The kindergarten program at the study site transitioned from half day to full day, yet the curriculum was not updated to accommodate the full day schedule, or to include best practices. In order to prepare learners for their future in education, activities were implemented to determine how problem based learning can promote acquisition of the 21st century learning skills. The purpose of this qualitative study was to create and implement an effective, full day curriculum that promotes 21st century learning skills for kindergarten students. This project, rooted in constructivism which allows for active and social learning, supplements the existing half day curriculum and encourages collaborating, experiential learning, and problem solving. The question that guided this project study involved understanding how 21st century learning skills of collaboration, problem solving, effective communication, and decision making can be integrated into a full day kindergarten curriculum. A qualitative participatory action research framework was used to gather data in the form of field notes during observations and interviews were coded and analyzed to find themes and categories that emerged. The findings revealed that 21st century skills can be acquired by kindergarten learners when the role of the teacher changes into a facilitator and models appropriate behaviors and skills. The final project includes a teacher's guide to support teachers as they transition into a new role as a facilitator as well as sample lessons with suggestions and hints for implementation. This project contributes to social change by presenting teachers with a data driven curriculum that offers an authentic, experiential way of teaching to help students develop skills necessary to become successful members of their classroom.

Studies indicate the importance of supporting children's creative and social skills during the early years of their development, in part because children can develop low self-esteem when these skills are left unattended in preschool environments. However, as of yet research has not identified strategies preschool instructors used to prepare preschool environments to nurture the development of these skills. This qualitative case study examined how preschool environments nurture the development of preschool children's creative skills and relationships. Grounded in Vygotsky's sociocultural theory and Torrance's theory of guiding creative talent, the study used a purposeful sample of 9 prekindergarten and kindergarten teachers from 5 private preschools. Data were collected from 3 sources: (a) interviews, (b) online websites and school documents, and (c) student artifacts. Data analysis identified related themes, categories, terms, and key phrases using an adapted rubric, and open, axial, and selective coding. Findings showed that preschool environments applied 18 strategies to nurture the development of relationships and creative skills in preschool children. These themes included participation, establishing trust, acceptance/self-awareness, dramatic play, collaborative play, organization, open-ended materials, observation, creativity enhancing curricula, children's transitional processes, encouraging social skills, language application, understanding children's culture, cooperative learning, children's self-concept, teachers' pedagogy, nurturing creativity and preparatory exercises. The study has a positive social impact by providing preschool teachers and administrators with a framework for preparing environments that not only promote academic achievement but also to use to nurture preschool children's creative and social-skills development.

I create a diploma thesis with a combination of quantitative and qualitative research, which examines the process of integrating children into the environment of kindergartens. In this work, I comprehensively find out how the kindergarten team participates in the process of inclusion of socially disadvantaged children. In the theoretical part I characterize social pedagogy and groups of socially disadvantaged children, including the legislative definition. I mention documents relating to pre-school education and mention counseling services that serve teachers, parents and children in the field of social disadvantage. I divide the practical part into two phases of research. For the first phase of the empirical part, I choose quantitative research, where I find out by the method of a questionnaire survey, general information of teachers in the given issue, basic orientation in school documents and different methods of work. In the second phase of the practical part, in the form of qualitative research, I create unstructured interviews. Through the interview, I supplement the information obtained from the questionnaire survey and obtain comprehensive data on the process of integrating socially disadvantaged children into kindergarten. By setting the main goals of the diploma thesis, I find out the...

The purpose of the newly implemented Transitional Kindergarten program in California is to provide an additional year of early childhood education to young students in order to prepare them for school (American Institutes for Research, 2012). The implementation of Transitional Kindergarten into California’s public school districts was executed quickly without clear guidelines or training for teachers. The resultant gap in understanding Transitional Kindergarten’s goals is an educational issue that needs to be addressed. Until standards and guidelines are finalized for Transitional Kindergarten programs, California’s school districts decide how to implement their programs. The purpose of this research study was to examine the extent to which Transitional Kindergarten teachers perceive they are prepared to teach in a Transitional Kindergarten Classroom and to identify resources, support for, and professional development teachers in TK believe they need. The following research questions guided the study: 1. To what extent do participants perceive they are prepared to teach in a Transitional Kindergarten class? 2. To what extent does the level of perceived preparedness correlate to the participants’ years of experience, type of district, or Pre-school teaching experience? 3. What resources, support, and professional development opportunities do participants believe they need from their school district to teach in a Transitional Kindergarten class? Through an analysis of a quantitative survey, the conclusion of this study confirmed that Early Childhood Education knowledge is desired by Transitional Kindergarten teachers. The researcher contacted forty-five Transitional Kindergarten teachers within San Joaquin County and seventeen teachers participated. The study found that the additional support desired by Transitional Kindergarten teachers are: 1) teachers aides/assistants, 2) help with assessments, and 3) a more clear message about what Transitional Kindergarten curriculum should cover. It is recommended by the researcher based on the results that districts provide clarity about the expectations of TK to all stakeholders, create an implementation guide, and clear standards for all TK teachers.

