Early academic achievements leads to higher self-esteem, better health, and most importantly, ongoing academic success (Murrell, Salsman & Meeka,2003; Rudasill, Gallagher & White, 2010). Thus, it is crucial to find out how we can boost academic achievement in young children. In this study, we explore two possible ways - Emotion Knowledge & Teacher's Expectation *This is not from a published, peer-reviewed, journal article. It is a student-based final year project.

1. Emotion Knowledge,
Teacher Expectations &
Academic Achievement
in Preschool Children
Annabelle Ÿ Denise Ÿ Maxine Ÿ Saul

2. • Introduction
– Objective of Study
– Background Research
– Hypotheses
– Variables
• Methods
• Results & Analysis
• Discussion
– Theoretical &
Practical Implications
– Limitations
– Future Research
• Q & A
Outline

3. Introduction

4. Early academic achievement leads to:
Higher self-esteem, better health &
ongoing academic success
Thus, it is crucial to find ways to boost it,
and this study explores 2 possible ways:
Emotion Knowledge & Teachers’ Expectations
Did you know...

5. • To explore how early academic
achievement can be enhanced through
emotion knowledge & teachers’
expectations
• To see if a developmental trajectory is
present for emotion knowledge in
Singaporean children
Objectives of Study

6. Background Research

7. • Develops during preschool
• Key predictor of academic success
• Made up of:
– Receptive emotion knowledge (recognition)
– Expressive emotion knowledge (labeling)
– Emotion situation knowledge (understanding
causes and consequences)
Emotion Knowledge

8. EK & Academics
Development and use of EK components
Better behavioral and emotional regulation
Able to pay better attention when learning
ACADEMIC SUCCESS!

9. Teachers’ Expectations
Young children go to preschool everyday
Spend time interacting with their teachers
Teachers develop expectations of them

10. • Expectations may influence children’s
– Behavior, to match these expectations
– Early educational opportunities
– Early learning environment
• Any combination of these would influence
academic success
Expectations & Academics

11. • Emotion knowledge is related to academic
achievement
• Teachers’ expectations are related to
children’s academic achievement
• A developmental trajectory is observed for
emotion knowledge
And so, our hypotheses...

12. • Emotion knowledge
– Emotion Matching Task (EMT)
• Teacher’s expectations
– Questionnaire on child’s school readiness
(to include all aspects)
• Academic achievement
– Math: Test of Early Mathematical Ability (TEMA-III)
– Language: Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (PPVT-IV)
• Age in months
Variables/Measures

13. Methods

14. • Participants
– 65 preschoolers (36 male, 29 female) and
their teachers via convenience sampling
– Age of children: 37-72 months (3-6 years)
– Main language spoken is English
• Correlational study (no manipulation)
Background Info

15. Recruitment
(2-3 weeks)
Assessment of
children
(3 x 20 min)
Debrief
(1 week)
Procedure
• Information session with preschool principal
• Consent forms given to teachers and parents/guardians
• Questionnaire given to teachers

16. • Questionnaire on expectations of child’s
school readiness
– Covers social, emotional, behavioral and
cognitive domains
• Adapted from 1993 National Household
Education Survey
– Certain questions were adjusted to suit a
standard rating scale
Teacher Questionnaire

17. Sample question:
The child can recognize ____ of the letters of the
alphabet.
Teacher Questionnaire
Rating Rating Scale
5 All
4 Most
3 Some
2 A few
1 No/None

18. Recruitment
(2-3 weeks)
Assessment of
children
(3 x 20 min)
Debrief
(1 week)
Procedure
• 3 separate sessions on different days for each child
• Each session (emotion knowledge, math & language) was
20 minutes with a debrief
• The order of sessions was randomized for every child
• Environment was conducive with minimal distraction

19. Recruitment
(2-3 weeks)
Assessment of
children
(3 x 20 min)
Debrief
(1 week)
Procedure
• Emotion Knowledge session: Emotion Matching Task
• Math session: Test of Early Mathematical Ability
• Language session: Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test

20. • Assesses early emotion knowledge
• Has 4 sections (12 questions each)
• Only requires child to point, except for part 3
which requires a verbal response
• Focuses on 4 main emotions:
– Happy, Sad, Angry and Scared/Surprised
Emotion Matching Task

21. Part 1: Matching expressions of
the same emotion
Her face shows how she feels.
Show me which one of these
feels the same way.
Part 2: Matching the appropriate
emotion for a given scenario
Show me the one who got a nice
new toy, just what they wanted.
Emotion Matching Task

22. Part 3: Labeling expressions of
different emotions
Look at his face. Can you tell
me how he feels?
Part 4: Matching the appropriate
expression for a given emotion
Show me the one who is happy.
Emotion Matching Task

23. • Assesses early mathematical ability through
standardized testing
• Tests both formal and informal skills, such as
addition, problem solving, counting and number
recognition
• Made up of short, game-like activities
• Uses concrete, pictorial and abstract forms
• Involves verbal, non-verbal and writing items
TEMA-III

