Cargando…

Executive Functions and Quality of Classroom Interactions in Kindergarten Among 5–6-Year-Old Children

According to international longitudinal studies, the quality of preschool education is of great importance for children’s further development. The modern research’s greatest interest in the field of studying the quality of preschool education is precisely the assessment of the relationship between t...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Veraksa, Aleksander, Bukhalenkova, Daria, Almazova, Olga
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7714336/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33329274
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.603776
_version_ 1783618734222475264
author Veraksa, Aleksander
Bukhalenkova, Daria
Almazova, Olga
author_facet Veraksa, Aleksander
Bukhalenkova, Daria
Almazova, Olga
author_sort Veraksa, Aleksander
collection PubMed
description According to international longitudinal studies, the quality of preschool education is of great importance for children’s further development. The modern research’s greatest interest in the field of studying the quality of preschool education is precisely the assessment of the relationship between the teacher and children as well as the teaching quality in kindergarten groups. In this regard, the Classroom Assessment Scoring System (CLASS) seems to be the one of the most relevant for the educational environment quality evaluation. The CLASS methodology (which includes emotional support, classroom organization, and instrumental support) is based on the cultural-historical approach, which shows the interaction between students and adults as the main mechanism for child’s development. The aim of this study is to investigate the relationships between different aspects of the classroom organization quality in kindergarten groups and executive functions components (such as cognitive flexibility, inhibitory control, and working memory) in 5–6-year-old children. The quality of classroom interaction was measured by the CLASS. The study used the Dimensional Change Card Sort (DCCS) method to assess cognitive flexibility and the NEPSY-II subtests “Inhibition” to assess inhibitory control and “Memory for Designs” and “Sentences Repetition” to assess visuo-spatial and verbal working memory, respectively. The study was approved by the Ethics Committee of the Faculty of Psychology at Lomonosov Moscow State University. The study involved 26 kindergarten groups in Moscow. While conducting the research, extreme groups were identified (5 with low quality and 10 with high-quality levels of classroom interaction). Then, three kindergarten groups with low level (65 children) and three groups with high level (68 children) of interaction within classroom were selected and compared. The results revealed that children from groups with low level of classroom interaction have higher results in cognitive flexibility tasks when compared with children from groups with high level of interaction. Also, children from groups with high-quality classroom interaction demonstrated higher results in visuo-spatial working memory tasks and inhibitory control tasks as contrasted with children from low-quality groups. These findings attest to the importance of classroom interaction quality for the executive functions development in the preschool age.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-7714336
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2020
publisher Frontiers Media S.A.
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-77143362020-12-15 Executive Functions and Quality of Classroom Interactions in Kindergarten Among 5–6-Year-Old Children Veraksa, Aleksander Bukhalenkova, Daria Almazova, Olga Front Psychol Psychology According to international longitudinal studies, the quality of preschool education is of great importance for children’s further development. The modern research’s greatest interest in the field of studying the quality of preschool education is precisely the assessment of the relationship between the teacher and children as well as the teaching quality in kindergarten groups. In this regard, the Classroom Assessment Scoring System (CLASS) seems to be the one of the most relevant for the educational environment quality evaluation. The CLASS methodology (which includes emotional support, classroom organization, and instrumental support) is based on the cultural-historical approach, which shows the interaction between students and adults as the main mechanism for child’s development. The aim of this study is to investigate the relationships between different aspects of the classroom organization quality in kindergarten groups and executive functions components (such as cognitive flexibility, inhibitory control, and working memory) in 5–6-year-old children. The quality of classroom interaction was measured by the CLASS. The study used the Dimensional Change Card Sort (DCCS) method to assess cognitive flexibility and the NEPSY-II subtests “Inhibition” to assess inhibitory control and “Memory for Designs” and “Sentences Repetition” to assess visuo-spatial and verbal working memory, respectively. The study was approved by the Ethics Committee of the Faculty of Psychology at Lomonosov Moscow State University. The study involved 26 kindergarten groups in Moscow. While conducting the research, extreme groups were identified (5 with low quality and 10 with high-quality levels of classroom interaction). Then, three kindergarten groups with low level (65 children) and three groups with high level (68 children) of interaction within classroom were selected and compared. The results revealed that children from groups with low level of classroom interaction have higher results in cognitive flexibility tasks when compared with children from groups with high level of interaction. Also, children from groups with high-quality classroom interaction demonstrated higher results in visuo-spatial working memory tasks and inhibitory control tasks as contrasted with children from low-quality groups. These findings attest to the importance of classroom interaction quality for the executive functions development in the preschool age. Frontiers Media S.A. 2020-11-19 /pmc/articles/PMC7714336/ /pubmed/33329274 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.603776 Text en Copyright © 2020 Veraksa, Bukhalenkova and Almazova. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Psychology
Veraksa, Aleksander
Bukhalenkova, Daria
Almazova, Olga
Executive Functions and Quality of Classroom Interactions in Kindergarten Among 5–6-Year-Old Children
title Executive Functions and Quality of Classroom Interactions in Kindergarten Among 5–6-Year-Old Children
title_full Executive Functions and Quality of Classroom Interactions in Kindergarten Among 5–6-Year-Old Children
title_fullStr Executive Functions and Quality of Classroom Interactions in Kindergarten Among 5–6-Year-Old Children
title_full_unstemmed Executive Functions and Quality of Classroom Interactions in Kindergarten Among 5–6-Year-Old Children
title_short Executive Functions and Quality of Classroom Interactions in Kindergarten Among 5–6-Year-Old Children
title_sort executive functions and quality of classroom interactions in kindergarten among 5–6-year-old children
topic Psychology
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7714336/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33329274
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.603776
work_keys_str_mv AT veraksaaleksander executivefunctionsandqualityofclassroominteractionsinkindergartenamong56yearoldchildren
AT bukhalenkovadaria executivefunctionsandqualityofclassroominteractionsinkindergartenamong56yearoldchildren
AT almazovaolga executivefunctionsandqualityofclassroominteractionsinkindergartenamong56yearoldchildren