The Tools of the Mind curriculum for improving self‐regulation in early childhood: a sytematic review

Baron, Alex; Evangelou, Maria; Malmberg, Lars‐Erik; Meléndez-Torres, G J

doi:10.4073/csr.2017.10

Cited by 25 publications

(21 citation statements)

References 63 publications

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“…Indeed, one of the most important conditions of conducting a distributional analysis is that the interventions produce positive effects or that hidden effects have not been studied before (Jackson and Page, 2013). These results also echo the insignificant findings from previous studies using QTE to evaluate the effects of early interventions on children's noncognitive outcomes (Bitler et al, 2014) and null findings on SE skills from SE curricula (Baron et al, 2017).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 73%

“…Although all studies discussed above have demonstrated positive impacts on children's SE development, some studies have found that SE curricula interventions do not affect child outcomes. For example, a systematic review including six experimental studies examined the effectiveness of the Tools curriculum, finding that the curriculum only improved math skills and not a range of SE skills (Baron et al, 2017). But it is also possible that null mean impacts are hiding different effects across the distribution of outcomes (Bitler et al, 2015).…”

Section: Curricula Interventions Promoting Socio-emotional Skillsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Examining Heterogeneity in the Impacts of Socio-Emotional Curricula in Preschool: A Quantile Treatment Effect Approach

Shea

Jenkins

2021

Front. Psychol.

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We examine treatment effect heterogeneity using data from the Head Start CARES study, in which a sample of preschool centers was randomly assigned to either one of three curricula interventions targeting socio-emotional (SE) skills (i.e., emotional knowledge, problem-solving skills, and executive functions) or to continue using their “business-as-usual” curriculum. Most existing research estimates only mean differences between treatment and control groups, and uses simple subgroup analyses to assess treatment heterogeneity, which may overlook important variation in treatment effects across the ex post outcome distribution. We use quantile treatment effects analyses to understand the impacts of these curricular interventions at various parts of the outcome distribution, from the 1st percentile to the 99th percentile, to understand who benefits most from SE curricula interventions. Results show positive impacts of the curricula interventions on emotional knowledge and problem-solving skills, but not equally across the full skill distribution. Children in the upper half of the emotional knowledge distribution and at the higher end of the problem-solving skills distribution gain more from the curricula. As in the study’s original mean-comparison analyses, we find no impacts on children’s executive function skills at any point in the skills distribution. Our findings add to the growing literature on the differential effects of curricula interventions for preschool programs operating at scale. Importantly, it provides the first evidence for the effects of SE curricula interventions on SE outcomes across children’s outcome skill levels. We discuss implications for early education programs for children with different school readiness skills.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 73%

Section: Curricula Interventions Promoting Socio-emotional Skillsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Examining Heterogeneity in the Impacts of Socio-Emotional Curricula in Preschool: A Quantile Treatment Effect Approach

Shea

Jenkins

2021

Front. Psychol.

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“… Diamond et al (2019) reported that Tools of the Mind was effective in improving reading and writing skills assessed with standardized achievement tests. Baron et al (2017) concluded from a meta-analysis that there are small positive effects of Tools of the Mind on reading, self-regulation (direct assessments and ratings), and mathematics achievement, but only the effect for mathematics was statistically significant. Similarly, a recent study by Nesbitt and Farran (2021) concluded that aspects of the teacher–child interaction quality seemed to be more promising to improve student performance than the specific activities described in the Tools of the Mind curriculum.…”

Section: Perspectivementioning

confidence: 99%

Training Executive Functions to Improve Academic Achievement: Tackling Avenues to Far Transfer

Nückles

2021

Front. Psychol.

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The aim of training executive functions is usually to improve the ability to attain real-life goals such as academic achievement, that is, far transfer. Although many executive function trainings are successful in improving executive functions, far transfer is more difficult to achieve (cf. Diamond and Lee, 2011; Sala and Gobet, 2020). In this perspective article, we focus on the transfer of executive function training to academic performance. First, we disentangle possible sources of transfer problems. We argue that executive functions can facilitate academic performance via two specific pathways, namely learning-related behaviors and learning-related cognitions. Further, we discuss how domain-specific factors (e.g., task-specific demands and prior knowledge) may influence the successful application of executive functions to learning in this domain. Second, we discuss how the school setting can be used to enhance executive function training with approaches to facilitating far transfer to academic achievement. Specifically, we suggest that training executive functions as a means to improve academic performance is most promising in young students, for whom both behavioral and domain-specific cognitive demands of formal schooling are quite novel challenges. Furthermore, we outline that students could be supported in far transfer of trained executive functions by being informed of the specific relevance of these skills for learning-related behaviors and by having them practice executive functions under such authentic conditions. Moreover, we suggest that in order to promote ongoing effects of executive function training beyond short-term interventions, teachers should be equipped to consider the specific executive function components that might facilitate and support students’ acquisition of a particular subject matter.

