Papers by sherron roberts
Reading Horizons, 2017
Writing circles are “small groups . . . meeting regularly to share drafts, choose common writing ... more Writing circles are “small groups . . . meeting regularly to share drafts, choose common writing topics, practice positive response, and in general, help each other become better writers” (Vopat, 2009, p. 6). In this exploratory study, writing circles were employed with elementary teacher candidates in hopes of enhancing their perceptions about writing and authorship. This mixed methods pilot used a convenience sample of 28 teacher candidates in a language arts methods course. Based on interest and using writing workshop elements, weekly writing circles were formed and generated one collaborative manuscript. Afterward, 68% of candidates reported improvement in writing skills. Retrospective responses were analyzed and coded to reveal the following themes: ideas, relationships, choice, improvement, and feedback. Furthermore, 96% of candidates reported enthusiasm for using writing circles in their future classrooms.
Journal of School Health
ABSTRACTBackgroundPhysical activity (PA) improves outcomes, but disadvantaged children typically ... more ABSTRACTBackgroundPhysical activity (PA) improves outcomes, but disadvantaged children typically experience more sedentary behavior (SB). This study explored movement, executive function (EF) health, and academic achievement (AA) for economically disadvantaged kindergarteners.MethodsChildren in 2 classrooms (n = 16; n = 7) wore wrist‐based accelerometers to assess PA/SB during the school day. Independent t‐tests and analysis of variance analyzed mean group differences in PA/SB and EF/AA, and correlations explored AA and EF associations.ResultsThe movement‐based class spent significantly less time in SB compared to the contemporary class (t = 2.552, g = 1.115), made greater reading (t = −2.611) and math (t = .967) gains, and had better EF (t = .012). There were significant negative correlations between SB and math (r = −.534) and reading (r = −.592), but no significant relationships with EF.Implications for School Health Policy, Practice, and EquitySchools should consider methods to ...
International Journal for Educational and Vocational Guidance
Early Childhood Education Journal
Early Education and Development
International journal for educational and vocational guidance, Aug 7, 2023
Journal of Computing in Teacher Education, Mar 5, 2014
Abstract This paper describes the process of faculty development in technology and their subseque... more Abstract This paper describes the process of faculty development in technology and their subsequent pilot project with preservice teachers using a technology-rich integrated curriculum surrounding environmental studies. By highlighting the invisible strands of technology use in a seamless curriculum for preservice teachers, the authors, a group of teacher educators at a large state university, were able to provide the necessary support, encouragement, and grounds for developing technology infusion with their preservice teachers. The authors provide further explanation of the innovative and progressive slant of the integration model, the training and writing workshops for faculty, and the results of the pilot project with preservice teachers.
This manuscript explores representations of protagonists of various multicultural backgrounds in ... more This manuscript explores representations of protagonists of various multicultural backgrounds in three transitional series. Prior studies, such as Gangi (2008) and Green and Hopenwasser (2017), exposed the deficiencies of multicultural literature in elementary classrooms, particularly among transitional series books. Green and Hopenwasser emphasize the developmental importance of equal representation in transitional books with characters of diverse ethnicities, because they act as mirrors and windows for students to learn, grow, and reflect. These studies argue that in order to allow children to see themselves and to develop a positive self-image in primary grades, it is critical for teachers to be thoughtful while choosing series books. For the purposes of this study, to explore ethnic and racial representations of protagonists with the actual demographics of third graders, researchers conducted an equity audit on three transitional series, published across different decades and c...
Childhood education, Mar 4, 2017
Mindfulness and meditation programs, and their associated benefits for education, can be examined... more Mindfulness and meditation programs, and their associated benefits for education, can be examined within three related disciplines: psychology, elementary education, and exceptional education. A review of psychology research provides evidence that meditation and mindfulness work to balance the often negative effects of students' socialemotional environments, stress, anxiety, and even poverty. Elementary education research documents positive outcomes of mindfulness meditation with elementary students. Finally, the discipline of exceptional education highlights the positive benefits of mindfulness and meditation programs on students with learning disabilities, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, and autism spectrum disorder. Overall, the advantages as corroborated across disciplines encourage use of mindfulness and meditation exercises or schoolwide programs to achieve improved student behavior and academic benefits.
Early Childhood Education Journal, Sep 23, 2020
This study examined the moral discourse of 79 dyads of Taiwanese parents and children during shar... more This study examined the moral discourse of 79 dyads of Taiwanese parents and children during shared storybook readings and the associations with children’s cognitive and affective moral attributions. This study involved four- to six-year-old children who participated in a receptive language test and a moral reasoning task. Their responses were analyzed to determine the levels of moral reasoning including both their cognitive moral judgment and their affective attribution. After the tests, the parent–child dyads participated in shared storybook reading sessions using two moral-related storybooks. The utterances of the parents and their children were recorded and coded to analyze how they described, discussed, and evaluated moral experiences engendered by the story’s protagonist. Study results show that parents’ dominant type of moral discourse was teaching an expected moral behavior to the child, followed by a moral evaluation of the child’s personality. When discussing the protagonist’s moral experience, parents produced more extended descriptions and explanations to discuss their children’s own experiences. Aligning with the emerging integrated cognition–emotion perspective in moral development research, hierarchical regression analysis results showed that the parents’ moral discourse that was explanatory and extended to the child’s own experiences was associated with the child’s moral reasoning levels of affective attribution, even when controlled for age and language ability. Based on this Taiwanese sample, the findings of this study contribute to the literature on parental discourse and moral development in young children.
