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UV9917H2 - Optimizing learning opportunities for students in
preschool and beyond
Organiser:Department of Education, UiO
Responsible: Joshua Lawrence and Veslemøy Rydland
Key Lecturers:Professor Carol McDonald Connor and Professor Deborah Lowe Vandell, University of California, Irvine, USA
Dates:September 7 and September 8, 2017
Time:September 7: 10:00-16:00, September 8: 9:00-15:00
Room:Lucy Smiths hus,Hannah Ryggenroom,10th floor, the University of Oslo, Blindern
PROGRAM:
Thursday September 7
10.00 – 11.30
Professor Deborah Lowe Vandell
Early Care and Education: Fade-out versus Persistent Effects? Short-Term and Long-Term Effects
The research evidence is compelling that early child care and education can have robust effects on children’s academic and behavioral development, but we also know that early childhood programs face challenges that limit their effectiveness. In this lecture, I first examine evidence of the short-term effects of early childhood programs, including consideration of the factors that support or impede program effectiveness. In the second half of the lecture, I turn to research that asks if there are long-term effects of early childhood programs on adolescent and adult outcomes. If effects persist, what are the processes that mediate and moderate these long-term effects?
11.45 – 12.15
Researcher Åste Hagen: Improving language comprehension in preschool children with language difficulties: a cluster randomized trial
12.15 – 13.00
Lunch
13.00 – 13.30
PhD Svitlana Kucherenko: Preschool teachers' talk during small-group interactive shared reading
13.45 – 14.15
Post doc Tone Kristine Hermansen: Child information seeking through exploration and inquiry
14.30 – 15.30
Professor Carol McDonald Connor
Using Technology to Personalize Instruction
In this presentation, I’ll go through the research on personalizing literacy and math instruction and discuss our newest endeavor, the OLOS observation system. This research shows that children who share the same classroom may have very different opportunities to learn based on the constellation of skills they bring to the classroom, particularly their language, literacy, math and self-regulation skills. Using assessment data to personalize the literacy and math instruction provided to students is more effective in improving their literacy, math, and self-regulation skills than more typical “one-size-fits-all” instruction seen in many US classrooms. The OLOS observation system is a low inference observation tool for pre-kindergarten through 3rd grade, which focuses on understanding learning opportunities provided to individual students. Still in development, we are planning for OLOS to be used to provide professional support to teachers as they strive to meet the learning needs of the children in their classrooms.
15.30 – 16.00
Summary of the day by Joshua Lawrence
Friday September 8
9.00-10.30
Professor Carol McDonald Connor
Building Content Knowledge and Metacognition to Improve Reading for Understanding
In this presentation, I’ll focus on the findings from our Reading for Understanding studies including three different interventions – CALI, ERC, and the Word Knowledge e-Book. CALI is designed to build kindergarten through fourth grade students’ (ages 5-10 years) knowledge about social studies and science, and how to read and comprehend disciplinary text. ERC (Enacted Reading Comprehension) uses principles of embodied cognition to help third and fourth grade students (ages 8-10 years) build mental simulations of a variety of texts. The Word Knowledge e-Book uses the affordances of technology to build word knowledge, word learning strategies, and word knowledge calibration for third through fifth grade students (8-11 years). Results from all three studies provided evidence for the lattice model of reading comprehension.
10.45 – 11.30
PhD Mia Heller: Enhancing language skills in young language minority learners: A curriculum-based intervention approach
11.30 – 12.15
Lunch
12.15 – 12.45
PhD Mari Hustad Sandøy: Preschool teachers' conversations about emotions during shared book-reading
13.00 – 13.30
PhDJo Inge J. Frøytlog:Participation patterns in dialogic whole-class discussions and digital technology: Towards a more nuanced understanding
13.45 – 14.45
Professor Deborah Lowe Vandell
Out-of-School Time: Expanding Learning Opportunities AND Reducing Achievement Gaps
Over a 20-year period, key ingredients of impactful afterschool programs have been identified. In this presentation, I’ll describe robust short-term effects of quality, intensity, and duration of out-of-school time (OST) programs on children’s social and academic development as well as evidence of meaningful long-term effects in these domains. Findings that low-income children may benefit the most from OST programs are presented along with emerging evidence that early child care and afterschool programs play unique and complementary roles. Collectively, these findings underscore the importance of out-of-school time as a developmental context that warrants further attention by researchers, educators, and policy makers.
14.45 -15.00
Conclusion by Professor Vibeke Grøver