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Connection Collection

Annotation from the Connection Collection

You are viewing a record from the Connection Collection, a searchable annotated bibliography database. It links you with research-based information that you can use to connect schools, families, and communities.

Annotation:
This studyÕs purpose is to describe specific practices teachers use to facilitate the transition to kindergarten and to identify perceived barriers to additional transition practices. The authors define ready schools as ones that engage in practices that are effective in helping children and families as they make the transition into kindergarten. Authors hypothesize that understanding the school, teacher, and classroom characteristics that are linked to optimal transition practices is important as educators work to improve transitions for young children. While there was no randomized assignment to groups, results indicate that, other than the beginning of the school year, teachers with more experience used fewer practices aimed at the whole group. Education level was not related to any of the measures of transition practice use. Teachers with primary certification used slightly more individualized practices, both before and after the beginning of the year, and also used more types of transition practices. The timing of class lists was significantly related to four of the types of transition practices. Teachers who received class lists earlier reported using more transition practices before the start of the school year and fewer transition practices after the beginning of the school year. The most common types of transition practices occurred after the beginning of the year and were aimed at the class as a whole. The study used data from the Transition Practices Survey, a nationally representative survey of 3,595 kindergarten teachers in public schools. The study tested the relations between transition practice use and various types of teacher preparation, teacher race/ethnicity, class size, and timing of class list generation. Findings encourage administrators to produce class lists earlier. Furthermore, teacher training is important since the largest differences were between teachers who had and had not received training in transition practices. One limitation of the study is that it was based on survey data, the findings may not be generalizable to all school contexts.

Suggested Citation Style:

• Early, D. M., Pianta, R. C., Taylor, L. C., & Cox, M. J. (2001). Transition practices: Findings from a national survey of Kindergarten teachers. Early Childhood Education Journal, 28(3), 199-206.