The purposes of the study were to investigate the association between the variables presented below. / The sample was drawn from fifth and sixth grade girls who attended a developmental research school or a private school in Florida or the public schools in Mississippi. The 58 father-daughter dyads were asked to meet together with the researcher. / School achievement (dependent variable) was measured by grade point average. Independent measures for girls were: self-esteem--measured by the Coopersmith Self-Esteem Inventory; sex role orientation--measured by the Adolescent Sex Role Inventory; dependency--measured by the Children's Dependency Scale; parent perception--measured by the Piety Parent Perception Inventory. / Independent measures for fathers were: self-esteem--measured by the Coopersmith Self-Esteem Inventory; sex role orientation--measured by the Bem Sex Role Inventory; fathers' perception of daughers' self-esteem--measured by the Coopersmith Behavioral Academic Self-Esteem Inventory. / The only difference between the participants due to location appeared to be in the Behavioral Academic Self-Esteem scores (t = 3.127;48). / Nine hypotheses were analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences. A correlation matrix was constructed and multiple regression was utilized. Alpha was pre-set at .05. / No significant relationships were found between: fathers' and daughters' sex role orientations; fathers' masculinity level and self-esteem; girls' self-esteem and fathers' self-esteem; girls' grade point averages and sex role orientations; grade point averages and girls' dependency levels. / Significant relationships were found between: fathers' femininity level and self-esteem; girls' dependency level and achievement test scores; grade point average and self-esteem; girls' grade point averages and I.Q. Each block of variables made a significant contribution to the prediction of girls' grade point averages. / All of the undifferentiated fathers had undifferentiated daughters except one who had an androgynous daughter. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 43-02, Section: B, page: 0395. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1982.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the perspectives of practitioners working with families of young children with disabilities regarding the implementation of family-centered intervention. Fundamental assumptions of family-centered services include family choice and professional responsiveness to the concerns and priorities of families. This changes the nature of traditional family-professional relationships and requires that families and professionals work together as equals in evaluation, decision making, and intervention. / The study examined how practitioners transform the philosophy and principles of family-centered services into practice with families of infants and toddlers with disabilities. The variability in practitioners' individual interpretations of family-centered services was investigated and the impact of practitioners' beliefs, personal development, and personal experiences were considered in relation to their practices with families. Findings indicated that implementation must remain flexible enough to accommodate individual interpretations of the philosophy and must be viewed as an evolving process, both personally and systemically. Implications for policy, for practitioner education, and for further research are provided. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 55-04, Section: A, page: 0930. / Major Professor: Mary Frances Hanline. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1994.

There is a pattern of students' mathematics achievement scores dropping in the first year of middle school, typically sixth grade in Florida (fldoe.org, 2014). Sixth grade is of particular interest as this is typically a transition year from elementary to middle school. This quantitative study seeks to examine the mathematical teacher characteristics that are present and significant for Teacher Value-Added measures, as a proxy for sixth grade mathematical learning gains. The teacher characteristics that will be evaluated include certification area, degree held, and years of experience. Additionally, the effects of school demographics, specifically socioeconomic status (SES), as measured by the percentage of Community Eligibility Provision (CEP), which determines a districts eligibility for the national free lunch program, on sixth grade student achievement in mathematics will be examined and accounted for when evaluating teacher characteristics. Teachers' Value-Added scores were collected from the Florida Department of Education. The teachers included were those that taught mathematics in a sixth-grade classroom that was NOT in a K-6 or K-8 setting, but a 6-8 or 6-12 setting. Each participating teachers' school CEP status was also gathered from the Florida Department of Education. These results will be compared for all teachers and the following results are anticipated: (1) Schools with lower socioeconomic status (as measured by CEP), higher percentage of CEP (over 40%), will have overall lower teacher Value-Added Scores (VAM) on the Math FSA (Florida Standards Assessment) for the end of sixth grade administration, regardless of teacher characteristics. (2) After accounting for CEP, teachers with higher levels of degrees held (BS vs MS, EdS, or PhD), will have higher teacher VAM scores on the Math FSA for the end of sixth grade administration. (3) After accounting for CEP, teachers with more years of experience will have higher VAM scores on the Math FSA for the end of sixth grade administration. (4) After accounting for CEP, teachers with certification in mathematics will have higher VAM scores on the Math FSA for the end of sixth grade administration. With these results, policy makers, education preparation programs, and school districts can make more informed decisions about the educational preparation that mathematics teachers need to possess in order to teach students during their first year of middle school. / A Dissertation submitted to the School of Teacher Education in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Fall Semester 2018. / October 29, 2018. / Florida, sixth-grade mathematics, student achievement, teacher certification, teacher degrees, teacher experience / Includes bibliographical references. / Elizabeth Jakubowski, Professor Directing Dissertation; Eric Chicken, University Representative; Diana Rice, Committee Member; Angela Davis, Committee Member.

