Using Teacher Prompts to Increase Leadership Skills in Preschool Children

Abstract

Abstract Background Early childhood leadership leads to positive outcomes for young children, including social competence. Objective The purpose of the present study was to examine the leadership behavior exhibited by three preschool aged children and to determine if teacher prompting could increase the frequency of leadership behaviors exhibited by preschool children. Methods A single case research design was utilized; specifically, we employed a multiple baseline design across preschool children to measure child leadership behaviors and teacher prompting. Results Baseline observations revealed that children engaged in Parten’s original 1933 framework of both directing and following, reciprocally directing or sharing leadership, and directing the group at varying levels. Using Pigors (Leadership and domination among children, 9:140–157, 1933) definition of “guidance of others toward a desired goal,” Leadership Prompting Intervention was used to increase children’s leadership behaviors. Results indicated that both teachers increased their level of leadership prompting, and all three children increased the behaviors of directing the group. Conclusions Teacher prompting is a low cost, low labor-intensive intervention that can be easily integrated into the early childhood classroom routine to increase children’s leadership skills. This study adds to the limited research on early childhood leadership (ECL) by providing insight into how teacher prompts can influence children’s leadership behavior in a specific context and setting.