage in more dysfunctional parenting
patterns (Campbell, 1995).
In addition, a child's problem behaviors place families at risk for higher levels of
stress (Harrower et al., 2000). This stress affects the family's ability to parent effectively
and places the family unit at an increased risk of isolation and segregation from activities,
events, and places within the community. A workshop generated toward the audience of
SETA Head Start parents may be beneficial to not only their own family lives but also in
conjunction with supporting the teachers of their children.
61
Figure 1.
The Teaching Pyramid Model
Figure 1. "The Teaching Pyramid: A Model for Supporting Social Competence and
Preventing Challenging Behavior in Young Children," by L. Fox, G. Dunlap, M.L.
Hemmeter, G. Joseph, and P. Strain, 2003, Young Children, 58(4). Pp. 48-53.
62
Appendices
63
Appendix A.
Needs Assessment Survey
64
Needs Assessment Survey
Please indicate your position (circle one):
Teacher
Associate teacher
How many children are enrolled in your classroom? _____
Do you have children who display challenging behaviors in your class?
If yes, how many? _____. Please describe these behaviors.
What do you find most challenging about children's behavior in your classroom?
What sorts of things do you do to promote children's academic development?
What sorts of things do you do to promote children's social or emotional development?
I would like additional support in the following areas (circle as many as you like):
Lesson planning
Discipline
Creative projects with children
Praising/Rewards
Classroom floor plan
Communicating with parents
Promoting parent involvement
Promoting social-emotional development
Managing challenging behavior
Transitions
Other ________________________
65
Please consider your own professional development growth, current site, and your
teaching goals as you respond to questions 1 – 10 (check one box for each):
Not
Important
1. Leadership/supervision
2. Assessment
3. Cognitive development
4. Social/emotional development
5. Physical development
6. Parent involvement
7. Educational technology
8. Teacher-child interactions
9. Relationships between co-teachers
10. Learning environment
Somewhat
Important
Important
Most
Important
66
Appendix B.
Workshop Flyer
67
68
Appendix C.
DRDP Rating Record (Measures 1-12)
69
70
Appendix D.
DECA Form
71
72
Appendix E.
PowerPoint Presentation
73
Presenter Notes:
- Introduce myself…
- Graduate school from Sac State in December
- Work at Sharon Neese Early Learning Center as a lead teacher
- Moved up from sub (2008), to associate teacher (2008), to lead teacher (2010).
- When I was a sub I moved around from site to site and was able to witness a lot of
different behaviors expressed by Head Start children and then when I became a lead
teacher I was became immersed in the various assessments and I began to observe the
preschoolers social-emotional development more in depth when conducting the DECA
assessment.
- I took a class on social-emotional development at Sac State and found myself being
very interested in the topic. And here I am sharing what I’ve learned and researched with
you!
74
Presenter Notes:
- Thank you all for coming, I really appreciate the time you took to complete my surveys
but also the time you have taken to be here at my workshop today to support me and my
education. Your participation will only make this program and our classrooms better.
- You all have very valuable experience and most of you have been working here at Head
Start longer than I have and this is a great opportunity for us to share ideas when dealing
with challenging behaviors.
- I’m not here to train or lecture you. I’m not expert in the field but I definitely
considered myself an expert at researching information. With that being said, I would
love to get ideas from you as well!
75
Presenter Notes:
- Head Start is the nation’s largest federally sponsored early childhood program
developed to serve-at-risk, vulnerable, young children by promoting school readiness.
Head Start targets eight key domains of development to enhance readiness: these include
language development, literacy, mathematics, science, creative arts, physical health,
approaches to learning, and social and emotional development.
- Does anyone know what it means for a child to be “at-risk?” (For a child to be “at-risk”
means that their perceived outcome for kindergarten, later schooling, and in life can be
at-risk for failure. What makes it difficult for us teachers is that we are taking in a group
of “at-risk” children and putting them all in one classroom.
- Which means teachers at Head Start need to be the strongest and the best! Therefore,
our job is to bring out the best in these preschoolers and help them be ready for a
successful future. Let help erase that “at-risk” label for these children as they move on to
Kindergarten.
- That includes poor social skills, aggression, oppositional behavior and dependency.
Therefore, promoting social and emotional competence in our classrooms is especially
critical because of the high number of children in Head Start who exhibit socio-emotional
difficulties.
