The purpose of the evaluation was to test effectiveness of a visual, visual-motor, and auditory perceptual skills training program devised by Dr. Jerome Rosner, and to confirm or deny application of this training to improved classroom skills. Subjects were 38 kindergarten children, 20 in the Contrast Group, and 18 in the Experimental Group. Both groups received the same training in the basic curriculum of readiness skills. The Experimental Group also received training in the Visual Analysis and Auditory Analysis Skills programs. Pretests and posttests were administered, tabulated, and analyzed. Differences in raw score means were sufficient to indicate more than a chance factor and all tests demonstrated a plus factor for children in the Experimental Group.

Learning-related behavioral and academic skills upon kindergarten entry, sometimes referred to as kindergarten readiness, is a construct of growing importance in education, having implications for early learning and eventual achievement. Much of the research on entry skills has been limited to initial status only with inferences drawn about preparedness for school. In this study, I examine the relation among kindergarten entry skills in literacy and mathematics as well as outcomes measured at the end of the kindergarten school year. Two extant datasets were used—learning-related behavioral ratings and academic proficiency skills scores from a fall administration of a statewide kindergarten entry assessment and interim-formative assessment data collected for a subsample of students in the spring of the same academic year. The assessments were analyzed for their factor structures (using both exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses) as well as a hypothesized structural model. Factor analyses tested and confirmed the underlying structure and relations among items and measures included in the state entry assessment. Follow-up structural modeling confirmed the measurement model and concurrently estimated the effects of entry skills on emergent literacy and math skills measured in the spring, while accounting for student-level demographic characteristics. Results indicated that the state’s entry assessment measured three distinct skillsets: self-regulation and social-interpersonal learning-related behaviors, and academic proficiency. Importantly, kindergarten entry skills explained a large proportion of variance in spring emergent literacy achievement, beyond that of learning-related behavioral skills and student demographic characteristics. In contrast, these entry skills explained far less variance in spring math achievement. These findings are interpreted in the context of existing theory and recent empirical research.

The problem of this study was to identify some concerns of Korean kindergarten teachers at different points in their careers, based on the conceptual framework of Katz's (1972, 1977, 1985) theory of preschool teacher development. This study also described the variations in these concerns on the basis of some teacher characteristics including teaching experience, certification, educational background, inservice training, and teaching assignment. The subjects for this study were 174 volunteers who were Korean kindergarten teachers in Seoul, Korea. The concerns of the teachers were expressed through the Kindergarten Teacher Concerns Questionnaire, consisting of two parts: (a) background information, and (b) the Kindergarten Teacher Concern Rating Scale (KTCRS), consisting of a list of 54 items developed by Tsai (1990), reflecting the four areas of concerns—Survival, Consolidation, Renewal, and Maturity—formulated by Katz. A Likert type 5-point scale indicating the degree of concerns was used in the questionnaire as the scoring system. The following conclusions were drawn from this study: 1. The concerns of the Korean kindergarten teachers were developmental in nature in terms of preoccupation with a specific area of concerns at different points in the teachers' careers. This result tended to follow a sequence of stages as posited by Katz (1972, 1977, 1985). 2. The sample characteristics of this study strengthened the belief that the qualifications for Korean kindergarten teachers need to be raised for the sake of development of early childhood education in Korea. 3. Certification and inservice training might enhance the teachers' job awareness and expectation level of job performance. The findings implied that preservice and inservice education need to be based on teacher concerns. The recommendations for future research included (a) replicating this study with a nationwide sample for a broader generalization, and (b) tracing the processes of change in Korean kindergarten teacher concerns through qualitative research such as longitudinal studies, case studies, or intensive interviews.

