Kindergarten Readiness
Here’s an interesting study on perspective, perceptions, and how socioeconomic placement and ethnicity do or don’t affect parents’ beliefs about what constitutes “kindergarten readiness” for their progeny.
Apparently, the kids from families in which “authoritarian” rule is key are good with following the rules, but aren’t so quick with autonomy and inferring, both of which come in handy in life when you’re left to solve some problems on your own.
The other kids, who were raised by parents who feel that knowing all the stuff—letters, numbers, colors, etc.—is super important, were, not surprisingly, really ready in the “nominal skills” department.
However, as great as it is for the authoritarian kids to know how to behave and follow the rules, and for the nominal-skills kids to be able to recite lists of knowledge bits, it would be a far far better thing for both sets of kiddos to be able to kick some problem-solving ass, because life is partly about rule-following, and partly about knowing lots of stuff, but it’s mostly about grokking a problem and being able to solve it.
Research findings (via The Early Ed Watch Blog):
Research Findings: This study analyzed the school readiness beliefs of parents of 452 children from public pre-kindergarten and the relations of these beliefs to socio-economic status and children’s readiness skills. Parents conceived readiness largely in terms of the ability to name objects, letters, or numbers, but few included inferential skills. Readiness beliefs were related not to socioeconomic status but to ethnicity. Readiness beliefs about the importance of independence, social competence, nominal knowledge, and inferential skills were related in expected ways to children’s skills.
Practice or Policy: Infrequent inclusion of inferential skills among parents’ readiness beliefs may not bode well for children. Informational programs for parents about the critical role of higher order cognitive skills and ways to promote them are needed.
Posted by Alexa Harrington
image: joelle francht