76
Presenter Notes:
- These surveys cried “help.” I could tell as I was reading the surveys that some people
were writing very hard on the paper which told me that they were very frustrated when it
came to dealing with their preschoolers’ difficult behavior.
- I’m curious to see how many of those children identified as “challenging” have CSTs
set in place.
- I also noticed that “discipline” and “transitions” were also circled on your surveys
- Defiant behaviors can be defined as hitting, not listening to teachers, destroying school
property…etc.
77
Presenter Notes:
- Let’s take a moment to model our outfits and inspirations!
- Okay, you can go back to your seats and if you want to keep wearing our new outfit you
may or you can take it off and throw it in the garbage.
- What kind of skills did you use to work together to make these outfits?
Teamwork
Impulse control (one person had to stand still)
Taking turns (one toilet paper roll)
Emotion understanding
Language skills (communication)
Emotion regulation
etc….
- These are all skills that we need to have in order to be successful in life. (going to
school, getting a job, building a relationship to start a family, etc….)
- For example when a teacher tells you to take out a pencil to take a quiz you can’t cry
and whine in high school. You need to have the ability to regulate your emotions.
- These skills are very important for development in the first five years of life. Making
preschool a very valuable experience for children.
78
Presenter Notes:
-Now that we have a better understanding of the importance of our jobs as Head Start
teachers, I’m going to be move on to talking about what is social-emotional development.
-First lets make a list of the common maladaptive behaviors we see in our classrooms
(mentioned in surveys). I don’t like to call inappropriate behaviors “bad” because the
word “bad” is subjective (it’s just our opinion). A child who is expressing maladaptive
behaviors means they are adapting poorly to a situation or environment. (Therefore, once
again, it is our job as teachers to help that child adapt successfully to various situations or
environments. [which may mean we need to change the classroom environment for
example].)
- During this development a child learns how to approach other children, how to
negotiate issues, how to take turns, and how to communicate effectively.
- First five years of life are the most important for promoting the various areas of a
child’s development, especially social and emotional development.
79
Presenter Notes:
- How do you think children learn about emotions? (attachment, through experience)
Teacher and classmates provide both attachment and experience. We need to make sure
we label emotions for children (modeling). Think like a sports commentator.
- What are the functions of emotions? What do they “do” for us?
- Showing empathy for another child is also part of emotion understanding. (have
teachers review the DRDP measures)
- There is a communicative intent behind the emotions we express. For example, a baby
cries because that is how they communicate. They may be hungry or tired.
- Sometimes our preschoolers have communication deficits and express their needs and
wants through hitting or throwing objects. Our job is to try and figure out what that child
is trying to say or communicate with the teacher or another child. (This is why teacherchild interactions are so important).
- How do you help your preschoolers understand emotions? Do you have any games play
or songs you sing or activities you guys do in the classroom?
80
Presenter Notes:
- Use example of child not getting a job…delay of gratification.
- Pass out David Stewart’s article…Take turns reading it..give stickers to the volunteer
readers.
- What did you think of that article?
81
Presenter Notes:
- What are some skills you think are crucial at this level of development?
- What skills do we need to promote to our preschoolers to help build positive peer
relationships?
[Making positive overtures to play with others, initiating and maintaining conversations,
cooperating, listening, taking turns, seeking help, and practicing friendship skills
(example: joining another child or small group, expressing appreciation, negotiating, and
giving feedback.)
- Examine the DECA tool...discuss the typical concerns found throughout this assessment
across the various classrooms
- This goes back to emotional competence and how without the ability to understand and
regulate our emotions preschoolers cannot form those positive relationships.
82
Presenter Notes:
-Find a partner or groups of 3 and talk amongst yourselves about your ideas.
- Group share (pass out stickers for participation)
83
Presenter Notes:
- Now that we have discussed the areas of social-emotional development I’m going to
move forward and once again talk about the reasons why children act the way they do.
- “Maladaptive” behaviors means that a child cannot adapt to a situation or environment
appropriately. “Bad” is subjective and what I feel is a bad behavior may not be a bad to
you. I may just call a behavior bad because I cannot handle or feel like dealing with that
child’s issues at the moment but YOU may have the skills or the patience to do so.
