Promoting Partnerships with Parents in Preschool Programs: Does the Number of Classroom Sessions a Day Matter?

Authors

  • Paula Thompson University of Nebraska-Kearney
  • Christine Marvin University of Nebraska-Lincoln
  • Lisa Knoche University of Nebraska-Lincoln

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.55370/hsdialog.v20i1.760

Keywords:

teacher self-efficacy, parent engagement, Preschool, early childhood, parent-teacher relationships, class size

Abstract

Positive parent-teacher relationships are associated with positive child outcomes (Minke, 2010).  Teachers’ work contexts, such as the number of children/families each teacher serves each day/week and a teacher’s self-efficacy may influence teachers’ abilities to build those relationships.  Participants in this pilot study included families of children enrolled in publicly- funded preschool programs and their teachers.  To assess their perceptions of self-efficacy regarding parent-teacher relationships, preschool teachers completed the Teacher Efficacy for Promoting Partnerships Scale (Moen, Sheridan, & White, 2016).  Findings suggest that preschool programs using a single all-day session model with fewer children and families assigned per teacher, may permit teachers to more quickly establish partnerships with parents, or at least establish a confidence in working with parents sooner in the relationship than teachers assigned to teach to double (two half-day) sessions each day.

 

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Published

2017-12-20

Issue

Section

Research-to-Practice Summaries