The purpose of this study was to explore Turkish kindergarten early career stage teachers’ self-efficacy beliefs towards technology and their technology integration practices in their classrooms by answering: What are self-efficacy beliefs of Turkish kindergarten early career stage teachers towards technology? How do Turkish kindergarten early career teachers integrate technology into their classrooms’ instructions? The study was designed as a qualitative multiple case study and guided by Bandura’s (1986) social cognitive theory and Mishra and Koehler’s (2006) TPACK conceptual framework. I conducted this study in Istanbul, where is the most crowded and metropolitan city in Turkey. The schools were chosen by the Ministry of National Education (MoNE) after the permissions were received from IRB and MoNE, and the participants were assigned by the directors of schools based on research criteria. Participants were chosen purposefully, and there were four female kindergarten teachers in their early career stages, which were identified based on Steffy, Wolfe, Pasch and Enz (2000)’ stages: novice teacher and apprentice teacher, teaching five-year-old students at technologically well-equipped classrooms, and who had a bachelor’s degree in preschool teaching. Data was collected from three sessions of semi-structured interviews and two sessions of observation based on TIM-O. Data was coded and analyzed based on Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK) to make sense teachers’ technology self-efficacy beliefs towards technology and Technology Integration Matrix (TIM)’s to understand their technology practice into classroom instructions.

This study compared the effects of high-tech (e.g., clickers) and low-tech (e.g., response cards) active responding strategies during whole-group English language arts in two first-grade classrooms serving students with and without disabilities. The authors combined an ABAB reversal design with an alternating treatments design to compare the impact of using high-tech (clickers) and low-tech (response cards and hand raising) modalities on academic engagement, accuracy of responding, and disruptive behavior across four teacher-nominated students in two first-grade classrooms. During baseline, the teacher conducted her lesson as planned by having the students raise his/her hand to answer questions. In the intervention phase, students alternated between using preprinted response cards and clickers each session to answer the teacher’s questions. When using the pre-printed response cards or clickers, the students were instructed to hold up the index card with the correct answer or click the correct answer on his/her remote after the teacher read the question. The results of the study indicate that both active responding strategy (ARS) modalities were equally effective in increasing student academic engagement and decreasing disruptive behavior.

Young children’s emergent literacy skills, particularly phonological awareness (PA) and alphabet knowledge (AK), are two of the strongest predictors of future reading skill. There is limited research evaluating the effectiveness of emergent literacy interventions on the dual language PA and AK skills of at-risk Latino preschoolers who are Dual Language Learners (DLLs). The bulk of existing interventions are conducted only in English. There is preliminary evidence supporting that DLL Latino children benefit from Spanish PA and AK instruction; however, few studies include preschool-aged children. This study applied a multiple probe design across units of instruction to evaluate the effects of a supplemental PA and AK intervention delivered in Spanish that explicitly teaches transfer of these skills to English. The aims of the study were to determine: 1) whether children receiving this intervention would make gains in their Spanish PA skills following the intervention; 2) whether they would apply the PA skills they learned from Spanish to English; 3) whether they would make gains in their Spanish AK skills; and lastly; 4) whether they would apply these Spanish AK skills to English. Four Latino preschoolers with limited emergent literacy skills in Spanish and English participated in this study. Bilingual researchers delivered scripted lessons targeting PA and AK skills. The results indicated that children made large gains in their Spanish PA skills and small to moderate gains in their AK skills. Children also applied the skills they learned in Spanish to English. These findings provide preliminary evidence Latino preschoolers who are DLL benefit from emergent literacy instruction that promotes their bilingual and biliterate development.

The thesis deals with visual culture and digital photography in art education of pre-school children. The main objective is to uncover children's ability to work with a specific type of picture - photographic picture. The educational project is based on theoretical knowledge of digital media provided in the first part of the thesis and on practical experience gained during several years of practice with pre-school children. The project offers children to use digital photographs as another form of art expression. Talking with children and monitoring their reactions have shown that working with digital photographs is equally beneficial to them as any other art technique.

Summary: This thesis deals with the options of using traffic safety education in kindergarten. It investigates whether there is enough attention to traffic education given in preschool. The theoretical part is focused on basic concepts: education, preschool education, traffic education, all with regard to the issue of preschool age children. It describes the organization involved in the traffic education for preschool age children. It further analyzes the available methodological resources related to this issue due to Framework educational program for preschool education. The next section analyzes the traffic education program, which is assembled in the bachelor thesis. (Husáková 2012) Through analysis of educational programs of individual kindergartens in Decin, I found out, that there is not sufficient attention to traffic education given. Three kindergartens do not have the traffic education incorporated in their school curriculum at all, eleven kindergartens have it only within the school education programs, and only seven kindergartens pays attention to the traffic education in a separate annex. In the survey of methods and programs that I've implemented through the interviews and questionnaires, I found out, that the most common methods used within the traffic education in particular kindergartens...

