The effect of public school prekindergarten (pre-K) attendance on academic achievement has not been extensively studied for the purpose of funding these programs. The MCT2 scale scores in the areas of language arts and math and the report card number grades for the areas of language arts and math were analyzed for 114 students. Of this number, 49 students attended a public school pre-K program, and 65 students did not attend a public school pre-K program. This study was a causal-comparative study. A repeated measures approach with a between-within design was used. An analysis of covariance, ANCOVA, was used to examine if there was a statistically significant difference in the MCT2 scale scores for language arts for 3rd-grade students who attended a public school pre-K program and students who did not attend a public school pre-K program. In addition, 3 separate t-tests were run for each grade level for language arts and math report card grades. Results revealed that there was a statistically significant difference in the MCT2 language arts mean scale scores. For the area of math, the students who attended a public school pre-K program had comparable MCT2 math mean scale scores with the participants who did not attend a public school pre-K program. For language arts and math report card number grades, students who attended a public school pre-K program had higher report card number grades compared with students who did not attend a public school pre-K program. Based on these findings, it can be implied that public school pre-K attendance was effective for the academic areas language arts and math. It is recommended that public school pre-K programs continue to be funded and implemented for 4-year-old students in the Raleigh School District. The subjects of language arts and math should continue to be instructed for the pre-K students. It is also recommended that public school pre-K programs be funded and implemented in school districts across the state of Mississippi, as well as nationwide.

This study was conducted to describe the initial physical education experiences of two less skilled (LS) and two more skilled (MS) kindergarten children, to gain insights into children’s feelings about those experiences, and to suggest their educational significance. Data for this study were triangulated through the use of observations, fieldnotes, and interviews. A narrative description of the setting, program, and teacher were written along with descriptive profiles of each the four children’s experiences in physical education. The results of this study indicated that there were both similarities and differences in the experiences of LS and MS kindergarten children as they participated their initial physical education classes. LS children appeared hesitant in get involved in activity while the MS children appeared more confident in their participation. LS children appeared to learn about classroom procedures by observing their classmates while the MS children appeared to learn about procedures from the teacher or simply figured out what to do on their own. Children were similar in their feelings about participating with partners. They all reported they would rather work by themselves than with a partner. Throughout their initial experiences all four children appeared to possess a "relentless persistence for play’. Whenever physical education tasks were too easy, too difficult, or uninteresting, the children were observed to change the activities to be more play-like. The teacher’s "zone or appropriate responses’ provided children the opportunity to change some tasks to be more play-like while other tasks required a specific non-play-like structure. / Ed. D.

On the most simple level the projects presented here are intended to fulfill the requirements of a kindergarten. At the next level they represent an investigation into the roles of order in design. In these projects I have chosen to deal with four orders inherent to architecture. The most basic is the order of material, fundamental and inescapable. Linked to this is the order of geometry, which must be sympathetic to the order of material, but goes further in establishing an overall pattern. Giving additional meaning to the overall pattern is the hierarchical order of the spaces. Finally, the social order animates the hierarchy with the abstract notions of the individual and collective. The core of this thesis lies in the integration of these orders into a coherent system, a deep structure adaptable to a variety of conditions. This deep structure gathers the orders, allowing for the necessary freedom while giving the equally indispensable restraint. The system provides a vehicle, an operational method from which one may approach each new circumstance. The following pages present the physical manifestations of this deep structure at several scales. From the realm of the site to the geometry of small objects the single overriding structure gives order, bringing together disparate elements into comprehensible wholes, intensifying the experience and ultimately infusing the whole with a spirit, architecture. / Master of Architecture