- Examine the DRDP measures once again and discuss ways to improve the rating scores
for our preschoolers
84
Presenter Notes:
- We have talked a lot about our preschoolers and their development… I’m going to
switch gears and talk about our job as teachers.
- This video is a clip from one of my online classes I took last semester. This is Dr. Paula
Gardner. She is the Coordinator of the Mild/Moderate Educational Specialist Program at
Sac State. Dr. Gardner frequently consults at the local, state, national, and international
level. She has been in the field of special education for more than 30 years and has won
several prestigious awards.
- She is very funny and is always telling us personal stories to help relate to her students
and its about perspective taking.
- STOP VIDEO AT 10:26
- What did you guys learn from Dr. Gardner….does anything stand out to you?
- I really liked when she was describing how the teachers can trigger behaviors…After I
heard Dr. Gardner talk about how she was trying to set a different tone in her classroom I
took that advice and started doing that during my circle time. Giving compliments to
those children who were sitting “criss-cross-applesauce.” I wasn’t the police officer
anymore saying, “sit down, be quiet, I can’t read if you are talking.”
- Even during the middle of circle time if I noticed a child getting restless and laying
down or playing with a nearby toy. I would not pay attention to that child but I would
give my attention to all the children who were sitting nicely.
- Sometimes children just want attention…even if its negative. So I focus a lot more on
the positive praising and ignore the maladaptive behaviors.
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Presenter Notes:
- How do you feel when you see one of the listed behaviors occurring? How does that
make you feel? (frustrated, stressed)
- How you think it makes the parents feel? (embarrassed, denial)
- What about their peers? (scared, angry, sad)
- How does the child himself feel? (what is the emotion behind the action?)
- When a child hits another child with a block. We need to stop saying “stop, no hitting!”
We need to physically walk over and acknowledge the behavior. “I see you hit Jayda with
the block. You look angry. Your hands are holding that block very tight. They look sooo
mad. What can we do to make you happy again? Is there something Jayda can do?” This
dialogue opens the doors for you to see what really happened and possibly why it
occured. Then you can move on to conflict negotiation.
- Avoid blame! We need to reflect on ourselves as teachers as to what we do in the
classroom that works and what doesn’t work.
- “If you only have a hammer in your tool belt then everything will look like a nail.” We
need to have more options in our “tool belts” so we don’t get so stressed out at work
when dealing with these challenging behaviors.
86
Presenter Notes:
- When it comes to perspective taking I was looking at my classroom when I first became
a lead teacher and my classroom seemed too unorganized and chaotic. And the more
children I had the more stressed I became. I noticed the block area and dramatic play area
were always so busy and always required a teacher to be there to monitor the issues that
would arise (too crowded, who was there first, who needs to go back and clean up, etc...).
- There were also inconsistencies between my co-teachers and I. I needed to have a set of
rules and routines for my classroom where not only the children followed but also my
teachers. (talk about velcro system)
- The velcro system eliminates wandering children, who needs to go back and clean up
etc…
87
Presenter Notes:
- Who has the most stickers on their “Sticker board?”
- Give away the 3 or 4 prizes…
- EVALUATIONS leave in the basket
- Thank you!
88
Appendix F.
How to Regulate Children’s Emotions Article
89
90
Appendix G.
Additional Resources Handout
91
92
Appendix H.
Children’s Book List from CSEFEL
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
Appendix I.
Promoting Emotional Competence Handout
100
101
Appendix J.
Workshop Evaluation
102
Workshop Evaluation
1=Strongly disagree
2=Disagree
3=Neutral
4=Agree
5=Strongly Agree
1
2
3
4
5
4
5
The presenters appeared knowledgeable about the topic
The presenter was well prepared for the workshop
(materials and time)
I learned something new from the workshop
I feel inspired and excited to try the new tools/ideas in the
classroom
1=Poor
2=Fair
3=Average
4=Good
5=Excellent
1
2
3
Value of presentation in meeting your needs
Expertise of presenter
Presentation techniques of the presenter
Your learning experience
Usefulness of handouts or other "take aways"
Clarity of objectives
Active involvement of participants in learning experience
Timeliness of the material presented
Use of practical examples
Overall rating of session
Would you recommend this workshop to others (circle one):
Why or why not?
Yes
No
103
What guidance could you give the presenter to improve this learning experience?
What did you learn today that you are most likely to try?
In what other topics are you interested?
104
REFERENCES
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