Cooperation Between Pre-schools And Primary Schools For A Continuous Language Education

Author(s):

Tanja Salem(presenting / submitting)

Conference:

ECER 2017

Network:

31. LEd – Network on Language and Education

Format:

Paper

Session Information

31 SES 07 A, Transitions, Co-operation and Contexts in Language Learning

Paper Session

Time:

2017-08-23

17:15-18:45

Room:

W4.24

Chair:

Eduardo García-Jiménez

Contribution

For more than 10 years Germany has invested in the German language education in pre-schools and in improving the transition from pre- to primary school, in order to promote the development of children's academic skills in the transition phase (Faust und Roßbach 2014). Likewise, in other European countries (and e.g. the USA) great efforts were made to promote continuity in the educational process at this transition (Dunlop und Fabian 2007). The need for developing this educational field is still highly topical:

“Differences in German vocabulary and grammar skills caused by different social backgrounds are already discernible in the age of five. […] This clearly shows that there are already manifest differences in linguistic competence at pre-school age, and that it remains an urgent task to overcome these differences” (Education in Germany 2014, p. 16).

The implementation of an integrated and continuous language education is a nationwide educational aim (Gogolin et al. 2011). The subject of the present qualitative-empirical comparative case study is the cooperation between pre-schools and primary schools for a continuous language education. It is based on the discourse on educational equality from an intercultural education point of view, which focuses on terms and conditions for an educational practice that is confronted with linguistic diversity and aims to respond to challenges that arise from this situation, without excluding certain groups of children. Research on multilingual language acquisition shows that acquiring academic language skills is a process, which starts before formal schooling. It underpins the need for continuity in language education across the educational cycle. Research from an ecological perspective of human development (Bronfenbrenner, 1981; Rimm-Kaufman and Pianta 2000) assumes that the collaboration between pre-and primary schools serves to promote children’s development and acquisition of (academic) skills. The development depends on the relationships between pre- and primary school teachers, children and teachers, and parents and teachers. Moreover, research on networks and cooperation in the educational field (Fussangel und Gräsel 2012) points to the relevance of individual characteristics of teachers and institutional characteristics and conditions for cooperation. Regarding the letter aspect, ecological orientated concepts indicate the importance of leaders/ leadership for good ECEC and institutional development (Hujala 2013).

Most previous studies examined transition practices (Dunlop und Fabian 2007). Some studies thereby took into account the role of leaders for the interinstitutional cooperation (Rathmer 2012), only a few considered teacher characteristics as well as school composition (Early et al. 2001). Less studies concentrated on the relations between transition practices and the development of academic skills, for example language skills (Ahtola et al. 2011; Faust et al. 2013; LoCasale-Crouch et al. 2008).

According to the current state of research, for the German context there is a lack of research on the cooperation between pre- and primary schools, which sustains the language acquisition of (multilingual) children in the transition phase. Subsequently, the study on “Cooperation between pre-schools and primary schools” concentrated on the questions: How do pre-schools and primary schools cooperate for a continuous language education? Under which conditions do they cooperate? How good do they cooperate under these conditions? The aim of the study was to find out the characteristics of the cooperation between pre- and primary schools, which contributes to the acquisition of language skills in the transition phase.

Method

The study took place in the context of a Hamburg based project (2010 - 2013). 17 primary schools and 28 pre-schools – located in socially deprived districts with a high percentage of multilingual children – participated in the project. The educational institutions worked together in so called ‘development partnerships’ (one primary school and up to three pre-schools). The third research question was the starting point for the data collection, which was conducted from November 2012 to July 2014. The sample was built following the approach of the maximum contrast (Kelle und Kluge 2010). For this, it could be drawn on the results of the project evaluation (Institute for Teacher Training and School Development Hamburg; Hildebrand et al. 2012). Within the evaluation, the language development of the children was surveyed longitudinally. Four cases (partnerships) were included: two ‘successful’ partnerships, in which the children showed the highest, and two ‘less successful’ partnerships, in which the children showed the lowest language learning progress compared to the average. It was assumed that the transition practices, individual and institutional characteristics of ‘successful’ partnerships differ systematically from those of ‘less successful’ partnerships. Pre-school teachers and primary school teachers, who were responsible for the cooperation, and pre- and primary school leaders participated in the study (15 persons). The research project followed a qualitative, subject centred approach (Flick 2011). In order to answer the research questions different research methods were applied: non-participating observation of teacher meetings, semi-structured interview on teacher-, and pre-school/ primary school-level, a communicative validation of the findings, and a paper and pencil questionnaire on teacher-, and pre-school/primary school-level. All methods were developed considering theory on the subject of the study and methods used in previous studies. The data in the respective partnership were collected over several months. Thus, the development of the cooperation over time could be taken into account. The data analysis followed the qualitative content analysis. It was guided by the theory-based categories. During the process, new categories were deduced from the empirical data (Kuckartz 2014). In order to examine the characteristics of the cooperation which contributes to children’s language acquisition process, the rule was framed that there is a difference between the ‘successful’ and the ‘less successful’ partnerships only when both partnerships of each group show the respective characteristic. Additionally, data on the pre-/primary school level and the teacher level were included, using descriptive statistical methods.