In an age of adultism in which children have been perceived as mere drains on society, schooling often has been viewed as a means to an end. Due to the fact that a capitalistic society requires future workers, children have been socialized in the necessary skills and knowledge required to fulfill their future job requirements. Consequently, schooling often has taken place in the form of the banking model in which students are treated as empty vessels to be filled up by the knowledgeable teachers, and then to regurgitate said knowledge on assessments to prove their understanding. I challenge this antiquated vision of education, especially in relation to what it has meant for young children in preschool through first grade. Using critical pedagogy and the Reggio Emilia approach as theoretical frameworks, I conducted a critical narrative study of eight early educators who have had experience working with students in early grades in emancipatory ways. I found that educators’ own experiences and consciousness greatly affected their beliefs about young children as well as the liberatory practices they engaged. I present a proposal for a shift in thinking about the education of young children, a relational model of education that highlights the intersections of critical pedagogy and the Reggio Emilia approach in grounding the work of teaching in armed love, belief in the capabilities of children, and opportunities for students to work with educators as revolutionary partners and transformative change agents who have an active role in their education and their world.

<p dir="ltr">Children with autism may have delayed language skills. Deficits in pragmatic language can affect social interaction with adults and peers and academic performance as more complex language becomes required for reading comprehension and analysis of information (Ibrahimagic et al., 2021 p. 251) This research supports the study question, how can educators prepare children with autism during this transition program? The survey was sent to fifteen participants addressing their insights and experiences of the transition to kindergarten process and the transition strategies that were used in the classroom. The results from the survey indicated that teachers do not know about the transition to kindergarten process. For the transitional practices, 36% of teachers said they used social stories, 9% of teachers used a photo book of new people and school environments, and 27% of teachers used observations of the student in the preschool classroom. This research assisted in the production of a handbook.</p>

Over the past three years, there have been changes in learning observed due to COVID-19 pandemic-related disruptions that affected young learners who needed support during instruction, raising concerns about their learning progress. As such, this qualitative phenomenological study explored and described the parent and teacher perspectives on the long-lasting impact of COVID-19 on kindergarten students who started formal education virtually during a pandemic. The central research question, "What are the teacher and parent perspectives on learning during the pandemic and their views on the impact of remote instruction on kindergarteners?" was examined from a constructivist and play-based learning theory. The study used purposeful and snowball sampling to obtain five teachers and four parents who virtually completed one-on-one 15- to 30-minute semi-structured interviews. Data was analyzed using Boije's constant comparative approach using three steps: (1) comparison within a single interview, (2) comparison between interviews within the same group, and (3) comparison of interviews from the two different groups. I used an inductive approach using axial coding to interpret results on themes that surfaced from within the participants' interviews. The study findings will benefit educators, school leaders, policymakers, and researchers interested in early childhood education. Limitations of the study include lack of generalizability, exclusive focus on the kindergarten level of study, and the use of previous literature conducted in different contexts and cultures to support the need for the study.

Although play is a vital concept and a core element within early childhood development, it is quickly diminishing throughout our schools. It is critical to provide an awareness that play is important in the development of young children and allows . children the opportunity to grow socially, emotionally, physically and cognitively. This thesis provides some play strategies and implications for parents to ensure their children's optimal development.

