title: An evaluation of the relative efficacy of and children's preferences for teaching strategies that differ in amount of teacher directedness.
abstract: The manner in which teachers mediate children's learning varies across early childhood classrooms. In this study, we used a multielement design to evaluate the efficacy of three commonly implemented strategies that varied in teacher directedness for teaching color- and object-name relations. Strategy 1 consisted of brief exposure to the target relations followed by an exclusively child-led play period in which correct responses were praised. Strategy 2 was similar except that teachers prompted the children to vocalize relations and corrected errors via model prompts. Strategy 3 incorporated the same procedures as Strategy 2 except that a brief period of teacher-initiated trials was arranged; these trials involved the use of prompt delay between questions and prompts, and correct responses resulted in tokens and back-up activity reinforcers. Children's preferences for the different teaching strategies were also directly assessed. Strategy 3 was most effective in promoting the acquisition and generalization of the color- and object-name relations and was also most preferred by the majority of children, Strategy 1 was the least effective, and Strategy 2 was typically the least preferred. Implications for the design of early educational environments based on evidence-based values are discussed.
authors.affiliation: University of Kansas, USA.
authors.forename: Nicole A
authors.initials: NA
authors.lastname: Heal
authors.forename: Gregory P
authors.initials: GP
authors.lastname: Hanley
authors.forename: Stacy A
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Layer
mesh_terms: D002675:Child, Preschool; D002755:Choice Behavior; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D015588:Observer Variation; D011597:Psychomotor Performance; D013663:Teaching / Q000379:methods*; D014706:Verbal Learning