Die vorliegende Broschüre beschäftigt sich mit der Leitfrage: „Ist die Kita ein Schutzraum vor Gesellschaft und Politik?“ Sie fasst die Arbeit der letzten zweieinhalb Jahre der Fachstelle Jugendhilfe – Mit Demokratiewerten gegen Rechtsextremismus im Bereich der Elementarpädagogik zusammen. Redaktionsschluss: Januar 2017

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A subject didactic analysis of the development of the spatial knowledge of young children through a problem-centred approach to mathematics teaching and learning Researchers and educators are in agreement that it is very important that the spatial knowledge of the young child should be developed from the first years of school. In order to develop these skills the appropriate materials and activities need to be designed. This can only be realised through proper research methods that not only acknowledge the cognitive abilities of the young child, but also the social and cultural backgrounds of the children. This implies that due attention should be given to language, beliefs, cognitive skills, socio-economic background, schooling and teaching systems. The immediate worlds of the children should be used in developing the spatial skills of these children. The work that is described in this document is an effort to describe the complexity of such a research endeavour. The development of the spatial skills of young children were investigated through three different instructional/executional media namely language, drawing/writing and physical constructions. The three major variables that were described as influencing the spatial development in the different media were the task that was given to the children, the objects that the children worked with and the dimension and viewpoints of the objects and situations. It was clear from the research that in the development of the spatial skills of children, attention should. be given to: the real-world of the children, hands-on-experiences of the children, the cultural background, the language of instruction, the socio-economic background the classroom culture, the media of instruction and the cognitive skills of the children. / Proefskrif (PhD (Didaktiese Opvoedkunde))--PU vir CHO, 1997

A subject didactic analysis of the development of the spatial knowledge of young children through a problem-centred approach to mathematics teaching and learning Researchers and educators are in agreement that it is very important that the spatial knowledge of the young child should be developed from the first years of school. In order to develop these skills the appropriate materials and activities need to be designed. This can only be realised through proper research methods that not only acknowledge the cognitive abilities of the young child, but also the social and cultural backgrounds of the children. This implies that due attention should be given to language, beliefs, cognitive skills, socio-economic background, schooling and teaching systems. The immediate worlds of the children should be used in developing the spatial skills of these children. The work that is described in this document is an effort to describe the complexity of such a research endeavour. The development of the spatial skills of young children were investigated through three different instructional/executional media namely language, drawing/writing and physical constructions. The three major variables that were described as influencing the spatial development in the different media were the task that was given to the children, the objects that the children worked with and the dimension and viewpoints of the objects and situations. It was clear from the research that in the development of the spatial skills of children, attention should. be given to: the real-world of the children, hands-on-experiences of the children, the cultural background, the language of instruction, the socio-economic background the classroom culture, the media of instruction and the cognitive skills of the children. / Proefskrif (PhD (Didaktiese Opvoedkunde))--PU vir CHO, 1997

L'approche démocratique des CPE est reconnue pour favoriser les compétences sociales des enfants. Or, bien que les hommes ne représentent que 4 % du personnel éducateur, des études relatent que leurs approches diffèrent de celles des femmes, et que cette complémentarité peut contribuer au développement positif des enfants. La présente étude a pour objectifs: 1) d'évaluer le lien entre trois aspects des conduites éducatives démocratiques des éducateurs et des éducatrices (la qualité des consignes, le partage du contrôle et les échanges affectifs) et les compétences sociales des enfants; 2) vérifier s'il existe des différences entre les éducatrices et les éducateurs sur ces trois aspects des conduites éducatives. Les données ont été recueillies à partir de l'observation directe de 17 éducateurs et de 19 éducatrices en situation de jeu dyadique avec un garçon et une fille (62 observations au total). Les conduites éducatives sont évaluées à partir d'une grille de fréquence et les compétences sociales par le Profil Socio-Affectif (Dumas et coll., 1995).