published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education

本研究旨在探討幼托園所主管教學領導行為與教師教學效能之關係。首先瞭解幼托園所主管教學領導行為與教師教學效能之內涵及現況；其次分析不同背景變項在幼托園所主管教學領導行為與教師教學效能之差異情形；接著探討幼托園所主管教學領導行為與教師教學效能之相關，以及瞭解幼托園所主管教學領導行為對教師教學效能各層面之預測力。 本研究方法除了以文獻探討，分析教學領導行為與教師教學效能之理論與相關研究外，並兼採問卷調查法及訪談調查法。問卷調查之對象以基隆市、臺中縣、臺中市、彰化縣、南投縣，已立案之公、私立幼稚園及托兒所教師為母群體，採兩階段抽樣法進行取樣，共發出720份問卷，總計回收有效問卷493份（有效回收率68.47%）。使用之研究工具為自編之「幼托園所主管教學領導行為與教師教學效能關係調查問卷」，問卷回收後，採描述性統計、信度分析、t考驗、單因子變異數分析、皮爾森積差相關、典型相關、逐步多元迴歸及薛費法多重比較，進行資料分析。在訪談調查部分，乃針對十位幼托園所主管及教師，進行電話訪談。本研究所獲致之主要結論如下： 壹、幼托園所主管教學領導行為方面 一、幼托園所主管教學領導行為表現積極，其中以「發展支持的工作環境」表現最好。 二、「園所主管年資」在幼托園所主管教學領導行為達顯著影響；而「園所所處地區」、「園所性質」、「園所規模」及「園所主管最高學歷」在幼托園所主管教學領導行為未達顯著影響。 貳、教師教學效能方面 一、幼托園所教師教學效能表現良好，其中以「教學互動」表現最好。 二、「園所性質」、「園所主管年資」、「教師年齡」、「教師任教年資」及「兼任行政職務」在幼托園所教師教學效能達顯著影響；而「園所所處地區」、「園所規模」、「園所主管最高學歷」及「教師最高學歷」在幼托園所教師教學效能未達顯著影響。 參、幼托園所主管教學領導行為與教師教學效能兩者之關係方面 一、「幼托園所主管教學領導行為」與「教師教學效能」呈現正相關。 二、「幼托園所主管教學領導行為」對「教師教學效能」具有預測力。 最後研究者根據研究結果，分別對幼兒教育行政機關、幼托園所主管培育機構、幼教師資培育機構、幼托園所主管、幼托園所教師以及後續相關研究提出相關建議，以期對未來幼教的發展有所助益。 / The main purpose of this study was to: (1) Investigate current situation of directors’ instructional leadership behaviors and teachers’ teaching effectiveness. (2) Explore the different influence effect of different variables on these two areas. (3) Analyze the relationships between directors’ instructional leadership behaviors and teachers’ teaching effectiveness. (4) Explore the predictive power of directors’ instructional leadership behaviors on the part of teachers’ teaching effectiveness. To accomplish these purposes, literature review was adopted in addition to questionnaire and interview (telephone survey). In questionnaire aspect, the teacher subjects were included public and private kindergartens and nursery schools in Taiwan, specifically Keelung City, Taichung County, Taichung City, Changhua County, Nantou County by means of stratified two-stage simple sampling. “The Kindergarten and Nursery Directors’ Instructional Leadership Behavior and Teachers’ Teaching Effectiveness Questionnaire” was designed to collect the data. 720 questionnaires were delivered, and 493 were retrieved with an effective return rate of 68.47%. The questionnaire data analysis included description statistics, reliability analysis, t-test, one-way ANOVA, Pearson-moment correlation analysis, canonical correlation, multiple stepwise regression analysis, and Scheffé’s posteriori comparison through the use of SPSS 10.07 for Windows. Ten directors and teachers from the sample of questionnaire interviews were selected for the telephone interviews. The major results were summarized as follows: A. In the aspect of director’s instruction leadership: a. Instruction leadership behavior of director is above average. For directors, the best dimension is to “develop a supporting environment”. b. Directors’ service years have a significant effect on director’s instruction leadership. Kindergarten location, kindergarten category of public or private, school size, and highest educational degree of the director do not have a significant effect on director’s instruction leadership. B. In the aspect of teachers’ teaching effectiveness: a. Teachers’ teaching effectiveness is above average. For teacher, the best dimension is to “instructional interaction”. b. Kindergarten category of public or private, directors’ years of service, teachers’ age, teachers’ years of service, part-time administrative position have significant influences on teachers’ teaching effectiveness. Kindergarten location, school size, highest educational degree of the director and highest educational degree of the teacher do not have significant effect on teachers’ teaching effectiveness. C. In the aspect of relationships between directors’ instructional leadership behaviors and teachers’ teaching effectiveness: a. There was a positive correlation between directors’ instruction leadership and teachers’ teaching effectiveness. b. Directors’ instruction leadership was predictive of teachers’ teaching effectiveness. In the last part, based on the findings, the researcher proposes some suggestions for the education authorities, the director training institutions, the teacher training institutions, the preschool directors and teachers, and the future researchers, hoping to benefit the development of preschool education in the future.

