Wayne G. Basler Library: ECED 2365 Final Practicum: Powerful Interactions

Resources

Powerful Interactions: How to Connect with Children to Extend Their Learning, Second Edition by Amy Laura Dombro; Judy Jablon; Charlotte Stetson
Publication Date: 2020
In early childhood settings, children and teachers interact all day long. The benefits are enormous when even some of those everyday" interactions become intentional, purposeful, and culturally responsive - in other words, Powerful Interactions(Reg TM)! With these three steps, you can embed Powerful Interactions in your daily work with children from birth through age 8: * Step One: Be Present. Pause, tune in to yourself and the moment, and consider how you might need to adjust to create a "just-right" fit with a child. * Step Two: Connect. To foster trust and confidence, let that child know that you see her; are interested in what she is doing, saying, and thinking; and want to spend time with her.. * Step Three: Extend Learning. Make use of your strong connection with the child to stretch her knowledge, skills, thinking, or language and vocabulary.With updated content and research, new examples and insights, and questions to guide group study discussions, the new edition of this bestselling classic covers everything you need to understand what Powerful Interactions are, how to make them happen, and why they are so important in increasing children's learning and your effectiveness as a teacher. Discover how Powerful Interactions - and you - make a difference!
Being Present for Your Nursery Age Child: Observing, Understanding, and Helping Children by Patrizia Pasquini (Editor); Jeanne Magagna (Editor)
Publication Date: 2014
This book represents an innovative project in which parents, teachers and other professionals work collaboratively to observe children, understand them at a deep emotional level through their play and interaction with others, and facilitate their relationships with themselves as individuals and with others. The work described has been particularly important in nurturing children's creativity and fostering effective relationships between teachers, parents and children. The innovative nursery described has been an important preventative facility in promoting the wellbeing of young children. The Italian government has supported this highly esteemed project.
The Thoughtful Teacher: Making Connections with a Diverse Student Population by James D. Kirylo
Publication Date: 2021
Section 2 - Entering into Relationships

A thoughtful teacher is one who works to foster an inspiring classroom environment where students fall in love with learning. Indeed, it is incumbent on the teacher to understand self, to be prepared, to possess command of subject matter, to teach in a developmentally appropriate manner, to mindfully incorporate culturally relevant practices, and to illuminate a sense of connection with a diverse student population. In that light, The Thoughtful Teacher: Making Connections with a Diverse Student Population highlights the critical importance of what it means to thoughtfully teach, emphasizing that a central aspect toward transformation in education is through the dedicated efforts of thoughtful teachers. Written in accessible language and making clear the important connection between theory and practice, this book is an informative text for teachers, teacher educators, school administrators, and those who have an interest in education.
When Young Children Need Help: Understanding and Addressing Emotional, Behavorial, and Developmental Challenges by Deborah Hirschland
Publication Date: 2015
Part 2: Connection is Key

Learn how to reach children who need special help. Almost anyone who works with 3- to 6-year-olds knows what it feels like to spend time with youngsters who are particularly puzzling or hard to help. When Young Children Need Help examines how early childhood educators can make sense of what is going on for such children and then use that understanding to help promote growth and mastery. Written for child care center staff, family child care providers, preschool teachers, and pre-service teachers, this book can be useful to any adult who wants to learn more about reaching the most troubling children in his or her care. When Young Children Need Help provides a framework for understanding a range of emotional, behavioral, and developmental challenges. It explores a process through which early childhood teachers and providers can translate their growing understanding of a child's difficulties into sensible goals for intervention. The author lays out practical strategies that help kids connect and communicate with ease, focus their attention, manage their bodies and their feelings, engage in constructive problem-solving, and experience themselves as successful friends and learners. The book suggests approaches for collaborating with parents and other caregivers and emphasizes that even when a child needs outside services and supports, what goes on in school or care remains central to making progress.
Quality Learning: Teachers Changing Their Practice by Kathy Smith (Volume Editor); J. John Loughran (Volume Editor)
Publication Date: 2017
Chapter 8: Building Positive Teacher Relationships with Students

