Unpacking pre-K classroom organization: Types, variation, and links to school readiness gains

Abstract

Classroom organization is an important facet of prekindergarten quality but is typically measured at a global level and as a single construct. Little is known about how experiences of different facets of classroom organization—namely, exposure to teacher organizational strategies—vary across individual children in the same classroom and predict gains in children's academic and executive functioning (EF) skills. We coded the total number of minutes 263 prekindergartners were exposed to teacher strategies for classroom organization (e.g., verbal directions, behavior management, rituals and routine cues, and modeling of materials and transitions). Time spent exposed to a global construct of teacher organizational strategies—as well as the CLASS classroom organization score—did not predict children's gains, but time exposed to specific types of organization did. Findings illustrate the utility in separating a global construct into specific types, and offer a first look at child-level measurement of teacher organization.