Nurturing Young Minds: Investigating the Role of Teacher-Child Interactions in Shaping Executive Function Development from Early to Middle Childhood

Research output: ThesisDoctoral thesis 1 (Research UU / Graduation UU)

Abstract

In this dissertation, we investigate the role of teachers' behaviors in the development of child executive functions from early to middle childhood. This research aims to contribute to theory formation about executive function development in social contexts and to impact on the design of interventions aimed to promote executive functioning across childhood. We also aim to provide detailed insights into how educators can effectively support the development of executive functions in children. We compared and synthesized research from two distinct areas, investigating the roles of parent and teacher behaviors in shaping child executive functions. This review provided a comprehensive overview of which parental and teacher behaviors are critical for child executive function development and suggested future research directions for teacher studies based on theoretical and empirical findings from parental literature. Additionally, we examined the influence of teachers' diverse behaviors on child executive functions across different age groups. Our findings highlighted that teachers' instructional support plays a significant role in children's selective attention development in early childhood. We demonstrated that teacher behaviors observed in everyday classroom contexts play an important role in children's executive function development. The current dissertation contributes to the field by demonstrating that the nature of the relationship between teacher behaviors and child executive functions may depend on several factors, including the type of teacher behaviors, the type of executive functions, child factors such as age, and study designs. In summary, this dissertation underscores the importance of sustained, high-quality teacher-child interactions for fostering children's executive function development and provides a foundation for future research and educational interventions.
Original languageEnglish
QualificationDoctor of Philosophy
Awarding Institution
  • Utrecht University
Supervisors/Advisors
  • Blom, Elma, Supervisor
  • Mulder, Hanna, Co-supervisor
  • van de Weijer - Bergsma, Eva, Co-supervisor
Award date13 Feb 2025
Place of PublicationUtrecht
Publisher
Print ISBNs978-94-6506-850-3
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 13 Feb 2025

Keywords

  • executive functions
  • teacher-child interaction
  • teacher behavior
  • parent behaviors
  • systematic review
  • toddlerhood, primary school
  • scaffolding

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