When teachers are supported to work together in ways that allow them to deepen knowledge of their professional practice, the understandings that emerge from their conversations about quality learning and teaching demonstrate a high level of expertise. Yet such professional knowledge is often deeply embedded within each teacher's everyday teaching; the tacit knowledge that determines how and why they attend to student learning in certain ways. This book captures the professional knowledge of teachers that developed as the result of an ongoing process of school based change, where teachers began to work differently because they began to think differently about the learning that mattered for their students in their school. The explication of their knowledge of practice became possible due to the ongoing support they received from their school leadership--in most part because leadership trusted them as professionals to responsibly lead student learning. Within this culture of trust and valued collaboration, working alongside external critical friends who supported their professional learning, the teachers engaged in regular, thought provoking and interactive professional dialogue. Together they exposed and challenged each other's thinking and beliefs about learning and teaching, captured and examined each other's practice and, ultimately articulated and extended their professional knowledge. The insights about this collaborative learning process and the emergent knowledge and understandings teachers develop about the interactive relationship between learning and teaching, has much to contribute to educational discourse beyond the school setting. Some of that knowledge and the way it looks in practice is shared in this book.
Bravo Teacher: Building Relationships with Actions That Value Others by Sandra Harris
Publication Date: 2005
As they wrestle with today's rules, regulations and high-stakes testing, our best teachers never forget that strong, positive relationships are at the core of student success. This book shows us how to build relationships with students, parents, and co-workers to create the kind of learning environments where all students achieve success.

