Adapting Strategies of Effective Instruction for Culturally Diverse Preschoolers

Abstract

This article describes collaboration between preschool and university educators focused on adapting the Center for Research on Education, Diversity, and Excellence (CREDE) standards for Effective Pedagogy for use in early childhood (EC) settings. The CREDE standards are strategies of best practices for culturally diverse K–12 students. Teachers and teacher educators worked together to adapt the CREDE standards for use with young children. Participants included 13 preschool teachers and 2 administrators serving 2- to 5-years-olds at a university-based EC center. Data sources included participant observations and video-recordings of the teachers' instruction. Criteria for measuring use of the standards were changed to be more developmentally appropriate, including adjustments for language development and a focus on goals that included self-management and social skills. The adapted CREDE EC standards may provide a useful framework for high-quality EC instruction for diverse children. This partnership may have been successful because the project drew on the strengths of both the university and EC collaborators, minimizing the hierarchical relationship that is often experienced in such an arrangement.

Acknowledgments

An earlier version of this article was presented at the 2009 annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association in San Diego, CA. The research was supported by a subaward from the Bridging Multiple Worlds Alliance at the University of California, funded by the Kellogg Foundation. The authors wish to thank the educators and families who participated in this study. They are also grateful to Ernestine Enomoto, Cecily Ornelles, Katherine Ratliffe, and Tracy Trevorrow for feedback on earlier drafts of this article and to Wendy Chang, Angela Choy, Martha Haberman, and Chen-Ju Lin for technical assistance.

Notes

¹Standards 1–5 are considered “generic” principles that were developed for all groups of students. Standards 6 and 7 were developed specifically for indigenous students (Tharp, 2006).