提升學前教育的機會與品質成為世界趨勢，近年來中國大陸政府在普及學前教育進程中逐漸關注並出臺政策以保障和監控教育品質，這對幼兒園教師提出高績效表現的素質要求。然而，實踐一線的教師們面臨著國家和市場的雙重期待，究竟如何看待自己？又如何為職業賦予了什麼樣的意義？ 本研究借助詮釋性互動和符號互動論為理論視角，採用質化研究的取向，以北京為實地研究範圍，選取33名幼兒園教師和3名管理者，就其對身為教師的理解與詮釋展開深入訪談，輔之以文檔收集和實地觀察，探討幼兒園教師為職業賦予意義的過程。本研究主要有以下發現： / 首先，影響幼兒園教師身份的三種結構性力量分別是國家權力、市場話語和性別文化。這三種力量共同交織，巧妙地將幼兒園教師群體置於弱者之境，導致幼兒園教師身份空間被擠壓、身份異化和性別化。其次，符號互動論視角下，幼兒園教師身份構建就是幼兒園教師與他人進行外部互動和與自我進行內部互動的過程。不同工作情境下的幼兒園教師身份構建呈現三種不同的路徑：外部主導型、內部主導型以及內外兼顧型，從而構建出不同類型的幼兒園教師身份：保姆與廉價勞動力、有特色的專業工作者、我不是保姆而是___老師。最後，情緒在幼兒園教師身份構建中的作用表現在：情緒是身份的晴雨表、身份呈現的工具、身份承諾的動力及促進身份轉化的誘因。幼兒園教師在身份構建過程中情緒產生並嵌入其互動的工作情境中，與不同對象互動中呈現出不同的情緒地理。幼兒園教師情緒規則包括善於控制情緒，積極運用情緒，堅持微笑服務；其情緒勞動時間長、多樣性、強度大。他們並運用偽裝、抑制、自我勸服和釋放等情緒勞動策略。 / 本研究對幼兒園教師身份構建的探討豐富了教師身份研究；並回應了關於教師身份構建的宏觀結構因素、身份構建機制以及身份構建中的情緒等學術討論；同時，提出幼兒園教師專業性中的情緒情感維度，即情緒性的專業性。最後，就政府幼教政策推行以及政府制定市場規則方面提出政策建議，並探討了對幼兒園管理實踐的啟示。 / Improving the quality of preschool education has become a global trend. In recent years, the Chinese government has increasingly focused on universalizing preschool education in the country, launching policies to guarantee high-quality education. Rigorous requirements have also been implemented to maintain the caliber of preschool teachers. In this context, how do front-line teachers in Mainland China understand their teacher identities amid the objectives set by the state and the market for them? How do they make sense of their careers? Informed by the interpretive and symbolic interactionism perspectives, this multiple-case qualitative study examines how preschool teachers in Mainland China construct their professional identities and how they understand and interpret the roles of preschool teachers. Sources of data include in-depth interviews with 33 preschool teachers and 3 preschool leaders in Beijing, documents like teaching materials and school policies, as well as field observations. / The analysis of the multiple sources of data indicates that: (1) The professional identities of preschool teachers were primarily influenced by state power, market discourse, and gender culture. These influential forces acted mutually on one another and put preschool teachers into a weak position, thereby limiting, alienating, and sexualizing their identity. (2) From the perspective of symbolic interactionism, preschool teachers constructed their identity through external and internal interactions. Preschool teacher participants in the study are classified as external-interaction-dominant, internal-interaction-dominant, and both external- and internal-interaction, which constructed preschool teachers with different identities, such as baby-sitters, cheap laborers, professionals and teachers. (3) When constructing their identity, preschool teachers use their emotions as a barometer of their identity, a means to manifest their identity, a driving force for profession commitment, and a motivation to transform their identity.Preschool teachers demonstrate feelings and emotions during their identity construction and display emotional geographies when interacting with different objects in their working contexts. Their emotional labor is characterized by long duration, diversity, and stress. Their emotional rules include their capabilities to control their emotions, actively use their emotions, and deliver their service with a smile. Preschool teachers also employ a variety of emotional labor strategies such as emotional masking, emotional suppression, self-persuasion, and emotional release. This dissertation enriches the literature on teacher identity by illuminating the processes through which preschool teachers construct their own identities. The findings also respond to the academic discussion about the macro influential structural factors upon which teachers construct their identity, the identity construction mechanism, and the emotions they display during identity construction. This dissertation also proposes that emotion is a dimension of preschool teachers’ professionalism. From these insights, the government can revise preschool education policies, and regulate the rules of the market. And suggestions concerning improvements of management and practices at preschools are made as well. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / 張麗敏. / Parallel title from added title page. / Thesis (Ph.D.) Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2015. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 231-250). / Abstracts also in Chinese. / Zhang Limin.