Powerful Interactions
Interactions are the daily exchanges in words and gestures one has with others. As a teacher, the interactions he/she has with young children can make a positive difference in their lives. A teacher's powerful interactions with children play an important role in their emotional well-being and learning. Powerful interactions are not the same as everyday interactions. The authors define powerful interactions as those in which teachers intentionally connect with the child while at the same time saying or doing something to guide the child's learning a small step forward. Powerful interactions begin long before teachers first meet or talk with a child. They begin with the way teachers think and their attitude about their work and the children they teach. Teachers' attitude matters. Teaching is more than following a curriculum successfully. It is an ongoing process of inquiry that requires curiosity and the ability to ask questions and look for answers. In this article, the authors describe some techniques that teachers can apply to keep their spirit of inquiry alive and make their interactions powerful.
Being Present: Mindfulness in Infant and Toddler Settings
There will always be stresses and distractions while caring for young children, so building skills that promote greater attention, focus, and calm offer children the benefit of a peaceful, responsive presence in their early childhood setting. Here is another area where mindfulness can help: building our capacity to be fully aware in the moment allows us to become more attuned detectives in discovering what an infant or toddler is revealing to us.
Preschool Children's Prosocial Behavior: The Role of Mother-Child, Father-Child and Teacher-Child Relationships
Prosocial behavior is considered an important dimension of positive development. Although previous research suggests the quality of children's early relationships may influence prosocial behaviors, the specific contributions of mother, father and teacher to children's prosocial behavior have been less examined. This is a cross-sectional study that investigates (a) the combined associations between mother-, father- and teacher-child relationships, and prosocial behavior in 168 children aged 36-72 months, and (b) the mediating role of the teacher-child relationship in the association between the parent-child relationship and prosocial behavior. Results suggested a positive link between the quality of relationships with early caregivers and children's prosocial behavior. The quality of both father- and teacher-child relationships were found to have a direct association with children's prosocial behavior. The quality of the mother-child relationship was indirectly linked to children's prosocial behavior, via the teacher-child relationship. Results suggesting connections between multiple relational contexts were discussed based on the notion of internal working models proposed by attachment theory. Mothers' and fathers' contributions to children's prosocial behavior were also discussed considering differences on relational styles and changing roles of mothers and fathers from dual-earner families.
Do teacher-child relationship and friendship quality matter for children's school engagement and academic skills?
This study examined three competing models assessing the directional associations between the quality of children's relationships with teachers and friends (i.e., closeness and conflict) and their emotional and behavioral school engagement (i.e., the relationship-driven, engagement-driven, and transactional models). The additive contributions of relationship quality and school engagement to prospective academic skills and age-related differences in these associations were also assessed. Models were tested using autoregressive, cross-lagged path analyses. Participants were 461 low-income, ethnically diverse children from kindergarten to Grade 3, who were assessed three times in one school term. In support of the relationship-driven model, closeness with friends and conflict with teachers and friends predicted prospective emotional engagement. In support of the transactional model, friendship closeness and teacher-child and friendship conflict transacted with behavioral engagement over the school term. Higher emotional engagement and, unexpectedly, friendship conflict predicted higher prospective academic skills. Associations between relationship closeness and behavioral engagement were significant for older children only.
Preschool Children's Self-regulation and Learning Behaviors: The Moderating Role of Teacher–Child Relationship
Background: Children's approach to learning is essential for both academic achievement and socio-emotional well-being. This competence is influenced by both individual (self-regulation) and environmental factors (teacher–child relationships). Objective: The aim of the present study is to examine Turkish children's learning behaviors through the interplay of children's self-regulation and teacher–child relationship. In particular, we examine the moderating role of teacher–child relationship quality on the link between self-regulation and learning behaviors. Method: Participants were 140 preschool children (81 boys) from a disadvantaged neighborhood in Istanbul, Turkey. Children's age ranged from 39 to 77 months (M = 62.55, SD = 8.53). Teachers reported on teacher–child relationship quality and children's learning behaviors. We assessed children's self-regulation via structured performance-based tasks. Results: Regression results using SAS PROC MIXED showed: first, the combination of high teacher–child closeness and hot self-regulation was related to higher levels of learning behaviors. Second, teacher closeness was positively, and teacher conflict was negatively associated with children's learning behaviors. Third, cool and hot aspects of self-regulation were related to children's learning behaviors; this was true only for cool aspects of self-regulation in multivariate analyses. Conclusions: Children's self-regulation (hot and cool aspects) and the qualities of teacher–child relationships appear to be important for their approaches to learning. Findings from the current study provide additional support for individual-context interaction for child outcomes in the Turkish preschool educational context.
A Closer Look at Teacher–Child Relationships and Classroom Emotional Context in Preschool
Background: Children’s early classroom experiences, particularly their interpersonal interactions with teachers, have implications for their academic achievement and classroom behavior. Teacher–child relationships and classroom interactions are both important aspects of children’s early classroom experiences, but they are not typically considered together in studies of early childhood classrooms. The bioecological model suggests that both uniquely impact children’s development.Objective: The objective of this study was to examine the joint impact of individual teacher–child relationships reported by the teacher and observed classroom interactions to identify associations between these and children’s outcomes.Methods: Using the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study—Birth cohort, multiple regression was employed to test the hypothesis that teacher–child relationships and classroom interactions are uniquely related to children’s classroom behavior and academic achievement. Further, a moderation model was tested to examine the moderating impact of teacher–child relationships on the association between classroom interactions and children’s outcomes.Results: Teacher–child relationships were related to children’s concurrent academic achievement and classroom behavior, and to children’s classroom behavior assessed one year later. No main effects of classroom interactions were identified; however, teacher–child relationships moderated the associations between classroom interactions and children’s preschool classroom behavior.Conclusions: Findings suggest that teacher–child relationships are important for children’s development in classrooms, even after accounting for classroom interactions. Professional development for teachers and measurement in classroom research should address teacher–child relationships in addition to classroom interactions.
The impact of teacher–child relationships on child cognitive performance as explored by a priming paradigm
The present study involved 120 kindergartners, of whom n = 60 were followed up to first grade. Upon making inquiries regarding closeness in teacher–child relationships in the classrooms, the children participated in a laboratory situation in which they were exposed to computerized tasks. These tasks challenged the cognitive processes thought to govern basic knowledge and belief systems. Before each task commenced, however, the image of the child's teacher (affective prime stimulus), with whom the relationship had been measured, was displayed for an experimental group of children. In contrast to a control group being exposed to a neutral prime, it was assumed that the teachers' images displayed in the experimental group would affect cognitive performance in a defined way (i.e., if primed by a person schema of a close relationship, these children should perform better than the rest). Whereas solving scores remained unaffected, children displayed shorter solving times under affective primes when in close relationships with their teachers. This effect could even be evidenced after the transition to school. Results suggest that cognitive processing is much more effective if close teacher–child relationships are involved.
Teacher–child relationship quality and academic achievement in elementary school: Does gender matter?
Using data from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development (N = 1,364) and 2-level hierarchical linear models with site fixed effects, we examined between- and within-child associations between teacher–child relationship closeness and conflict and standardized measures of children’s math and reading achievement from 1st through 5th grades. In addition, we tested whether longitudinal effects varied by gender. Results revealed a between-child effect of conflict and a within-child effect of closeness on reading achievement for the full sample. In addition, there were moderated between- and within-child effects of conflict on math achievement: Girls with more conflictual relationships showed lower overall levels of math achievement and less growth in math achievement than did boys with similar levels of conflict. Implications are discussed.
The Teachable Moment
Powerful Interactions: A Bridge Between Teaching and Assessment