In this article Morrison, McClelland, and Ponitz (2012) “examine self-regulation and its role in academic development, focusing on the transition to formal schooling” (p. 2).  It focuses on the links between behavioral and emotional self-regulation skills in relation to academic achievement noting the growing concerns and complaints of kindergarten teachers, “Kindergarten teachers agree that similar skills – like following directions, paying attention, and working independently – while critical for school success, are deficient in many children (McClelland, Morrison, & Holmes, 2000; Rimm-Kaufman, Pianta, & Cox, 2000)” (Morrison, McClelland, & Ponitz, 2012, p. 5).  This study also examines the terms behavior regulation and executive function.  I agree with this findings in this article that students with strong emotional and behavioral regulation skills, and executive functions tend to be more successful academically than those who lack these crucial skills.  “Considerable evidence links children’s effective management of their emotions to positive behavioral and academic outcomes (Eisenberg, Smith, Sadovsky, & Spinrad, 2004; Graziano, Reavis, Keane, & Calkins, 2006; Howse et al., 2003). In contrast, children who cannot control their emotions are more likely to act out, behave aggressively, and oppose the perspectives and requests of others (Graziano et al., 2006; Raver, 2004) (Morrison, et al., 2012, p. 7-8).

References:

Morrison, F., Ponitz, C., & McClelland, M. (2012). Self-regulation and academic achievement in the transition to school.

References:

Imholz, S., Petrosino, A. (2012). Beyond Comprehension. Creative Education, v3, n2, 185-192.

As increasing complaints of entering kindergarteners lack of self-regulation skills began to pour in, my district’s response was to change the prekindergarten curriculum from Success for All’s “Curiosity Corner” which is heavily focused on emergent literacy to “Tools of the Mind” which focuses heavily on self-regulation and incorporates academics as well.  This study evaluates the effectiveness of the Tools of the Mind curriculum from 2010-2012 in Tennessee and North Carolina.  I found this study interesting because this year it was brought to my attention, as the prekindergarten lead, that kindergarten teachers were complaining that Tools of the Mind had not been effective because they felt their entering kindergarteners still lacked self-regulation and emergent literacy and math skills.  However, many of our graduating Pre-K students transferred out or relocated to other schools in district.  Our 4 kindergarten classrooms only have about 8 to 10 of our Tools students. There are approximately 90 kindergarten students.  Also, the majority of their new students never attended prekindergarten programs where Tools of the Mind was used.  I found it interesting that the results of the study showed, “There were no differences between children in Tools classrooms and comparison classrooms on any measure of achievement, self-regulation or teacher ratings in Pre-K and kindergarten.”

Farran, D., & Lipsey, M. (2012). Experimental evaluation of the tools of the mind pre-k curriculum. 

Peabody Research Institute, Nashville, Tennessee.

Presently one of the biggest issues prekindergarten in my district is facing are the numerous complaints of the “ineffectiveness” of Tools of the Mind from kindergarten teachers in district.  In our defense, Tools is new to us as we just received the curriculum and initial trainings just last school year.  This curriculum was new to us as well as our students and we were still trying to find our way as trainings were usually rushed and or cut short due to trainings being half-day as opposed to full day trainings.  Even our trainers were complaining that they were not given enough time to properly and adequately train the teachers.  I found this article interesting because it focused on the effectiveness of the curriculum with regard to literacy, which was one of the main concerns kindergarten teachers have.

References:

Barnett, W. S., Jung, K., Yarosz, D., Thomas, J., & Hornbeck, A. (2008). Educational effects of the tools of the mind curriculum: a randomized study. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 23 (3), 299-313.


This study focuses on the implementation of Vygotsky’s approach to education preschool children with regard to self-regulation and emergent literacy.  I find this article to be very informational for me because it gives suggestions that are useful in my classroom. For example, Tools stresses scaffolding, private speech, and use of external mediators to name a few.  I especially appreciate the play-planning samples.

References:

Bodrova, E. & Leong, D. J. (2001). Tools of the mind: a case study of implementing the vygotskian approach in american early childhood and primary classrooms. International Bureau of Education,UNESCO, Geneva, Switzerland.

The majority of my students I usually have for two years, however, I do receive some students who are with me only one year.  I have always wondered if it made a difference whether students who had 2 years of prekindergarten leaned more towards academic achievement with regard to emergent literacy than students who only had one year of prekindergarten.  This study examines just that.  The study also takes into account the age of the students as well as how many years of prekindergarten they had.  The results show that “two years predicted greater gains overall than did one year of preschool” (Skibbe, et al., 2011, p. 42).  This study also discusses the importance of developing self-regulation along with academics on the prekindergarten level. 

Skibbe, L., McDonald Conner, C., Morrison, F. & Jewkes, A. (2010). Schooling effects on preschoolers’ self-regulation, early literacy, and language growth. Early Childhood Research Quarterly 26 (2011) 42 - 49.

This article discusses a study which examined “individual differences or characteristics of children, such as self-regulatory ability, that may influence both children’s ability to plan and the acquisition of skills that prepare them for formal schooling” (Less, 2008, p. 3).  I would like to improve self-regulation through the use of self-regulation activities of the new curriculum “Tools of the Mind” such as play-planning and graphics practice in an effort to improve my students’ kindergarten readiness.

References:

Less, Adam. (2008).  Relations between preschool children’s planning ability, self-regulation, and early literacy skills.  The Osprey Journal of Ideas and Inquiry at UNF Digital Commons, All Volumes (2001-2008), paper 10. 

References:

Diamond, A., Barnett, W.S., Thomas, J. & Monroe, S. (2007). Preschool program improves cognitive control. Science, v318, n5855, 1387-1388.

References:

Matthews, S. B. (2008). The relationship among self-regulation, sociodramatic play, and preschoolers’ readiness for kindergarten. Northeastern University.

References:

McClelland, M., McDonald Conner, C., Jewkes, A., Cameron, C., Farris, C. & Morrison, F. (2007). Links between behavioral regulation and preschoolers literacy, vocabulary, and math skills.