Teachers' knowledge and approaches to supporting preterm children in the classroom

Christina Elvert, Samantha Johnson, Julia Jaekel*

*Corresponding author af dette arbejde

Publikation: Bidrag til tidsskriftTidsskriftartikelForskningpeer review

3 Citationer (Scopus)

Abstract

Background & aims: Teachers in the UK receive little training about the long-term consequences of preterm birth on children's development. Our aim was to assess knowledge and elicit suggestions for improving educational practice in the US by means of a mixed-method study. Methods: 246 US teachers (92.7% female) completed the validated Preterm Birth – Knowledge Scale (PB-KS). Of the participating teachers, 50.9% reported professional experience with preterm born children. A representative subsample of 35 teachers responded to a case vignette by describing how they would support the child in the classroom. Answers were coded using thematic content analysis. Results: Overall, the mean PB-KS score was 15.21 (SD = 5.31). Participating teachers who had professional experience with a preterm child had higher mean PB-KS scores than teachers without (16.95 vs. 15.24, p = .012). Qualitative responses provided specific content for classroom intervention. Conclusions: Our findings show that US teachers have limited knowledge of the long-term impact of preterm birth. They provided important indicators for the design of targeted classroom interventions to support the learning of preterm children.

OriginalsprogEngelsk
Artikelnummer105415
TidsskriftEarly Human Development
Vol/bind159
ISSN0378-3782
DOI
StatusUdgivet - aug. 2021
Udgivet eksterntJa

Bibliografisk note

Funding Information:
We are grateful to our participants. A special thanks goes to the UT Knoxville students who helped design and set up the online survey as part of their CFS 511 class credits.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 Elsevier B.V.

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