Deborah Farmer Kris, MindShift
“Good pre-K programs effectively build students’ self-regulation skills that will help them experience success in pre-K and beyond,” said Bouffard. These classrooms teach children “how to be learners,” including how to deal with difficult emotions, how to pay attention, and how to be peers who listen to and interact positively with their classmates.
“You want to teach children how and why to behave. What to do instead of just what not to do,” said Bouffard. Effective pre-K classrooms teach self-regulation through songs and routines; picture prompts can remind children of the steps in a process. Skilled preschool teachers have strategies for redirecting student behavior and use language that provides instruction. “It’s the difference between, ‘Be quiet – I’m reading’ and ‘I know you are excited to share. Can you hold that and tell me after we finish story time?’”
Bouffard said that rewards and punishment are not effective tools because they do not teach kids how or why to behave. Rather, “it just emphasizes that you want them to do something.” Ironically, she said, “Kids who have the biggest struggle with self-regulation are those most damaged by these strategies.” When they are unable to earn the reward, they may feel frustration or shame or simply decide to stop trying.
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Effective pre-K classrooms also engage students’ natural curiosity and creativity. In these classrooms, said Bouffard, you will hear teachers using open-ended inquiries such as:
“How do you know that?”
“How did you figure that out?”
“Explain to me what you are doing.”
“What do you think will happen if we . . . ?”
This dialogue between teacher and student focuses on the process of learning. “In pre-K everything should be process focused and not outcome focused.” For example, art projects should be more about exploring materials and techniques than about producing a replica of what the teacher made.