24. Sample questions:
• Show me 4 fingers
• How many cats are there?
• If you have 4 tokens and you get 1 more, how
many do you have altogether?
TEMA-III

25. • Assesses receptive vocabulary ability in children
and adults through standardized testing
• Predicts a person’s acquisition or mastery of the
English language (language competency)
• All items are presented in a 4-picture page
layout and require the person to point to the
picture that depicts a certain word
PPVT-IV

26. Sample question:
Put your finger on laughing.
PPVT-IV

27. Recruitment
(2-3 weeks)
Assessment of
children
(3 x 20 min)
Debrief
(1 week)
Procedure
• Debrief for principal, teachers and children
• Collection of teacher questionnaires

28. Results

29. Variable Measure Reliability (alpha)
Emotion
knowledge
Total score on EMT > .7
Academic
achievement
Mean standardized math
and language ability scores
from the TEMA and PPVT
> .9
(TEMA and PPVT)
Teacher
expectations
Mean score on
questionnaire
> .7
Age Age in months -
Measures & Reliability

30. • Bivariate correlation (Pearson)
– Emotion knowledge and academic achievement
– Teacher expectations and academic achievement
• Linear regression
– Age as a predictor of emotion knowledge
Statistical Tests

31. 60
70
80
90
100
110
120
130
0 10 20 30 40 50
Emotion Knowledge
Academic
Achievement
Linear
(Academic
Achievement)
EK & Academics
r (63) = .52, p < .001
Emotion knowledge has a significant, positive correlation
with academic achievement

32. 0
0.1
0.2
0.3
0.4
0.5
0.6
Academic
achievement
Language ability Math ability
Correlation
with emotion
knowledge
EK & Academics
L: r (63) = .43, p < .001
M: r (63) = .38, p < .01
Emotion knowledge is significantly correlated with individual
components of academic achievement (language and math)

33. 0
1
2
3
4
5
6
0 10 20 30 40 50
Emotion Knowledge
Teacher
expectations
Linear
(Teacher
expectations)
Expectations & Academics
r (63) = .01, p > .05
Teacher expectations has no relation with
academic achievement

34. EK and Age
0
10
20
30
40
50
35 40 45 50 55 60 65 70 75
Age (in months)
Emotion
Knowledge
Linear
(Emotion
Knowledge)
Age is a significant predictor of emotion knowledge
b = .43, t (63) = 3.99, p < .001

35. • Emotion knowledge is related to academic
achievement: SUPPORTED!
– Emotion knowledge is significantly positively related
to academic achievement
– Emotion knowledge has the highest correlation with
academic achievement (as a whole), followed by
language and then math
Hypotheses

36. • Teachers’ expectations are related to children’s
academic achievement: NOT SUPPORTED
• A developmental trajectory is observed for
emotion knowledge: SUPPORTED!
– Age is a significant predictor of emotion knowledge
Hypotheses

37. Discussion

38. Significant positive correlation found between
emotion knowledge and academic achievement.
• Both emotional and cognitive parts are linked
and develop together
• Relationship between EK and academics is
universal across different cultures
– Singapore is a multicultural society
Theoretical Implications

39. Significant positive correlation found between
emotion knowledge and language/math (individual
components of academics).
• Development of understanding and regulating emotions
in very young children is closely related with general
language ability (as found in previous research)
• Mathematical ability is also important and plays a part in
emotional development (and vice versa)
Theoretical Implications

40. There is no relationship found between teacher
expectations and academic achievement.
• It does not matter what is expected of a child, because it
has no effect on their academic achievement
• The effect of expectations may not always be present
(may only be present in older children)
• Preschoolers, especially the younger ones may not be old
enough to understand what their teacher’s expectations
are or to let these expectations affect them
Theoretical Implications

41. Age is a significant predictor of emotion
knowledge.
• Emotion knowledge develops with age, suggesting the
presence of a developmental trajectory
• Although we can try to help children learn EK skills at an
earlier age, not all of them may be ready
• Emotion knowledge may increase with age because of
the increased number of social & emotional experiences
of the child and their interactions with other people
Theoretical Implications

42. • Learning of emotion knowledge skills should be
incorporated into the preschool curriculum
– It may help to boost academic achievement and thus,
school readiness (which involves both socio-emotional
and cognitive areas)
• Emotion knowledge develops with age, so a younger child
cannot typically be expected to have the same level of
emotion knowledge as an older child
Practical Implications

43. • Lack of standardized scoring for EMT
• Majority of the testing items and tasks were verbal
– May not be truly representative of the child’s
academic achievement (which also includes written
ability and their performance in class)
• Teachers may rate all their students high because of
social desirability (may not be how they really feel)
• Singapore is multicultural
Limitations

44. • Use written as well as verbal tasks, along with child’s
performance in class
• Compare different cultures
– Parenting style and involvement
– Parental expectations
• Look at presence of older siblings
• Mixed-age group preschools (Full/partial/none)
• Look at the school’s syllabus/culture - some may focus
on individual work while others may focus on group
activities
Future Research

45. Q and A