<p> Rubinstein-Taybi Syndrome (RTS) is a rare congenital neurodevelopmental disorder that often presents with corresponding speech and language delays. However, the available literature on communicative development in RTS is currently very limited. The purpose of this retrospective single-case research study was to evaluate the effectiveness of the Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS), an aided augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) system developed to teach functional communication to children with limited communication, on communicative abilities in RTS by providing a detailed profile of the intervention procedures utilized for a 6-year-old child with RTS. The aim of this investigation was both to contribute to the existing literature on the syndrome, as well as to document the success of the PECS system in children with RTS. Specifically, the current study explored the participant&rsquo;s communicative progression and development in the areas of (a) communication initiation, (b) vocalization, and (c) eye contact after Phases 1-4 of the PECS protocol were implemented. Data records from 26 evaluation and intervention sessions completed during the participant&rsquo;s Spring 2014 attendance at the CSULB Department of Speech-Language Pathology&rsquo;s Speech and Language Clinic were analyzed in order to evaluate the effects of the PECS protocol on the participant&rsquo;s communicative abilities. Results indicated that the PECS treatment significantly improved the participant&rsquo;s communicative abilities, namely, by increasing her initiation of communicative exchanges, increasing use of vocalizations and word/phrase approximations, and increasing eye contact with communication partners. The current study supports the use of the PECS protocol in children with RTS as a functional communication system.</p>

The aim of this thesis is to generate new knowledge about how children and teachers communicate scientific contents in preschool. The general research question is formulated as: How do the object of learning and the act of learning appear in communication about scientific contents in preschool? This thesis is a collection of three (previously published) empirical studies and takes shape in the encounter between a projected knowledge acquisition task for preschool and the educational tradition of preschool. The research approach is based primarily on phenomenography focussing on developmental pedagogy. The results are discussed in relation to situated learning and the assumptions about the task of preschool characterising the social practice that is brought to light. The thesis is based on the assumption that teachers are bearers of taken-for-granted ideas about what the ‘good preschool’ is, and that these ideas affect the way they interpret new tasks. The empirical basis consists of video observations from two preschools working with different thematic projects: Life in the tree stump and How soil is formed. The analysis is delimited to the verbal communication occurring between children and teachers about the scientific content. The children are aged between three and six years. All observations have been transcribed to text and analysed according to the following research questions: Study I: (i) What is communicated as the object of learning in the theme work about natural scientific phenomena in the preschool studied? (ii) What acts of learning appear in the communication of the object of learning? Study II is a re-analysis of the linguistic usage in the empirical data from Study I. Research questions of Study II are: is there any systematic pattern in the use of anthropomorphic speech regarding (i) who uses this language, (ii) when it is used and (iii) what it is used for? Study III is delimited to children’s perspective, and the research questions are: (i) What do children ask about during theme work with a natural scientific process in preschool? (ii) Can any tendency towards change be discerned with regard to what kind of questions children ask in the course of the theme work? The results have thrown light on what natural science is in these preschools, a questioning teacher, an education ideal as an interpretative framework and children’s meeting with the object of learning. The results are discussed in relation to a feasible didactic perspective based on the educational ideal of preschool and in relation to a critical didactic perspective concerning teachers’ will, courage and competence to make the content visible. Finally, with the implementation of the raised knowledge task for preschool in mind, prominence is given to the need of critical reflection over the role of language as maintaining a discourse and the concepts established. / Finansierad av vetenskapsrådet/utbildningsvetenskapliga kommittén: Nationell forskaskola i Barndom, lärande, ämnesdidaktik (FoBa), Dnr 721 - 2005 - 2717

<p> This qualitative multiple case study sought to discover third-grade teacher perspectives of the strategies used when effectively implementing Cognitively Guided Instruction (CGI). Five exemplar third-grade teachers were purposefully selected based on recommendations from their principal and instructional coach. The purpose of the study was to learn how the implementation of the essential elements of CGI affected planning of mathematics lessons and how those elements were implemented into mathematics instructional practices. </p><p> The study utilized triangulation of data sources, including semi-structured interviews, observations, and document analysis. Based on the results from the first research question, planning for CGI lessons was found to be more difficult compared to planning for traditional mathematics lessons. The teachers spent more time developing word problems due to the lack of resources, because CGI is to be customized to meet the needs of the students. For the second research question, five themes emerged as strategies the teacher used for implementing CGI during class: 1) conceptualizing, 2) articulating, 3) using multiple strategies, 4) questioning, and 5) scaffolding. These strategies were employed by all teachers, but were differentiated by each teacher to best meet the needs of the students.</p>

