Classroom Management Strategies and Executive Function Development: A Cross-Cultural Comparison Between U.S. and Chinese Kindergarten Classrooms

Children’s executive function (EF) skills predict their academic success, and previous research suggests that schooling experiences influence the development of these skills. This study investigated different teacher behavioral management strategies in China and the United States and their association with children’s growth in 408 children in twenty-one U.S. classrooms and fourteen Chinese classrooms. Teachers’ proactive and reactive management strategies were coded from videotaped observations; children’s EF skills were assessed in individual sessions. Results revealed that U.S. teachers gave more directions overall than Chinese teachers and there was a moderate relation between children’s skills and teachers’ use of reactive strategies in Chinese classrooms. Culture was the only significant predictor of children’s growth in EF throughout the school year. This study lays the groundwork for future research in this area and could be useful in finding a way to reduce problem behavior in the classroom. Keywords: cross-cultural comparison, executive function, kindergarten, classroom management CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT AND EXECUTIVE FUNCTION 3 Classroom Management Strategies and Executive Function Development: A Cross-Cultural Comparison Between U.S. and Chinese Kindergarten Classrooms The development of executive function (EF), comprised of cognitive flexibility, working memory, and inhibition is an extremely important contributor to several realms of a child’s life (Anderson, 2002; Miyake, Friedman, Emerson, Witzki, & Howerter, 2000). These three components of EF have been found to be separate but related and contribute to a child’s ability to shift between tasks, control their attention, manipulate information in the working memory, and inhibit dominant or automatic responses when needed (Miyake et al., 2000). All of these executive function processes are influential in a child’s cognitive functioning, relationships with peers, behaviors and ability to control emotions (Anderson, 2002). EF skills have also been shown to be strong predictors of children’s academic achievement and success in a school environment. EF skills, which aid in children’s ability to consciously control their thoughts and behaviors in the classroom, help them keep teachers’ directions in mind (working memory), pay attention in class (attention control), and keep themselves from talking to other students or speaking out in class (inhibition). Performance on inhibition tasks has been found to predict scores on simple math problems, and scores on attention control tasks predicted overall academic achievement (Lan, Legare, Ponitz, Li, & Morrison, 2011). Other research has also shown inhibition and working memory skills in kindergarten students to be an important predictor of their math, reading and writing achievement at the end of first grade (Monette, Birgras, & Guay, 2011). Research on children in other cultures has established a similar pattern. One study found that Chinese kindergarten students’ EF skills were directly related to their scores in vocabulary and word recognition (Chung & McBride-Chang, 2011). CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT AND EXECUTIVE FUNCTION 4 Typical Development of Executive Function Various components of EF have been found to have differing trends of development, all occurring between early childhood and adolescence (Huizinga, Dolan Maurits, & van der Molen, 2006). A review of the literature by Diamond (2002) describes a rapid improvement in cognitive tasks requiring children to hold given information in mind and inhibit dominant behavior between the ages of three and five. After age five, children continue to improve in speed and accuracy. From age seven through early adulthood, improvement continues in several categories including processing speed, strategy use, manipulating information in the working memory, and exercising inhibition while holding information in mind (Diamond, 2002). Although development of the different components of EF including working memory, task shifting, and inhibition, differ slightly, typically developing children generally meet adult levels of performance in all three around age twelve (Huizinga et al., 2006). Numerous studies have displayed cross-cultural differences in the development of EF skills with children in Asian cultures outperforming children in Western cultures on different components of EF (Lan et al., 2011; Oh & Lewis, 2008). Research on preschool age children in Korea, China and the U.S. found that children in Asian cultures had higher scores than children in Western cultures in inhibition and attention control tasks but very small (Oh & Lewis, 2008) or no differences in working memory (Lan et al., 2011). Another study found that preschool children in Beijing performed better than children in the U.S. on inhibition as well as general executive function tasks (Sabbagh, Xu, Carlson, Moses, & Lee, 2006). These differences in EF skills as well as the connection between EF and academic achievement may help to explain the achievement gap between students in the U.S. and students in Asian cultures (Chen & Uttal, 1988; Stevenson et al., 1990). CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT AND EXECUTIVE FUNCTION 5 The Effects of Schooling on Executive Function Development In order to gain insight into the possible reasons for these cross-cultural differences, it is important to consider environmental factors that may influence EF development. Multiple studies have looked at the influence of factors within a students’ classroom because (1) children’s early school years are a crucial period for the development of EF and (2) children spend a large amount of their time in school after reaching school age (Epsy, 1997; Diamond, 2002). Previous research has shown that schooling does in fact have an influence on several components of EF, including working memory, inhibition (Burrage et al., 2008) and cognitive flexibility (McCrea, Mueller, & Parrila, 1999). A study by McCrea and colleagues (1999) looked at the effects of schooling on EF development by using a school entrance cut-off design. This type of design allows researchers to look at developmental differences based on children’s age and other environmental factors versus the direct effects of schooling. The design examines differences in growth between children who are basically the same age but started kindergarten during different years because of their state’s cut-off date for starting kindergarten. The participants in this study consisted of children in grades one through four and ages seven through nine. The results show a moderate effect of schooling between grades two and three but not between grades one and two or three and four. Although this study shows overall effects of age, which is consistent with typical development of EF skills, it also shows a direct effect of schooling on a task that measured children’s cognitive flexibility (McCrea et al., 1999). Another study by Burrage and colleagues (2008) also used a school entrance cut-off design and expanded on the study by McCrea and colleagues (1999) by looking at a younger age group. This study focused on the development of working memory and response inhibition in CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT AND EXECUTIVE FUNCTION 6 kindergarten and pre-kindergarten students. Kindergarteners showed an advantage in the working memory task throughout the school year and in the inhibition task in the fall but not by the spring. Overall these results do suggest that both kindergarten and pre-kindergarten have an influence on the development of children’s EF skills, and that they affect different components of EF in different ways (Burrage et al., 2008). While these studies show that formal schooling can have an influence on children’s development of EF, other research has looked at specific factors in the school environment that may influence development. The results show that various factors within the classroom can influence children’s ability to regulate their behavior and the amount of time they spend on-task (Clunies-Ross, Little, & Keinhuis, 2008; Rimm-Kaufman, Curby, Grimm, Nathanson, & Brock, 2009). A child’s ability to regulate their behavior and stay on task is related to their executive function skills and undoubtedly contribute to a their academic performance. A study looking at overall “classroom quality” examined how certain factors that affect the environment of a classroom can influence children’s adaptive behavior, or ability to handle challenges they encounter in the kindergarten classroom (Rimm-Kaufman et al., 2009). Classroom quality was based on several factors, including emotional support, instructional support, and classroom management. Emotional support was defined as the teacher’s sensitivity towards students and effort to modify lessons to fit students’ individual emotional needs. Instructional support included practices such as scaffolding, allowing students to ask questions, and providing feedback. Finally, well-managed classrooms were defined as classrooms where teachers provided clear and stable routines for children, used more proactive approaches and consistently monitored their students’ work and progress (Rimm-Kaufman et al., 2009). Using a more proactive approach is considered attempting to prevent problem behaviors before they CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT AND EXECUTIVE FUNCTION 7 occur, by explicitly explaining rules and identifying or praising desired behaviors. Conversely, reactive strategies are a response to undesirable behaviors that have already occurred (Safran & Oswald, 2003). The results show that classroom management was an important predictor of a child’s adaptive behavior, especially their cognitive and behavioral self-control, and their ability to stay on task. Teachers in classrooms with higher instructional support actually rated their students as having lower cognitive self-control and levels of emotional support were not found to have a significant influence on children’s adaptive be