Shortening Transition Times in a Preschool Classroom

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Shortening Transition Times
Kirsten Short
901-258-6770
U00118301

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Research Question
 How can I use precorrecting, active supervision, and positive
feedback to shorten transition times and optimize teaching time?

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Problem Context & Rationale
 Grew up in Memphis, TN
 Homeschooled, PK-8th Grade
 Public School, 9th-12th Grade
 Bachelor of Professional Studies
 Legal Studies
 University of Memphis, 2009
 Master of Arts in Teaching
 Instruction and Curriculum Leadership (K-6 Education)
 University of Memphis, 2014
 3 Years Experience as Kindergarten Teacher
 Montessori School
Who I am as a professional

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Problem Context & Rationale
 Pre-Kindergarten Teacher (Afternoon Teacher)
 Co-Educational Episcopal School, PK-8th Grade
 Accreditations
 National Association for the Education of Young Children
 National Association of Independent Schools
 National Association of Episcopal Schools
 Southern Association of Independent Schools
 Demographics of Students
 Gender
 68% Male
 32% Female
 Race
 90.4% Caucasian
 7.8% African American
 1.7% Latin American
Context & setting of my work

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Problem Context & Rationale
 I would like to improve my attention grabbing skills and be better
prepared for classroom transitions
 Difficult for some students to find a “stopping place”
 Some children may not respond to transition queues at all
 They get frustrated because they do not understand time
 Difficult to get all children interested in same activity
 Different children distracted by different classroom materials
 Some children wanted to keep doing previous activity
 Difficult to keep children focused during transitions
 Children walk to bathroom, cubbies, materials, teacher desk, etc.
 Opens opportunities for misbehavior among students
How my research question relates to my work context

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Setting & Participants
 Setting
 School
 Located in historical neighborhood in Memphis, TN
 Founded in 1947, now has over 500 students
 Classroom
 Located in preschool converted from historical home
 Earthy tones, such as mossy green and tan used throughout
 Participants
 Teachers
 3 teachers in this classroom: 2 morning, 1 afternoon (me)
 Students
 14 Students: 6 half-day students, 8 full-day students
 Ages 3.6-4.3

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Professional Knowledge Base
 Tennessee Licensure Standards
 Use an understanding of individual and group motivation and behavior to create a
learning environment that encourages positive social interaction, active engagement in
learning, and self-motivation
 Professional Education, Standard 5
 Know about and use systematic observations, documentation, and other assessment
strategies in a responsible way
 Content Area Standards, Early Childhood Education, Standard 3
 Teachers communicate high expectations and provide effective feedback for students.
 Candidate Standards, Learning Expectations-Instruction, Standard 4
 Shelby County Schools Teacher Effectiveness Measure
 “Transitions are generally smooth with some teacher direction”
 3 (Meeting Expectations)
 “Transitions are orderly, efficient, systematic, and require little teacher direction”
 4 (Above Expectations)or 5 (Significantly Above Expectations)
Relevant Standards

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Professional Knowledge Base
 Create daily schedules and establish classroom routines in order to
increase classroom predictability (Kern & Clemens, 2007).
 All teacher commands should consist of calm and brief DO statements
(rather than DON’T statements)
 Use clear and simple language and deliver one command at a time
 Precorrect behaviors that may be problems during upcoming
transition (Sprick, Garrison, and Howard, 1998)
 Actively supervise during transition by guiding and redirecting students as
they transition
 Offer positive feedback to students after transitions
Best Practices

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Professional Knowledge Base
 3- to 4-year-old’s are struggling with Autonomy vs. Shame and Doubt in the Will stage
(Erikson, 1950)
 “Is it OK to be me?”
 is it OK for me to do, move, and act?
 Piaget’s Developmental Theory, children between the ages of two and four are in the
Preoperational Stage (1969)
 Not yet able to grasp concrete symbols
 Use symbolic play to better understand the world around them
 Bandura’s Social Learning Theory (1977), which states that people learn from one
another via imitation and observation
 Four components for modeling to take place
 Attention
 Retention
 Reproduction
 Motivation
Research & Theory