台灣早期的幼教發展，於政府長時期疏於管理下，導致現今幼教界存在諸多糾結複雜的問題，這些客觀外在環境條件所產生的問題，直接衝擊幼教核心之一「教師」角色的生存空間。在高師資流動性特質之幼教場域中，那些資深專業工作者如何能夠在所處的社會情境脈動中，長時期持續朝向自我選擇之幼教職業道路推進，為本研究的核心關注。透過一位資深幼教工作經歷的園長之生命視窗—她的工作經驗世界，理解幼師職業生涯運轉歷程的樣貌；並從主體生命故事敘說之縱向歷史回顧中，理解其中透露的重要社會結構變遷訊息。 本研究採取質性研究方法中的傳記研究取向，以德國社會學者Fritz Sch&uuml;tze所發展之「敘述訪談法」(narrative interview)進行資料採集工作，訪談一位具有二十九年幼教工作經歷的幼兒園園長。訪談結果整理為敘述文本後，並參照Fritz Sch&uuml;tze所提出的理論建構分析方案，對文本進行結構描述以及概念抽象化分析的整體形塑，以回應欲探究的問題。 經過資料分析過程，逐漸釋出本研究主體—杏芬園長「不成長就會被淘汰」的生命信念意涵，文本透露出自我完成性在主體生命開展歷程中，為一種突破環境限制與期望朝向更好的動力，促使主體一再超越現實環境的限制，萌生其積極性意義。「不進則退」生命觀於時間流動中架構出主體的生活經驗世界，形成生命能量內塑與外推之上揚動力，於接受工作挑戰與追求成長歷程中蛻變。於是可以看出，環境或自我本身的未確定性，雖然帶來了限制，卻也充滿無限可能性。最後，研究者就文本解析之內容，提出「公私幼消長生態下幼師的生存處境」議題進行探討；並且參照Csikszentmihalyi創造力系統論觀點，建立一個類似的系統原型，從個人、學門及領域三個面向，闡釋研究主體長期安身立命於幼教職業工作中的可能因素。 / “Either growing or eliminating”— A description analysis of a kindergarten teacher’s life revolving Due to the lack of management by the government in Taiwan in early years, there are many problems that exist in the field of early childhood education. Those impact the survival of the key personnel, the teachers, in this field directly. In the social context of high turn over ratio of the teachers in this field, how senior teachers keep standing fast at the post and moving forward is the center concern of this research. By interviewing a senior teacher’s working experience, the researcher gets to know the different patterns of the career of a kindergarten teacher; further more, to comprehend the transition of the social structure from reviewing the history in which the story happened. This research adopts biographic study under the qualitative methodology, and collects the data with “narrative interview” developing by Fritz Sch&#369;tze, a Germany sociologist. After interviewing a kindergarten principal, Sin-feng, who has been working for twenty-nine years in the early childhood education field, researcher followed Sch&#369;tze’s theory construction and analysis to analyze and shape the structure description and abstract concepts. After the process of data analysis, “either growing or eliminating” shows up to be Principal Sin-feng’s belief. The text shows that in one’s life process, self-completion is a motivation that can break through constrains of environment and head to a better situation. Therefore, we can see that although the uncertainty of environment and oneself can be constrains, it can also bring the unlimited possibility. At the end, researcher raised the topic of “kindergarten teachers’ subsistence in the growth and decline of public and private kindergartens” for discussion. Researcher revised and constructed a similar system from the creativity systematic viewpoint raised by Csikszentmihalyi, to explain the possible reasons, from personal, subject, and field aspects, that make the research object stay in the same career for such a long time.