| The purpose of this study was to identify teaching strategies used by low income Chicano mothers by observing mother-child interactions in the home. Thirty mother-child dyads, equally divided between mother-son and mother-daughter, participated in this study.; Fourteen of the mothers were monolingual English and sixteen were bilingual English/Spanish. Only two of the mothers, however, used Spanish while teaching their children. The mothers' mean age was 24.7 years and their mean educational level was 9.5 years. Twenty-seven of the children had attended Head Start a minimum of seven months. The children's mean age was 53 months.; Analysis of the mother-child interactions resulted in the development of 11 categories of maternal teaching strategies. These were: goal identification, assessment of progress, direction-giving, presentation of facts/information, positive reinforcement, punishment, statement of relationships, control, visual cue, modeling and inquiry.; The findings of this study indicate a need to reexamine theoretical assumptions regarding appropriate teaching strategies for use with Chicano children. The most frequently used teaching strategy was direction-giving which accounted for 25% of the interactions recorded. The least used strategy was goal identification which occurred in 3% of the interactions. The level of formal education attained by the mother did not affect her choice of teaching behavior. Behaviors exhibited by the children tended to be similar, except girls did not attend to the task as frequently as boys. In this situation, mothers used a broader range of strategies to teach their daughters.; This research is of primary significance to preschool teachers of Chicano children, although educators of Chicano students in general could also benefit from the results of this study. Understanding Chicano maternal teaching strategies experienced by children in their homes can be used by teachers to promote a more effective learning environment in the schools. Additionally, the methodology implemented in this study can be implemented by educators to identify teaching strategies which are effective with culturally different students. |