The history of people with disabilities has been characterized by a progressive trend toward inclusion in the mainstream of life. During the last three decades, in particular, significant progress has been made toward the societal goals of normalization, deinstitutionalization, and community integration. As a result, the effects of contact with disabled peers on the attitudes of normally developing children has become an important research question. To date, it is a question with no definitive answers. / To approach this question, methods of naturalistic inquiry were used in the context of a case study. The unit of analysis was a child-care center in which young children with and without disabilities were fully integrated on an ongoing basis. The primary informants in the study were the normally developing children, aged 3 through six, enrolled in the center. Participant observation and open-ended interviewing were the primary data collection techniques. Nonparticipant observation and analysis of school records were also used. Upon completion of field study, the data were analyzed and interpreted according to accepted procedures in the naturalistic research tradition. Data consisted of comprehensive field notes and interview transcripts derived from participant observation, formal interviews, and document analysis. / In contrast with many earlier studies of disability attitudes, contact between children with and without disabilities did not result in the development of prejudicial attitudes toward peers with disabilities. The participants expressed early awareness of sensory and physical disabilities, but virtually no awareness of intellectual disabilities. They expressed feelings of tolerance with regard to their peers with disabilities, and their feelings were corroborated by their actions. They named children with disabilities as their "best friends" less often than children without disabilities, but made some friendship choices from among their disabled peers. Negative evaluations of peers were elicited by behaviors that violated social norms, but not by sensory, physical, or intellectual differences. Program characteristics that appear necessary for the success of disability integration were discussed. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 50-08, Section: A, page: 2452. / Major Professor: Pearl E. Tait. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1989.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of student question generation on reading achievement. The effect of training students in dyads to ask six generic questions about what they read was studied. / Students from Bainbridge College enrolled in VTE 080-081, a developmental reading skills course, were the subjects in this study. Experimental and control groups were comprised of approximately thirty-five students each. Data collected from the ACT California Planning Program (CPP) Reading Skills Test were utilized to determine who would be placed in the VTE 080-081 reading skills class. Two types of tests were used to assess reading comprehension. The first was a standardized reading test, CAT Test of Adult Basic Education (TABE), Level D, Forms 3 and 4, which was used to measure transfer of training. The second test was a six-item comprehension test following selected passages from Six Way Paragraphs by Walter Pauk. / An analysis of covariance was used to analyze reading comprehension. The data were analyzed using pretest scores as a covariate. / An experimental design was used in this research study. / Results of a pilot study conducted fall quarter 1989 revealed that there was a significant effect on the treatment group. / The study proper was conducted winter quarter, 1990 and spring quarter, 1990. The results of the study supported the general learning theories which indicated that active processing of prose does affect learning. Training students to manipulate their own learning by teaching them to ask questions proved to be a more powerful instructional device than allowing them to devise their own strategy. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 52-06, Section: A, page: 2018. / Major Professor: Lawrence E. Hafner. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1991.

