The purpose of this research was to study a sociocognitive “student/parent/peer authoring community” called Traveling Books (TBks) in kindergarten and second grade in a public elementary school setting. TBks are teacher-made vehicles for involving parents in peer-based literacy environments. The study was based on Epstein's theory that increasing overlap of students' spheres of influence, home, school, and community, creates a greater likelihood that children will learn what the parents want them to learn. The aim was to locate essential elements that triggered learning processes to occur and to discover research-based fundamentals still missing from TBks. This qualitative inquiry incorporated the framework of Dr. Elliot Eisner‘s Educational Criticism with five distinctive dimensions (intentional, structural, curricular, pedagogical, and evaluative) to guide the analysis of TBk procedures. A purposive sample of six Utah teachers from rural and inner city classrooms participated with 251 students in 12 groups for 2½ years. Data were gathered from interviews, classroom observations, surveys, and artifacts. My role was researcher and participant/observer. What I found was that motivation for authoring increased when parents (or parent figures) contributed simple family knowledge to the TBks. Most parents indicated that their child‘s “favorite” TBks were those that had required the most parent involvement. A few parents, however, described frustration with their role in facilitating TBks with their child. Seven vignettes described the complex and subtle qualities found in TBk sociocognitive environments and its effect on struggling, average, gifted, and behaviorally handicapped children, and longitudinal effects on former students. Despite increased commitments, most teachers reported a lighter workload overall using TBks to augment their existing literacy programs. A sense of urgency to proceed with internet development for TBk facilitation was expressed. Options were explored for developing internet assisted training for teachers and parents. Twelve essential elements were identified and a TBks instructional model was developed. A clearer understanding of the educational philosophy behind TBks resulted in the design of a prototype tool to engage parents in TBks through interactive home writing. This study raised important questions about characteristics of optimal support for facilitating TBks and about fundamentals still missing for broader implementation.

Secure attachment in the mother-child relationship has been shown to be predictor of positive mental health and pro-social behaviors in children who are typically developing. This study uses a sample of young children (18 mo. to 2 yrs) who had been identified as having a delay in some area of development. Mothers of these children completed two paper-pencil measures of attachment, along with measures of child temperament, maternal psychological problems, parenting stress, and child behavior problems. A second set of measures was completed one year later. Results showed that increased parenting stress and difficulty of child temperament contributed to less security of attachment, while increased maternal psychological problems predicted higher attachment security. Analysis indicated that scores on both attachment measures were stable, and that a lower degree of attachment security predicted behavior problems in this sample of children with developmental delays.

Mastery of basic concepts is an academic building block for preschool children in early education programs. Research shows that understanding basic concepts (e.g. top, under, fast, now, all, behind, full and short) is important for academic success and higher order thinking. Experts in the field of concept acquisition agree on six strategies for teaching basic concepts. These strategies include: using positive examples and negative examples, highlighting critical features of concepts through continuous conversion, isolating the concept, the order in which the examples are presented, and teaching generalization. This study investigated the extent to which nine preschool teachers of children with hearing loss used four of the six strategies (using examples, non examples, continuous conversion, and isolating the concept) during a 20-minute lesson in which a new basic concept was taught. Results indicated that teachers do well with using examples to teach basic concepts, but they lack sufficient use of the other three strategies for teaching basic concepts.

Basic communication skills are foundational for children's success in school and are dependent largely on their language experiences early in life. The purpose of this study was to examine two professional development models and family child care providers' use of turn-taking strategies that promote language in young children. The first professional development model consisted of a 10-hour nonformal training focused on supporting early language development. The second included the nonformal training and on-site mentoring. The 48 family child care programs were randomly assigned to one of the professional development models or a control group. Hierarchical linear modeling was used to examine the average increase in the frequency of providers' use of turn-taking strategies over three observations. Results indicate that both forms of professional development support increased use of language promoting turn-taking strategies as compared to a control group. Professional development that includes on-site mentoring support appears to be related to greater increases in providers' use of informational talk and didactic utterances over training only.

Reading success has been linked to high school completion, future job success, and future generations of children who can read. Unfortunately, children who are unable to read on grade level by the end of first grade are at a great disadvantage and unlikely to catch up later. Without the ability to read and comprehend text, all aspects of schooling become progressively more difficult and the challenge of poor reading ability can be so difficult to overcome that many poor readers will not complete high school. For these reasons, it is important to identify early experiences in a child's family environment that predict the early skills that are necessary for later reading and reading comprehension. The child's family environment includes the quality of both the general home setting and specific kinds of parent-child interactions. The skills necessary for reading success include vocabulary, phonological skills, and other early literacy skills, but broader cognitive and regulatory skills may also be necessary. Because children from low-income families are at higher risk for reading problems, this study examines extant data on early environments, early development, and second-grade reading from a sample of 117 children from low-income families who participated in a longitudinal study from the child's infancy to second grade. Early family environments and children's early cognitive and other skills that are measured at 36 months and just prior to kindergarten entry at 54 months, were analyzed in relation to their second-grade vocabulary, reading ability, and reading comprehension. The results of this analysis of extant longitudinal data help identify early predictors of reading success for children at risk for reading problems.

