Applying a Standardized Language and Literacy Observation Tool to a Different Pedagogical Environment: The Case of the Ultra-Orthodox Preschools Setting

Author(s):

Ronli Rotem(presenting / submitting)Dalia Ben-Rabi

Conference:

ECER 2012

Network:

07. Social Justice and Intercultural Education

Format:

Paper

Session Information

07 SES 04 B, Language and Culture

Parallel Paper Session

Time:

2012-09-19

09:00-10:30

Room:

ESI 3 - Aula 5

Chair:

Dana Moree

Contribution

The presentation will describe a preliminary application of the AmericanEarly Language and Literacy Classroom Observation tool (ELLCO Pre-K; Smith, Brady & Anastasopoulos, 2008) in a culturally and linguistically different pre-school environment. The study was conducted as part of an evaluation of a pilot training program in literacy and language development targeting 17 pre-school teachers in classes for boys, run within an Ultra-orthodox Jewish religious minority in Israel. The distinctive religious and cultural aspects characterizing this community play a large part in shaping the education of its children.

The Ultra-orthodox community places great emphasis on the study of religious scriptures. These are used, from preschools and onwards, for teaching how to read as well as for educating the pupils about moral issues and matters of everyday life. As reading and religious studies are of high priority, children begin to be taught reading skills as early as the age of three. In addition, children are taught more than one language. Traditionally, both everyday Hebrew and Yiddish (an Eastern-European Jewish dialect) are used in the community and these two languages also feature in the classrooms; at the same time, a higher level of Hebrew (the biblical dialect) is used for religious studies, and the 3 years olds are expected to learn that as well.

Teachers in the Ultra-orthodox pre-school for boys have religious education, but usually little formal pedagogical education in literacy and language development. Teaching methods are traditional and are generally based on the entire class repeating after the teacher. Relatively little time is spent on free or outdoors play because non-religious activities are considered unnecessary and sometimes inadequate; for the same reason, Ultra-orthodox preschools have little choice of toys or art materials, and they do not keep non-religious books. Although most Ultra-orthodox boys can read Hebrew competently by the age of 5 or 6, the characteristics described above led the program developers to create a language development training program for the pre-school teachers, aimed at enhancing their ability to promote the children's language skills.

The 'ELLCO Pre-K' was developed and tested in the US and was selected for the evaluation of the training program because its items reflected most accurately the training goals set by the program. Our aim was to apply this standardized international tool in a way that will enable us to study the linguistic environment of a distinctively different culture. At the same time it was also important not to miss any information regarding the contribution of the culture's inherent characteristics, as they are reflected in the educational setting, to the literacy development of its children.

Method

The 'ELLCO Pre-K' contains a total of 19 items organized into five main sections: classroom structure, curriculum, language environment, books and book reading, print and early writing. The tool was used to observe the literacy and language environment in 17 pre-school classrooms for boys. The observations were carried out by two pre-trained Ultra-orthodox education professionals, and lasted for four hours in each classroom. The use of an American observation tool in a culturally different educational setting required professional translation and careful-professional scrutiny of the terms used in the observation tool and their application, meaning and expression within the observed setting. For this reason the observers recruited were selected from within the community and were also professionally qualified in education. Once trained to conduct observations using the ELLCO Pre-K tool, the two observers acted as informants and were able to interpret and contextualize teaching practices in the classrooms for the purpose of adaptation. In the field, they were also asked to write 'thick descriptions' to compensate for items marked 'irrelevant' or 'not observed' in order to identify possible alternative practices that might correspond to the linguistic goals as defined by the ELLCO Pre-K.

Expected Outcomes

The observational data clearly show differences in the quality of the literacy environment between different settings, suggesting that the translated ELLCO Pre-K tool has a reasonably good discriminative power for differentiating between classrooms. It also enabled us to identify alternative classroom practices in high quality settings where certain items had been marked down. For example, scarcity of children books was noted on a number of items; however, the observations also revealed that this scarcity was supplemented by material written by the teachers. These materials were based on the religious scriptures and were used in the same manner as children books are used in secular pre-schools. This way, various genres were being introduced to the children, even without having non-religious books in the classroom. Yet more work needs to be done to re-standardize the ELLCO Pre-K instrument and adapt it for use in the Ultra-Orthodox community. The process of adapting and applying a culturally different tool unveiled some of the language environment's characteristics. This is in addition to the advantage in adapting an international tool for use with cultural minority groups (religious, linguistic, as well as immigrants) which enables us to include such groups in standardized evaluation processes and cross-cultural comparisons.

References

Butcher, J.; Derksen, J.; Sloore, H.; Sirigatti, S. (2003) Objective personality assessment of people in diverse cultures: European adaptations of the MMPI-2. Behaviour Research and Therapy 41 819–840 Carter Julie A., Lees Janet A., Murira Gladys M., Gona, Joseph, Neville Brian G. R. and Newton, Charles R. J. C. (2005) Issues in the development of cross-cultural assessments of speech and language for children. In: International Journal of Language & Communication Disorders. 40 (4) 385–401 Castro, D. C. (2005). Early Language and Literacy Classroom Observation. Addendum for English Language Learners. Chapel Hill. The University of North Carolina, FPG Child Development Institute. Fang Fang, C. (2008) What happens if we compare chopsticks with forks? The impact of making inappropriate comparisons in cross-cultural research. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 95(5) Grisay, Aletta; Monseur, Christian (2007) Measuring the Equivalence of Item Difficulty in the Versions of an International Test Studies. In: Educational Evaluation 33 69–86 Heo KH, Squires J, (2011) Cultural adaptation of a parent completed social emotional screening instrument for young children. Early Human Development. [Epub ahead of print] Mashburn, Andrew J.; Justice, Laura M.; Downer,Jason T.; Pianta, Robert C. 2009. "Effects on Children’s Language Achievement During Pre-Kindergarten" Child Development, 80, 3, 686–702 Mashburn, Andrew J.; Pianta, Robert C.; Hamre, Bridget K. ;Downer, Jason T.; Barbarin, Oscar A.; Bryant, Donna; Burchinal, Margaret; Early, Diane M.; Howes, Carollee. 2008. "Measures of Classroom Quality in Prekindergarten and Children’s Development of Academic, Language, and Social Skills" Child Development, 79(3) 732 – 749 Smith, M. W., Brady, J. P., & Anastasopoulos, L. (2008). Early Language & Literacy Classroom Observation Pre-K Tool. Baltimore, MD: Brookes Publishing. Van Widenfelt, B.M.; Treffers, P.D. A.; de Beurs, E.; Siebelink, B. M. and Koudijs, E. (2005), Translation and Cross-Cultural Adaptation of Assessment Instruments Used in Psychological Research With Children and Families. Clinical Child and Family Psychology Review, 8(2), 135-147

Author Information

Ronli Rotem (presenting / submitting)

The Myers-JDC-Brookdale Institute

chieldren and youth

Jerusalem

Dalia Ben-Rabi

The Myers-JDC-Brookdale Institute, Israel

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