The purpose of this study was to predict placement and non-placement outcomes for mildly handicapped three through five year old children given knowledge of their developmental screening data. In order to do this, discrete discriminant analysis was used to demonstrate the prediction scheme and was modified for application to Child Find data. / Developmental screening data and placement outcomes were systematically retrieved from a longitudinal set (1982-1989) of Child Find records located at the Florida Diagnostic and Learning Resources System (FDLRS)/Sarasota network for 602 subjects. The independent variables included performance on developmental activities from the Comprehensive Identification Process (Zehrbach, 1975), including: (a) gross motor, (b) fine motor, (c) cognitive-verbal, (d) expressive language, (e) receptive language, (f) social-affective, and (g) the expressed concern of parents, guardians, or primary caregivers regarding observations of children's developmental performance. These independent variables were related to two outcome groups, namely, placement and non-placement. / In addition to the two outcome groups, placement and non-placement, 128 combinations of the seven developmental variables were specified. These combinations were statistically analyzed using discrete discriminant analysis, resulting in a prediction technique for estimating the outcomes of developmental screening efforts. The expected frequencies of subjects falling into the prescribed outcome groups were computed. Also, the relative costs of misclassification (prediction mistakes) of subjects into the wrong groups were determined. / For each cost function, a comparison was made between the predictions of the discriminant analysis and the observed outcomes for the 602 subjects. Chi-square tests were conducted to test the significance of the predictions for the placement groups with each of the cost functions. The null hypothesis, that the predictions using this technique were no better than what would be expected by chance, was rejected in each instance. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 50-12, Section: A, page: 3844. / Major Professor: Andrew Oseroff. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1989.

Thesis (Ed.M.)--Boston University / PLEASE NOTE: Boston University Libraries did not receive an Authorization To Manage form for this thesis or dissertation. It is therefore not openly accessible, though it may be available by request. If you are the author or principal advisor of this work and would like to request open access for it, please contact us at open-help@bu.edu. Thank you. / 2031-01-01

<p> The researcher completed a quantitative comparative content analysis of early childhood developmental programs in high-poverty and low-poverty counties across the state of Missouri. The researcher discussed the importance of early childhood programs in the longevity of academic, professional success and long-term health benefits. Although lawmakers, educators, parents and policy makers emphasized the immense importance of early childhood education, the state of Missouri had not completed an evaluation of early childhood developmental programs for over 15 years. The last study (Fuger et al., 2003), completed in 2003, only evaluated early childhood programs described as part of the state&rsquo;s Missouri Preschool Project (MPP). The research results stated the state of Missouri had not completed a study evaluating all early childhood programs in the state. </p><p> The researcher examined secondary data, specifically licensing reports from online, public records through the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services (DHSS) website, as well as programing costs, curriculum, and accreditation through brief interviews of administrators employed by various child care centers and public school early childhood preschool programs. The purpose of the study was to discover if inequity occurred in facilities located in high-poverty and low-poverty counties. The researcher explored whether high-poverty facilities had more licensing violations than those facilities in low-poverty areas and examined the type of violations and assessed differences in the number of violation types. After researching early childhood curriculum endorsed by the state of Missouri, the researcher examined the type of curriculums used by each facility to determine the quality of the curriculum. The researcher surveyed the cost differences of facilities and the affordability of programs, based on average income. The researcher also evaluated the overall quality of programs, based on the secondary data. </p><p> In summary, the researcher conducted the study to examine differences between the quality of early learning and developmental programs in high and low poverty counties around the state of Missouri. The researcher determined the quality of a program based on the percentage of licensing violations, type of violations, curricula used, if a center held extra accreditation, and the cost per week. The results of the study were mixed.</p><p>

