The Effects of Teacher Instructional Practice on Kindergarten Mathematics Achievement: A Multi-Level National Investigation (2008)

Teacher instruction is an integral part of the classroom which has been under-studied in the field of education (Todd, Chaiyasuk, & Tantisawetrat, 2008). Although some view instruction as having little importance, it is necessary to provide appropriate instruction in order to ensure that students will achieve success in the various subjects and activities that are learned in the classroom (Todd, Chaiyasuk, & Tantisawetrat, 2008). Researchers have indicated that the success of student's cognitive learning can be predicted by teacher's instructions. Conventional studies of instruction in education have primarily focused on instructional time and content coverage. It has been consistently found that instruction time and content coverage have a positive relationship with student achivement (Barr & Dreeben, 1983; Bodovski & Farkas, 2007; Dreeben & Gamoran, 1986; Walberg, 1988; Walberg, Niemiec, & Frederick, 1994). Not surprisingly, an increase in instruction time results in an increase in learning achievement (Barr & Dreeben, 1983; Bodovski & Farkas, 2007). According to Walberg et al. (1994), providing students with an increased amount of productive instructional time in a subject matter helps students immensely. Of 100 research studies that Walberg (1988) read, he found that 88% suggested that time has a positive sway on learning. However, increasing academic instructional time does not seem to be a universally satisfactory answer, especially for kindergarten students. According to public opinion polls (Wagner, 2001), the majority of American parents prefer a curriculum that is less academically oriented for kindergarten children. In addition to children's academic performance, many parents are concerned with children's non-cognitive development in terms of emotional development, socialization skills, as well as artistic and creative endeavors, especially when their children are at their younger years. Increasing the amount of time spent on academic instruction, on the other hand, leads to the decrease of time available for activities to improve student non-cognitive outcomes. Thus, it is of substantial importance to improve the effectiveness and productiveness of academic instruction and avoid supplanting other important developmental goals with just academic skill building. Also, an increase in allocated instructional time does not automatically enhance the effective or productive instructional time (Walberg, Niemiec, & Frederick, 1994). Walberg (1988) states that time in itself is not enough to assist students in learning. He differentiates between three types of time: allocated, engaged, and productive. Allocated time is defined as the time that teachers have assigned for a particular subject. Engaged time occurs during the allocated time in which a student is engaged in the learning itself. Productive time is only a portion of the engaged time in which students are truly learning the material. Walberg et al. (1994), state that it is necessary to increase productive time in the classroom to ensure that instruction is beneficial to students. Thus, if the productive classroom instruction time can be expanded, it will be both efficient and effective to help students learning while conserving limited instructional time. The practical question then becomes what teachers should do to increase the productive use of time given only so many hours of time can be allocated for instruction. Although there is a large volume of literature contributing to discussion of instruction time, we have heeded that very scarce studies have assessed other dimensions of instruction. Some studies suggest that both the type and quality of instruction that students receive affects learning outcomes (Nystrand 1997; Pressely et al. 2001; Tharp, 1982). The most noteworthy contributions regarding other dimensions of instruction fall into the following three major categories. …