Based upon the findings of the study, improvement measures are suggested, namely, government subsidies to help the kindergartens to mediate market forces, restructuring of the bureaucratic-authoritarian management in kindergartens, promotion of home-school partnerships, empowerment of teachers through nurturing their pedagogical competence, and reformation of the philosophical underpinnings of teacher training. / The call for professionalism in kindergarten education has been an important educational issue over the past several decades in Hong Kong. Official expectations have been published to guide the services of kindergarten education and to supervise teachers' pedagogical practice. Kindergarten education services that are child centred and play based, and that practise integrated learning to nourish children's holistic and balanced development are advocated. However, Quality Assurance Inspection reports have shown that kindergarten teaching and learning is still teacher directed. Young children are passive recipients of knowledge. The services run counter to the progressive motives of the 2000 Education Reform in nurturing young children to be active and self-motivated life-long learners. Driven by the interest to study the practice-expectation gap, the present study sought to observe kindergarten teachers' classroom practice, investigate their pedagogical decision making, and reveal the complexities underpinning their pedagogical roles which, to an extent, emerged from the practice-expectation gap. / The data analysis suggests that the teacher informants' pedagogical decision making and practice were shaped by a number of intervening forces. These forces can be categorised into (a) the personal variables of the teacher informants in terms of their personal beliefs and values towards kindergarten education, (b) the contextual variables of school management structure and administrative arrangements within which the teacher informants delivered their teaching and fostered the children's learning, (c) the societal variables of parental expectations of the kindergarten education of their young children, and (d) the professional variables of the teacher training programmes and their training effectiveness that nurtured the teacher informants' pedagogical competence. Each of these variables represents a unique array of interferences for the teacher informants, and when drawn together, the combination of influences that thus emerges illustrates the complexities within which the teacher informants made their pedagogical decisions. Consequently, the pedagogical practices of teachers were pushed and pulled by these intervening forces, causing deviation from the Official Expectations. / The present study, framed by in a qualitative research design, employed on-site observations and teacher interviews, together with official document analysis and training curriculum document analysis. The wealth of data and information collected revealed that a practice-expectation gap does exist. / Fung, Kit Ho. / "December 2007." / Adviser: Chi-Chung Lam. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 69-08, Section: A, page: 3023. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2007. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 405-462). / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Electronic reproduction. [Ann Arbor, MI] : ProQuest Information and Learning, [200-] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Abstracts in English and Chinese. / School code: 1307.

Many children enter formal schooling with a propensity toward literacy success while others lack foundational skills that adequately support literacy achievement. Researchers acknowledge if certain skills are not present upon entrance into formal schooling, literacy success can be affected. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to examine first-grade students' home literacy experiences prior to receiving formal reading instruction in a one suburban public school. Bruner's theory of scaffolding, which suggests that parents and teachers support children in the learning process, and Vygotsky's concept of zone of proximal development provided the conceptual framework for this study. The research questions focused on literacy events parents used at home with their preschool-age children. Twelve parents of first grade students were interviewed for their perspectives on literacy experiences with their children at home. Data were examined for common themes using a typological analysis to determine types of parent-child interactions that promote children's positive attitudes and academic success in reading. The data revealed that parents, who view themselves as their children's primary teachers and provide literacy instruction to their children prior to entering school, have children who are high achieving readers. A recommendation is that the target school district provides parent education programs to equip parents of preschool-age children with skills that promote success in literacy. Positive social change might occur when district teachers partner with parents to create home learning environments to improve children's literacy academic achievement.

Teachers know that many nonnative English language learners (ELLs) have problems with successful negotiation of academic English vocabulary. The purpose of this study, working from a behavioralist perspective as espoused by Thorndike, Skinner, and Bandura, was to determine if a vocabulary program influenced word acquisition in first grade ELLs. The research questions focused on the degree to which the program affected the learner's vocabulary and helped to alleviate word poverty from among the 34 participants in the study. In this quantitative pretest -- posttest design, ELL students were exposed to 9 weeks of intense instruction. The vocabulary acquisition of ELL students in first grade at a K-5 elementary school was measured. Data were assessed statistically using paired samples t-tests. Results indicated a statistically significant improvement in ELL vocabulary. Implications for social change include providing information that can assist teachers and school districts in selecting effective vocabulary strategies for those at risk for low school performance.

Students who enter kindergarten lacking readiness skills often struggle to meet literacy benchmarks and to successfully complete school. The problem to be investigated by this study is the low literacy scores on the standardized Fountas and Pinnell Benchmark Assessment test at 2 public New Jersey elementary schools. While some students attended public or private preschools, others did not attend any preschool prior to starting kindergarten. The purpose of this quantitative study was to determine the difference in kindergarten literacy gain scores among students who attended public, private, and no preschool. Vygotsky's sociocultural theory and emergent literacy theory served as the theoretical foundation for this study. The study followed an ex post facto 1 x 3 factorial design. Analysis of variance was conducted using an archived data set that included pre- and posttest kindergarten literacy scores for 100 kindergarten students accounting for approximately 15% of the school district's total kindergarten population. The results showed a statistically significant difference for both the public and private preschool group compared to the no preschool group. Student achievement between the pre- and posttest increased the greatest for the public preschool attendance group. Results inform families' early childcare decisions, empower policy makers seeking early intervention, and contribute to the growing body of research acknowledging the positive effects of preschool attendance.

published_or_final_version / Architecture / Master / Master of Architecture

published_or_final_version / Architecture / Master / Master of Architecture