Expected Outcomes

The study identified the following four characteristics of a ‘successful’ cooperation: - A division of responsibilities between pre-school and primary school leaders and teachers. That means that the leaders focused on management tasks in order to enable the cooperation rather than on the planning of transition activities and their implementation. The leaders deployed qualified teachers for the continuous language education in the transition phase. - The planning and implementation of transition practices by teachers, who were responsible for language education in the respective institution. - The shared goal to promote children’s literacy skills and to involve parents in the transition practices. - The implementation of a variety of transition practices between and activities in the respective institution, which focused on the literacy education of a specific group of children in the transition phase and parental involvement. The teachers thereby considered the results from language skills diagnosis of individual children. Literacy education was the core content of the transition practices on the teacher-teacher, the child-teacher and the parents-teacher level. The study underpins and specifies the role of leaders/ leadership for the cooperation between pre- and primary schools for a continuous language education, in particular the management functions and administrative tasks, and the vision for a good ECEC (Hujala 2013). It shows the relevance of a defined strategy of an integrated and continuous language education (Gogolin et al. 2011) in the respective institution and between the institutions. Furthermore, the findings reflect successful relationships between the family, the pre-school, and the primary school, as defined by Rimm-Kaufman and Pianta (2000). In agreement with previous research (Scheele 2010; McElvany et al. 2010), the current study points to the assumption that (home) literacy activities and programs, which combine parental involvement and literacy instruction, sustain children’s (academic) language acquisition process in the transition phase.

References

Ahtola, Annarilla; Silinskas, Gintautas; Poikonen, Pirjo-Liisa; Kontoniemi, Marita; Niemi, Pekka; Nurmi, Jari-Erik (2011): Transition to formal schooling: Do transition practices matter for academic performance? In: Early Childhood Research Quarterly 26 (3), S. 295–302. Dunlop, Aline-Wendy; Fabian, Hilary (2007): Informing transitions in the early years. Research, policy and practice. Maidenhead: McGraw-Hill/Open University Press. Early, Diane; Pianta, Robert C.; Taylor, Lorraine C.; Cox, Martha J. (2001): Transition Practices: Findings from a National Survey of Kindergarten Teachers. In: Early Childhood Education Journal 28 (3), S. 199–206. Faust, Gabriele; Kratzmann, Jens; Wehner, Franziska (2013): Psychosoziale Probleme und Erfolg bei der Einschulung. In: Gabriele Faust (Hg.): Einschulung. Ergebnisse aus der Studie "Bildungsprozesse, Kompetenzentwicklung und Selektionsentscheidungen im Vorschul- und Schulalter (BiKS)". Münster u.a.: Waxmann, S. 251–273. Faust, Gabriele; Roßbach, Hans-Günther (2014): Herkunft und Bildungserfolg beim Übergang vom Kindergarten in die Grundschule. In: Z Erziehungswiss 17 (S2), S. 119–140. Flick, Uwe (2011): Qualitative Sozialforschung. Eine Einführung. Orig.-Ausg., vollst. überarb. und erw. Neuausg. Reinbek bei Hamburg: Rowohlt-Taschenbuch-Verl. Fussangel, Kathrin; Gräsel, Cornelia (2012): Lehrerkooperation aus Sicht der Bildungsforschung. In: Elisabeht Baum, Till-Sebastian Idel und Heiner Ullrich (Hg.): Kollegialität und Kooperation in der Schule. Theoretische Konzepte und empirische Befunde. 51 Bände. Wiesbaden: VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, S. 29–40. Gogolin, Ingrid; Dirim, Inci; Klinger, Thorsten; Lange, Imke; Lengyel, Drorit; Michel, Ute et al. (Hg.) (2011): Förderung von Kindern und Jugendlichen mit Migrationshintergrund FörMig. Bilanz und Perspektiven eines Modellprogramms. Münster u.a.: Waxmann. Hildebrand, Claudia; Heckt, Meike; May, Peter (2012): FörMig-Transfer Hamburg. Diagnosegestützte durchgängige Sprachbildung an der Schnittstelle zwischen Elementar- und Primarbereich. Bericht über die Ausgangslagenerhebung zur Evaluation. Hamburg. Kelle, Udo; Kluge, Susann (2010): Vom Einzelfall Zum Typus. Fallvergleich und Fallkontrastierung in der qualitativen Sozialfurschung. 2., überarbeitete: Vs Verlag Fur Sozialwissenschaften. Kuckartz, Udo (2014): Qualitative Inhaltsanalyse. Methoden, Praxis, Computerunterstützung. 2. Aufl. Weinheim, Bergstr: Beltz Juventa. LoCasale-Crouch, Jennifer; Mashburn, Andrew J.; Downer, Jason T.; Pianta, Robert C. (2008): Pre-kindergarten teachers’ use of transition practices and children's adjustment to kindergarten. In: Early Childhood Research Quarterly 23 (1), S. 124–139. McElvany, Nele; Herppich, Stephanie; van Steensel, Roel; Kurvers, Jeanne (2010): Zur Wirksamkeit familiärer Frühförderungsprogramme im Bereich Literacy - Ergebnisse einer Meta-Analyse. In: Zeitschrift für Pädagogik 56 (2), S. 178–192. Rathmer, Benedikt A. (2012): Kita und Grundschule: Kooperation und Übergangsgestaltung. Konzeptionen - Empirische Bestandsaufnahme - Perspektiven. Münster: Waxmann (Internationale Hochschulschriften, 575). Scheele, Anna F. (2010): Home language and mono- and bilingual children's emergent adademic language: A longitudinal study of Dutch, Moroccan-Dutch, and Turkish-Dutsch 3-to 6-year-olds. Enschede.

Author Information

Tanja Salem (presenting / submitting)

Freudenberg Stiftung

Hamburg

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