This thesis explores the political and ethical entanglements of Early Years Teachers with human and non-human worlds. Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) policy, research and professional practice frame expected ways of working with children. This highly-feminised workforce has historically been presented as deficient. I argue this notion sees them as dehumanised subjects (Snaza, 2015), in need of constant upskilling. Posthumanist theorising was employed to reveal Early Years Teachers in relations with other humans (children, teachers) and non-humans (classroom, outdoor environments, objects, policy) forming more-than-human subjectivities. A post-qualitative methodology was developed to attend to more-than-human entanglements, with material-ethno-carto-graphy proposed as a methodological undertaking pertinent to this inquiry. The reconfigured methods-as-affinity-groups built on ethnography to explore connections within/between four Early Years Teacher case studies. The resultant data generated was mapped and read both literally and diffractively where glow data (MacLure, 2010, 2013) was selected for diffractive analysis. I theorised the positions of becoming-professional and being-teacher to reveal how subjectivities take either a more material connected or a more normative subject position and employ the metaphor of the earthworm to debate these shifting forms. Data revealed becoming-professional and being-teacher saw wider relational entanglements within indoor and outdoor spaces drove new modes of professionalism. Furthermore, the influence of an online tool, Tapestry, on subjectivities was explored. Additionally, vital agentic materiality (Bennett, 2010) and cyborg figurations (Haraway, 1991) were encountered in ECEC classrooms. Finally, the influence of nature has been explored where Indigenous ontologies trouble traditional vistas. Generative ways to view the production of Early Years Teacher subjectivities show that human and non-human worlds are always in flux. The more-than-human moments reveal the interplay between becoming-professional and being-teacher as a re-humanising enactment with subjectivities distributed across human and material bodies. These relations are a counter movement to the reified professional in policy, research and professional practice.

Five studies were conducted examining a pattern of interaction children use as a mechanism for learning from others. The three components of this interaction pattern consisted of children’s questions, adults’ explanations and children’s follow-up. I was interested in how individual differences might influence this interaction pattern. In Study 1, I performed a secondary data analysis to explore the entire pattern of interaction. Analyses revealed that children across diverse socioeconomic groups asked a similar proportion of information seeking questions in daily conversations with caregivers. However, when looking at the responses children received, caregivers from low-SES families offered significantly fewer exemplary responses (those that include explanations) to causal questions than mid-SES caregivers. When exploring the quality of explanations that caregivers offered, low-SES caregivers provided more circular explanations while mid-SES caregivers provided more non-circular explanations. Finally, when exploring children’s follow-up to unsatisfactory responses, no differences were found when looking at fact-based questions. Indeed, children from low-SES and mid-SES families were most likely to re-ask their original question which indicates that children across diverse backgrounds purposely use their questions to acquire new knowledge. Significant differences were found when looking at follow-up to unsatisfactory responses to causal questions. Mid-SES children were significantly more likely to provide their own explanations. These findings extend previous work and suggest that this interaction pattern may not look the same across diverse backgrounds. Studies 2, 3 and 4 explored the first half of this interaction pattern: questions and adult explanations. Here I focused on 3- and 5-year-olds’ evaluation of non-circular and circular explanations, and their use of such explanations to determine informant credibility. Whereas 5-year-olds demonstrated a selective preference for non-circular over circular explanations (Study 2: long explanations; Study 3: short explanations), 3-year-olds only demonstrated a preference for the non-circular when the explanations were shortened (Study 3). Children’s evaluation of the explanations extended to their inferences about the informants’ future credibility. Both age groups demonstrated a selective preference for learning novel explanations from an informant who had previously provided non-circular explanations – although only 5-year-olds also preferred to learn novel labels from her. However, when looking at individual differences in these preferences by socioeconomic status (Study 4) children from low-SES families selectively preferred informants who provided circular explanations, whereas mid-SES children showed a preference for non-circular explanations. Study 5 explored the second half of the interaction pattern: adult explanations and children’s follow-up. Here I explored individual differences in epistemological beliefs and their impact on caregiver’s explanations and children’s subsequent learning. Epistemological stance predicted children’s learning. Children of caregivers who adopted an evaluativist stance learned more than children of caregivers who used an absolutist stance. Taken together, these results have the potential to inform caregivers, daycare providers and classroom teachers about the importance of the responses they offer to children’s questions. These responses are integral to the question, explanation, follow-up pattern of interaction that children use when acquiring new knowledge from others. Understanding how individual differences impact this interaction pattern may help decrease cognitive disparities between children across sociocultural contexts before the onset of formal schooling.