TITLE: 2D and 3D Dimension in Kinderdarten Art Education AUTHOR: Bc. Lucie Kaločová DEPARTMENT: Department of Art Education SUPERVISOR: Mgr. Magdalena Novotná, Ph.D. ABSTRACT: This diploma thesis deals with the transition of areal and three-dimensional imagery in the works of selected artists, which are the basis for didactic transformation, into artistic activi- ties in the kindergarten program 'Starting Together'. The empiric part deals with the deve- lopment of spatial and areal perception among preschool children. The theoretical part discusses the contemporary understanding of art teaching and its full development potential in preschool education. It outlines the teacher's role in planning of artistic activities and his/her ability to provide children the world of culture and art in kinder- garten in comparison with the role of a gallery educator in an art gallery. It seeks to provide theoretical support for the empiric part and for the realized interdisciplinary project. It deals with the development of selected cognitive abilities of children of preschool age, sensation and perception, along with the possibilities of the development of spatial intelli- gence including the process of comparing during artistic activities. Art is put into the context of mathematics (didactics of mathematics education...

This diploma thesis deals with the topic of career in teaching, which has many specific characteristics compared to the classical concept of career. The thesis focuses on the group of kindergarten teachers who stand at the beginning of the education system as important influencers on the life-long educational journey of each of us. The aim of the thesis is to analyse the view of the kindergarten teacher career by teachers and principals and to look for support from the school management level. The theoretical part deals with three basic areas, which are professional development, professional career and career system. The first chapter shows the connection between the professional development of teachers and their career, it also focuses on its individual components, especially continual education of teachers. The second chapter is devoted to the career itself and compares the theoretical background of the career with its specifics in the teaching career. It looks at the teaching profession in terms of its attractiveness and individual stages of the teachers' career. The third chapter reflects the need for a career system, characterizes its benefits and presents the current state of its setting in the Czech Republic and abroad. The research part uses a questionnaire survey to find out how teachers...

Although early mathematics instruction is predictive of future mathematics achievement, the effects of STEM-based mathematics instruction on mathematics gains in elementary school have been largely unexplored. The purpose of this quantitative study was to determine whether mathematics scores from third grade student state-mandated standardized mathematics test differ between students who were enrolled in STEM schools and students who were enrolled in non-STEM schools in the largest school district located in a Southwestern state in the United States. Polya's problem-solving heuristics formed the theoretical framework because of their relevance to concepts on the third grade mathematics test. Two research questions focused on intraindividual changes and interindividual changes over time in standardized mathematics test scores of third grade students who were enrolled in 18 STEM and 18 non-STEM schools. Analyses included growth curve modeling and a one-way random effect ANOVA to determine individual growth trajectories of mathematics test scores from individual schools over time from 2012 through 2017. The results indicated that there were no intraindividual differences in growth over time within schools, and there were interindividual changes in growth over time between schools, but the changes could not be explained by the independent variables, STEM and non-STEM schools. Findings were not consistent with the literature, which indicated early STEM-based mathematics instruction is more beneficial than traditional instruction. This study offers implications for positive social change by demonstrating equivalent results of STEM to non-STEM instruction, which may encourage more hands-on, inquiry-based learning for all children.

Diploma thesis focuses on the question of how kindergarten teachers choose books for preschool children, what kind of books and main factors which influence their choice, e.g. cheap books, collectors' campaigns or interactive books. The theoretical part describes the development of a preschool child with respect to the reading, literary genres and types of books suitable for preschool children. It also points out publishing houses that publish children's books, awards for high-quality children's literature, and, last but not least, the media which influence the selection of books. It also explains the importance of support and development of reading literacy for a pre-school child. The aim of this work was to describe the process of selection of children's literature by kindergarten teachers and to find out main factors influencing this selection. After studying the literature, a questionnaire on 31 items for kindergarten teachers was created in the practical part. It was filled in by 129 respondents. By evaluation of this questionnaire i answered 14 hypotheses. It has been confirmed that university-educated teachers choose awarded books more than teachers without university education. For the teachers the most important feature from the options offered is high-quality text of the book. They also...

The diploma thesis is oriented on special education. The main goal is to find out and describe whether and how is speech and language therapy established in regular kindergartens at the foothills of Orlické mountains. The work is divided into five chapters, four of them are theoretical and the fifth chapter is a practical one. The first chapter is focused on the way how the preschool education is organised in the Czech Republic. It describes the legislation system, clarifies the system of curricular documents established in our republic and mainly the framework educational program for preschool education. The second chapter describes the preschool-child ontogenesis including all aspects of his/her personality and it also depicts the child-speech ontogenesis. The third chapter is focused on the main types of impaired communication ability of preschool children. The fourth chapter is focused on the speech therapy intervention provided in the Czech Republic. The fifth chapter presents combined research, within which the qualitative method of dialogue and the quantitative method of questionnaire were used, together with non-structured observation and comparative analysis among kindergartens. The chapter defines the research goals and used methods, sets the hypotheses and the research sample. In...