Childhood education, Jan 2, 2017
Journal of Child and Family Studies, Nov 28, 2020
This study investigated the association between parents' perceptions of home-school partnership a... more This study investigated the association between parents' perceptions of home-school partnership and parental satisfaction with preschool services using data collected from 532 preschoolers' parents in Guangdong Province, China. We explored the moderating role of parents' childrearing beliefs as an important factor exerting influence on parental satisfaction with preschools. The hierarchical linear regression results revealed that home-school partnership positively predicted parental satisfaction with preschool services in four subscales: Views about administration, Quality of learning environments, Teacher qualifications, and Child-appropriate learning. In particular, parents' progressive childrearing beliefs exerted a positive moderating role on the relationship between high-level home-school partnership and parental satisfaction with administration and environment quality of preschools. Moreover, childrearing beliefs also exerted a positive moderating role on the relationship between low-level home-school partnership and parental satisfaction; parents with authoritarian childrearing beliefs tended to be more satisfied with preschool teacher qualifications. Findings are discussed in light of previous literature and the Chinese sociocultural context, followed by recommendations for improving preschool services. Keywords Home-school partnership • Parental satisfaction • Preschool services • Childrearing beliefs • China Highlights • Home-school partnership positively predicted parental satisfaction towards preschool services. • Parents' progressive childrearing beliefs moderated the relationship between home-school partnership and parental satisfaction towards preschool. • Parents' traditional childrearing beliefs moderated the relationship between home-school partnership and parental satisfaction towards teachers.
International journal of play, May 4, 2019
Recent shifts in elementary instruction over the past few decades have resulted in less play-base... more Recent shifts in elementary instruction over the past few decades have resulted in less play-based engagement in schools. Simultaneously, children are being referred for counseling or mental health services at startling rate. As members of elementary school leadership teams, counselors are often in a unique position to advocate for the best interests of children's overall well-being and to support school faculty in best meeting their needs. This article presents a Continuum of Play inclusive of play-based mental health services for children and instructional play approaches facilitated by classroom teachers. This continuum is intended to be a tool for school counselors to aid teachers in deciphering appropriate levels of developmentally appropriate, play-based classroom interventions with children who may present with academic or behavioral challenges before recommending a clinical therapeutic approach. We believe when children have more opportunities to engage in age-appropriate playful learning, the need for mental health supports may decrease.
Journal of Research in Childhood Education, Jun 12, 2019
Children living in poverty frequently enter kindergarten lacking critical cognitive, academic, an... more Children living in poverty frequently enter kindergarten lacking critical cognitive, academic, and social-emotional skills, and this gap predictably widens through 12th grade. Several researchers have developed intervention programs intended to close the academic gap by building foundational curricular skills. These interventions may not be the most efficacious methods to address student needs. Given recent efforts to establish early childhood education standards and the implicit push to close learning and achievement gaps, it is important to identify research-based interventions for practitioners and decision makers. The purpose of this systematic review of empirical literature, reduced from 115 to 19 articles, was to identify research related to specific pedagogical and instructional approaches used to impact poverty's effects on elementary children's academic performance. The results of all 19 studies support emerging research suggesting that executive function is negatively impacted by poverty, highly malleable in early childhood, and strongly predictive of academic success when children enter school. Focusing on developing these skills, in addition to specific disciplinary skills, may help young at-risk learners gain a significant advantage in school.
Teaching and Teacher Education, Feb 1, 2018
h i g h l i g h t s Thirty Chinese teachers' instructional strategies in whole-group language les... more h i g h l i g h t s Thirty Chinese teachers' instructional strategies in whole-group language lessons. Teachers failed to intentionally or consistently provide instructional supports. Only Analysis & Reasoning could stimulate children's high-level cognitive answers. Improve teachers' intentionality in providing quality instructional strategies.
Dimensions of Early Childhood, 2010
Teaching and Teacher Education, Feb 1, 2021
Abstract This study examined 69 Chinese preschool teachers’ use of feedback strategies in their m... more Abstract This study examined 69 Chinese preschool teachers’ use of feedback strategies in their math lessons. Guided by the Initiation-Response-Follow-up (IRF) framework, math lessons were coded using quality feedback strategies in CLASS (CLASS-PreK; Pianta et al., 2008). Specifically, the frequency of teachers’ feedback strategies as well as their effectiveness of engaging children in higher-order thinking were examined. Results showed that teachers were quite familiar with the use of feedback strategies such as recognition, back-and-forth exchanges, and teacher persistence. Moreover, in terms of promoting children’s critical thinking, teachers were ineffective when scaffolding and querying children’s responses and actions.
Early Childhood Education Journal, Apr 13, 2022
Learning, Culture and Social Interaction, Sep 1, 2018
Pianta (2007), three domains of teacher-child interactions matter most to children's social and a... more Pianta (2007), three domains of teacher-child interactions matter most to children's social and academic development in early childhood settings: Emotional Support (ES), Classroom Organization (CO), and Instructional Support (IS). Among the three domains, Instructional Support, which focuses on how teachers use effective strategies to improve children's cognitive and language development, shows the strongest predictive power of children's short-and long-term cognitive and language development (Pianta et al., 2009; Sabol et al., 2013). As an important domain of teacher-child interactions, Instructional Support, provides children with different opportunities to develop their cognitive and language skills (Hamre & Pianta, 2007; Pianta, LaParo, & Hamre, 2008). Further, Instructional Support is divided into three dimensions of effective teaching strategies: (1) engaging children in knowledge acquisition and transforming processes to develop their higher-order thinking skills (Mayer, 2002; Peterson & French, 2008); (2) increasing children's understanding and participation by providing specific information on their performance or effort (Barnett et al., 2008; La Paro, Pianta, & Stuhlman, 2004); and (3) encouraging children to converse with teachers and peers to enrich and extend their use of vocabulary and to develop their language skills (
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Papers by sherron roberts