The present study aims to investigate early childhood educators' experiences with digital technology and its integration in their teaching practices in kindergartens in Finland and their beliefs on the impact on children's learning. Digital technology has already influenced various aspects of life, and it would be inevitable not to impact Early Childhood Education settings. Therefore, it is essential to scrutinize early childhood educators' experience regarding the implementation of digital technology in everyday life in kindergarten, how they involve children with it, and their perspective on the impact on children's learning. The abovementioned rationale motivated the present qualitative research study. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with six early childhood educators who work actively in kindergartens in Finland. The interview consisted of open-ended questions, which attempted to delve into early childhood educators' beliefs on the role of digital technology in Early Childhood Education, the ways of implementation in kindergarten, and the effects on children's learning. The collected data from the semi-structured interviews were analyzed through thematic analysis. The findings revealed that the participants of the study use partially digital technology equipment in the kindergarten with children. However, they strongly believe they need more training to implement digital technology in Early Childhood Education adequately. Despite their feelings, they attempt to support children with utilizing digital technology. Moreover, the analysis of the collected data showed that children have the opportunity to practice emotional and social skills while using digital technology equipment but learn the conventional use of the digital devices too.

The building area of Mr. Polach, which is containing the buildings Pantáta, Panímáma and Mariánka – is unused nowadays. A variety of public functions designed for residents and visitors is proposed for its renovation. The Pantáta, the oldest of the three, is designed for freetime activities. As a leisure time center, it would work not only as an extension of the art school in Frenštát pod Radhoštěm, but also for other non-traditional activities for children and adults, for regular classes and single-time events and workshops, and thanks to the space possibilities of the main hall, also as the cultural center as well. The Panímáma building is designed as an alternative Waldorf type kindergarten, which, thanks to its unique location in the womb of nature, will surely attract a lot of interest. The last of the trio is Mariánka, which is ideal for the function of a tourist hostel, which is ideal in the area, because the function is currently demanded in the area and the current capacity is not sufficient. Accommodation is designed as a low-cost alternative with a shared kitchen and it is also great for organizing the educational events in countryside

The master project is divided into three parts. The problematic of first and second part is kindergarten building, its technical equipment and management systems. The third part deals with financial, energy and environmental comparison of different heat systems. The kindergarten is single-storey building without basement and is located in Ronov nad Doubravou, Czechia. Building is based on strip footing and structural system is masonry wall system with gable roof. Material of both load-bearing and non-bearing walls are sand-lime blocks. External walls are insulated by external thermal insulation composite system. Vertical structures are designed from wooden lattice truss. The building site contains also outdoor parking lot and a garden with a playground.

The aim of the work was to create a concept of land design after the former Jaselské barracks in the locality of Brno-Ponava. The proposal addresses urban ties in the area and their possible use in the coming years. The work is based on the concept of the zoning plan of Brno, where a new street connection is being created between Šumavská and Sportovní streets. A new block of flats is proposed here, containing the functions of housing, services, hotel accommodation and a multifunctional building. This project uses the potential of the area near to the city center and proposes other elements such as a new tram loop, two new streets and a living parterre oriented to the main street with commercial areas. The use of newly created courtyards in the form of front gardens and publicly accessible areas of urban greenery is also addressed here. This will create a new park inside the block itself. The proposal deals in more detail with possible layout solutions and variants of modern living in city center and offers apartments from the smallest sizes to above-standard housing layouts. The buildings facing Štefánikova Street are based on the traditional concept of facades and layouts. On the contrary, the proposed buildings in the eastern and southern part of the complex are based on the modern concept of apartment layouts and structural solutions of individual houses. In several buildings, large accessible galleries are designed, which allow to improve communication between the inhabitants of the house, but also mainly the comfort in using the house. All apartment buildings in the basement are equipped with garages designed for apartment residents. The dominant feature of the whole complex is a designed corner building and an axially mirrored hotel. For the rest of not only the locals, a simple wellness spa facility has been designed here, which gives a different view of our traditional czech spa. To complement the newly created apartments in this locality, there is also a location for a kindergarten, which is designed according to modern teaching methods and as much as possible with a feeling for the needs of little

The main aim of the thesis is to design a Kindergarten. It is situated on the west outskirt of the Havlíčkův Brod on the plot no. 653/1 in the cadastral area Havlíčkův Brod. The plot is sloped to the south. The building has two above-ground floors. The ground floor is cross shaped, and we can consist of it on four parts. Three are classrooms with locker room, sanitary facilities for children and bed storeroom. The last part is technical facilities (storerooms, halls, utility room, control room and room for serving food). On the first floor there are offices for teachers, staff room, director’s room, and locker room for employees (cooks, cleaners). Food will be imported to kindergarten. My project is designed like a masonry wall system from sand-lime blocks Silka. Non-load bearing walls are from aerated concrete blocks Ytong. Floor structures are designed as pre-stressed concrete panels. Roof above the ground floor is flat intensive green roof and roof above the first ground floor is flat extensive green roof. The building is heated by two gas boilers in the utility room and and the whole is forcibly ventilated according to two air-conditioning units. I use Archicad 22 for designing my Kindergarten.