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“…Tools of the Mind. Tools of the Mind (Bodrova & Leong, 2007) is a comprehensive early childhood curriculum built upon the work of Vygotsky with the purpose of promoting young children's self-regulation and academic skills together by focusing on self-regulation and related social-emotional skills in education settings (Baron, Evangelou, Malmberg, & Melendez-Torres, 2017). In Tools of the Mind, early childhood teachers conduct assessment and implement scaffolding to tailor learning activities so that young children build their self-regulatory skills through meaningful play interactions with their peers.…”

Section: Supporting Preschool-age Children With Early Interventionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In Tools of the Mind, early childhood teachers conduct assessment and implement scaffolding to tailor learning activities so that young children build their self-regulatory skills through meaningful play interactions with their peers. The Tools of the Mind curriculum aims to equip young children with cognitive "tools" for learning, such as inhibitory control, working memory, and cognitive flexibility that they can utilize to acquire and maintain academic knowledge and self-regulation (Baron et al, 2017;Diamond, Lee, Senften, Lam, & Abbott, 2019).…”

Section: Supporting Preschool-age Children With Early Interventionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mediating the Relation Between Parent-Child Attachment Relationships and Peer Acceptance With Preschoolers’ Self-Regulation

Lucas-Nihei¹

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Peer acceptance represents the degree to which a child is well liked by peers, and it is a crucial component of the early childhood years (Ladd & Sechler, 2013). Being accepted among peers impacts multiple areas of child development, including academics, behavior, and socialemotional domains. A child who is highly accepted by their peers is viewed as a preferred playmate and can be observed playing with various peers. Young children's earliest peer relationships begin forming during the preschool years. One predicting factor of peer acceptance is the attachment relationship between the parent and child. The security experiences within parent-child attachment relationships help foster the growth of children's social competence, which in turn allows children to begin forming relationships with other children (Raikes, Virmani, Thompson, & Hatton, 2013; Thompson, 2016). Another important predictor of peer acceptance is children's self-regulation, which includes several cognitive and behavioral processes that allow children to manage their emotions, behavior, and thoughts to better acclimate to their environment (Liew, 2012). Self-regulation is linked to both the parent-child attachment relationship and children's peer acceptance (Contreras, Kerns, Weimer, Gentzler, & Tomich, 2000; Gottman & Mettetal, 1986). The purpose of this study was to test the mediating role of preschoolers' self-regulation on the association between parent-child attachment relationship qualities and preschoolers' peer acceptance. Three mediation models were tested via a structural equation modeling approach using path analysis. In the first mediation model, it was predicted that the model will represent the best fit for the data collected, supporting that children's (girls and boys combined) self-regulation mediates the relation between the parentchild attachment relationship qualities and preschoolers' peer acceptance. Results from the first mediation model indicated that preschoolers' self-regulation mediates the relation of parent-child attachment qualities and preschoolers' peer acceptance. In the second mediation model, it was predicted that older preschoolers will demonstrate stronger self-regulation, compared to younger preschoolers. Results from the second mediation model indicated that children's age significantly predicts preschoolers' self-regulation. In the third mediation model, with sufficient statistical power, it was predicted that girls will demonstrate stronger self-regulation, compared to boys. Results from the third mediation model indicated that children's gender significantly predicts preschoolers' self-regulation. These results contribute to the literature regarding factors that predict peer acceptance and have important implications for children, families, early childhood education teachers, and other professionals who support young children's overall development.

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The Tools of the Mind curriculum for improving self‐regulation in early childhood: a sytematic review

Cited by 25 publications

References 63 publications

Examining Heterogeneity in the Impacts of Socio-Emotional Curricula in Preschool: A Quantile Treatment Effect Approach

Examining Heterogeneity in the Impacts of Socio-Emotional Curricula in Preschool: A Quantile Treatment Effect Approach

Training Executive Functions to Improve Academic Achievement: Tackling Avenues to Far Transfer

Mediating the Relation Between Parent-Child Attachment Relationships and Peer Acceptance With Preschoolers’ Self-Regulation

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