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Description of Action Plan
 The goal of this research project was to improve my classroom
management skills to shorten transition times
 Sprick, Garrison, & Howard’s (1998) strategy of precorrecting, using
active supervision, and giving feedback to teach my students how to
transition quickly
 Conducted a daily review of classroom rules and expectations,
posted and reviewed the schedule daily (Technical Assistance and
Training System, 2010)
 Doubled the amount of positive language I used in the classroom
(Sprick, Garrison, Howard, 1998)

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ACTION PLAN
 Week 1 – Observed transitional behaviors of students
 Week 2 – Used a calendar, timer, and other tools to make concept of time more concrete
 Outlined expectations, modeled transitional behavior, gave positive feedback after each transition
 Week 3 – Reinforced strategies and continued using new tools for time
 Outlined expectations, modeled transitional behavior, gave positive feedback after each transition
 Week 4 – Reinforced strategies and continued using new tools for time
 Outlined expectations, modeled transitional behavior, gave positive feedback after each transition
 Week 5 – Handed over responsibility for transitional behavior to students
 Students outlined expectations for transitions and modeled transitional behavior for one another
 I gave positive feedback after each transition
 Week 6 – Observed transitional behaviors of students

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Description of Data Collection
 Documented time students spent in transitions as well as in
academic learning time
 Academic Learning Time Sheet
 Classroom Transitions Time Sheet
 Research Journal
 Kept track of how many positive statements I used and the negative
student behaviors I observed during transitions
 Positive Statement Log Sheet
 Negative Behavior Log Sheet
 Weekly assessments of the academic material covered
 Weekly Assessments (student interviews)

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Analysis & Findings
 I recorded the time spent in
academic learning time
 Then I compared this data against
the weekly student interviews
 In order to do this, I counted the
number of “M”’s (mastery) earned
by the whole class each week
 Students identified various
letters and numbers in a
student-teacher interview
assessment
Week Total Academic Learning Time
Per Day
1 1:30 hours
6 2:24 hours
Week Mastery of Concept
1 7 out of 12 students
6 10 out of 12 students

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Analysis & Findings
 Classroom Transitions Timesheet
Week
Total
Transition
Time
Average
Transition Time
1 2:30 hours 9 minutes
6 1:36 hours 2 minutes
Positive Statements Transition Times
Week Average Number of
Positive Statements
Each Day
1 50
6 146
• I recorded the number of positive statements I made to students
throughout the day
• I also recorded the length of each transition time throughout the day
• I then added how much time we spent in transitions and divided it by
the number of transitions

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Analysis & Findings
 Relationship of Data & Action
 Increased my positive
statements in order to motivate
positive student behavior
 Positive student behavior led to
faster transitions
 Faster transitions led to more
academic learning time
 More academic learning time
led to increased student
mastery of concepts
 Intervening Variables
 “Breakaway” days
 No centers
 “Enrichment” days
 Different students leave
classroom to attend different
“enrichment” classes
 Fall break
 Missed 3 days of school
 Student absences
 Out of town/sick

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Conclusions
 My conclusions based on the data
 Positive statements to students encourage positive behavior
 Positive student behavior led to smoother transitions
 What I know that I didn’t know before
 Young children lack the awareness of time
 Finding ways to make the concept of time “concrete”, such as calendars,
clocks, timers, and visual schedules helps convey its presence to young
children
 What I would do differently
 I would post the transition sheet where students could see it and make
the recording of each transition time a special presentation

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Next Steps
 I can share these results with my classmates at the University of
Memphis
 I can share these results with my co-teachers at my current school
 I can share these results with the other Pre-Kindergarten teachers at
my current school

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Research Questions Generated from
this Research Study
 Does competition motivate pre-kindergarten students to perform
better?
 Do teachers who focus on negative student behavior actually create
more resistance from students?

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References
 Bandura, A. (1977). Social Learning Theory. New York: General Learning
Press.
 Erikson, E. (1950). Childhood and society (1st ed.). New York: Norton
 Jones, Fred (2007). Tools for Teaching. Fredric H. Jones & Associates:
Santa Cruz, CA.
 Kern, L. & Clemens, N. (2007). Antecedent strategies to promote
appropriate classroom behavior. Psychology in the schools, 44 (1), 65-75.
 Piaget, Jean (1969). The Theory of Stages in Cognitive Development.
Monteray, CA: McGraw-Hill.
 Sprick, R.S., Garrison, M., & Howard, L.M. (1998) CHAMPs: A proactive
and positive approach to classroom management. Longmont, CO: Sopris
West.