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...

The diploma thesis deals with musical-pedagogical work of Emil Hradecký. The theoretical part is focused on the personality and music creation of Emil Hradecký and briefly characterizes the piano composition. Furthermore, the work focuses on the issues of musical development of a preschool child, describes musical activities and explains the musical-educational process from the Framework Educational Programme for Preschool Education, MŠMT ČR. The practical part is based on a questionnaire survey of kindergarten teachers, whose main aim is to find out the teachers' use of the music-pedagogical work of Emil Hradecký in their pedagogical work. The partial goals map the subjective attitudes of kindergarten teachers to the inclusion of musical activities in practice and find out which specific music materials from E. Hradecky these teachers know and how they prefer to work with them. The next aim of the thesis is to design the model situations in which the piano miniatures of Emil Hradecký are used in kindergarten in musical and other aesthetic-educational activities. Key Words piano miniatures, Emil Hradecký, musical activities, model situation, kindergarten, preschool child

This study describes the language behaviors and social strategies of English as Second Language (ESL) and English as Primary Language (EPL) pre-kindergarten students during cooperative Computer Assisted Instruction (CAI) experiences. Thirty-three pre-kindergarten subjects ages four to five years, were videotaped at two personal computers during self-selected center time. The sources of data for this descriptive study were a parent computer survey, videotapes, a subject interview derived from the Young Children's Computer Inventory, and written records.

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Kindertagesbetreuung befindet sich in einem Prozess steigender fachlicher Anforderungen, die dem neuen Bildungsverständnis, der veränderten Kindheit und der damit einhergehenden veränderten Sichtweise auf das Kind auf Grundlage aktuellster wissenschaftlicher Erkenntnisse aus der Neurobiologie entsprechen müssen.

One in 4 children in the United States lives in a family impacted by the chronic, heritable disease of substance use disorder (SUD), also known as alcoholism or addiction. Recent research has demonstrated that resilience is a key protective factor against developing the disease in adolescence and adulthood and that the neurological roots of resilience lie in the child's experiences in early childhood. In spite of this, few resources related to family SUD or current models of resilience are included in preservice teacher preparation for early childhood educators. This study examined whether key components of Masten's model of resilience are found in fairytales, a form of literature commonly used in early childhood teacher preparation programs. A qualitative, descriptive, deductive content analysis was conducted on 24 fairytales from 22 different cultures, using a tool derived from Propp's morphology of fairytales and Masten's model of resilience. Results indicated that the texts of 96% of these stories contained multiple specific references to the 3 dominant evidence-based factors for resilience: attachment/relationships, initiative, and self-regulation. When broken into the 7 subcategories of these 3 protective factors, as identified by Masten, 9 fairytales contained examples of all 7 protective factors; 9 had examples of 6, and another 5 had examples of 5. The results of this study may be used to provide teacher educators with resources to better prepare preservice early childhood teachers to understand and nurture resilience in children, while addressing existing mandated learning objectives related to emergent literacy. This will benefit all children the teachers will work with, but especially those who are impacted by SUD and other forms of trauma.

In response to social trends whereby children are spending less time outside, school administrators have developed certified Nature Explore Outdoor Classrooms (NEOCs) intentionally designed to support whole-child learning within a natural environment. Despite the documented benefits of nature-based education, the literature and NEOC sites report challenges in facilitating this type of space. The purpose of this study was to investigate what prevents teachers in a certified NEOC from facilitating student/teacher engagement with the natural outdoor environment. Kolb's, Piaget's, and Vygotsky's theories of constructivism served as the study's framework to explore the problem from the teachers' perspectives. A qualitative case study was used to gain insight into the potential barriers to facilitating a NEOC. Eight teachers were recruited using purposeful sampling. Participant criteria included (a) >18 years of age, (b) >3 years early childhood teaching experience, (c) >1 year experience in selected NEOC, (d) prior NEOC training, and (e) willingness to share experiences. Data collection included classroom observation, individual interviewing, and review of relevant documents. All data were analyzed using comparative and inductive analysis and coded into 5 emergent themes. Identified barriers included teacher involvement, rules and regulations, volunteers, materials, and weather. By creating a 3-day professional development program that supports the benefits of nature-based learning environments and introduces strategies to overcome identified barriers, this study may promote positive social change in nature-based education. Children, families, and communities may expand their nature-based knowledge and interaction skills to pass to future generations.

Evidence suggests that parents in low socioeconomic households may have unaddressed educational needs about their children's development. The purpose of this case study was to discover innovative ways parents in a low socioeconomic community engaged in activities with their young children to influence academic and social development. Bronfenbrenner's ecological theory of human development and Epstein's parental involvement model, the family process model, and the family strength model were used to build the conceptual framework. Parents and educators were asked to describe parent-engagement opportunities that were provided within the kindergarten classroom. Data were collected using a focus group with 13 educators who were involved in early childhood education to discuss parental involvement in the early development of young children and via in-depth interviews with 6 parents who attended classroom events to promote engagement in their child's development in school and at home. Data were analyzed in a cycle with a deductive coding process. Manual coding was completed in each stage. The major themes identified include creating a team of early childhood educators and parents, building 21st century thinking skills, and enabling the community for early preparation using authentic learning. Recommendations were presented for educators and parents as they guide young children in the development of academic, social, and behavioral skills. Positive social change will come to the full community as parents are more prepared to equip their children with 21st century learning skills; in turn, children will obtain higher levels of achievement and enter the work force equipped for success.

The local problem that prompted this study was declining student achievement scores in the 4th and 5th grades at a Title 1 elementary school in the southeastern U.S. As a result, school administrators initiated an environmental change from a self-contained classroom structure to departmentalization and team teaching for 4th and 5th grades. The purpose of the study was to investigate perspectives of teachers and administrators regarding their needs to address their own self-efficacy for improving student learning, and their perspectives of the team teaching and departmentalization processes in enhancing student achievement. The conceptual framework for this study was Bandura's theory of self-efficacy. The research design was a qualitative case study using purposeful sampling. Interviews were conducted with 10 participants; 9 teachers who were presently teaching or had taught at the 4th and 5th grade levels for 2-20 years as well as 1 administrator. Participants' responses were coded and analyzed for emerging themes related to teachers' sense of efficacy to improve achievement, and issues with team teaching, departmentalization and student learning. The key findings include teachers' beliefs that, with support from professional development, they could help increase student achievement and then departmentalization would be more successful. A policy paper was constructed as a project to address ongoing, mandated professional development for teachers and administrators in strategies for increasing their efficacy in the use of team teaching and departmentalization structures to improve student learning. Using study findings, upper elementary school administrators and teachers may be able to make effective organizational decisions to improve self-efficacy of teachers to meet the school's increased expectations regarding student learning and achievement.