<p> When considering closing the achievement gap, full-day kindergarten (FDK) is a viable contender. The implementation of specific teacher strategies enhances the FDK experience and elicits gains among the students. The literature clearly articulates a strong correlation between poverty and poor achievement and supports the notion that the relationship between the teacher and student is a positive factor in closing the achievement gap. However, the research is insufficient when it comes to digging deep into teacher perceptions regarding the importance of the relationship that exists between the teacher and the student. The foundation for which this study is built stems from John Bowlby&rsquo;s attachment theory and emphasizes the importance of the relationship between the child and adult. This study provides profound insight into the perceptions of FDK teachers and the strategies, or concepts they believe have the greatest influence on student achievement among students of poverty. The qualitative phenomenological study revealed intimate and personal thoughts of nine FDK teachers discovered through the coding and analysis of 18 semi-structured interview transcripts. Substantial findings exposed four themes with great clarity and obvious patterns. The themes in order of the greatest number of responses to the least, are: classroom atmosphere, instructional strategies, student management, and the relationship between the teacher and the student. </p>

<p> The present mixed-methods quasi-experimental study (embedding a case study and a mixed factorial within-between ANOVA test), conducted in a private English school in Limassol, Cyprus, investigated how the use of the schematic learning aids (researcher-made color-coded flash-cards and grids) influence year-2 children's ability to read, write and represent Hindu-Arabic numerals and how these number representations affect their arithmetic competency. This was achieved by comparing an intervention group (n=16) and a control group (n=17) before and after the 2-week intervention. </p><p> It is concluded that the use of the place-value learning aids facilitates numeration system conceptual understanding , reading, writing and representing numbers (in canonical and non-canonical form) by thinking in terms of "100s", "10s" and "1s" (or in terms of color-coded cards). Students visually relate the face-value of the digits (e.g. "3" and "5") of the number (e.g. "35") with the number of flash-cards to be used for the canonical representation (three orange cards and five blue cards). Children also understand how "53" differs from "35" or "503". It is further concluded that the use of the learning aids facilitates addition and subtraction performance in terms of "hundreds", "tens" and "ones" (rather than just "ones") either mentally or by constructing canonical and non-canonical representations with the use of the flash-cards and grids or by constructing abstract representations on paper. Students realize that ten cards of one color can be exchanged with one card of another color (or vice versa). Students further understand how "35-2" differs from "35-20" and how "51-32" differs from "52-31". </p><p> Quantitative data are in agreement with qualitative data, suggesting that children's arithmetic competency is enhanced when taught how to represent numbers, additions and subtractions with the use of the learning aids. The control group mean score increase from before to after intervention was 1,24 marks, compared to an increase of 11,06 marks for the intervention class. The medium to large Cohen's d effect sizes of 0,51 (comparing the intervention group score increase to the control group score increase) or 0,57 (comparing the intervention group score from before to after) indicate strong practical significance.</p>

<p> Multiple-baseline across participants design was used to examine the effects of professional development (PD) and coaching on preschool teachers&rsquo; implementation of embedded-explicit literacy instruction to increase children&rsquo;s opportunities to engage in meaningful, intentional, and contextualized literacy behaviors, as measured by Complete Learning Trials (CLTs). Three teachers were videotaped weekly during free-play and observations were coded for CLT accuracy. After professional development, coaching was provided weekly via email. An immediate effect of PD was observed, with considerable variability once remote feedback was provided. Students&rsquo; early literacy skills were measured prior to and at the end of the study to provide a snapshot of children&rsquo;s literacy-related skills. Compared to pre-intervention scores, children&rsquo;s picture naming, rhyming, sound identification and comprehension skills had significantly increased, however, due to the research design these changes cannot be attributed to teachers&rsquo; implementation or non-implementation of explicit-embedded activities alone.</p>

This dissertation, a qualitative case study conducted from a constructivist perspective, focuses on the construction and implementation of strategies of emotional scaffolding by two early childhood educators in a public elementary school. This study finds that emotional scaffolding is an excellent example of a tool that could help teachers reach developmentally appropriate practices for early childhood education in an age of accountability. The primary data consist of participant observations, participant interviews and key documents. The study has two primary interests. The first aims at understanding how young children’s learning experiences are enhanced when early childhood educators integrate emotions into their decision-making and practices. The second aims at enhancing the emerging picture of what emotional scaffolding means in early childhood education contexts. My analysis highlights three major themes that contribute to these participants’ decision-making for emotional scaffolding. The first is the participants’ beliefs about their self-perceived teaching identities. The second is their deep understanding of children. The third involves their assessments and reactions to their school climates. The findings focus on four areas of divergence from the literature. First is the important role that teachers’ personal beliefs about the most pedagogically important emotion play in constructing and implementing strategies for emotional scaffolding. Second, emotional scaffolding is an important part of teachers’ mediated agency in a time of increasing accountability. Third, teachers’ capacity to balance student excitement and engagement through their emotional scaffolding is the key to establishing and maintaining children’s engagement in academic activities. Fourth is that emotional scaffolding carried out in the early childhood classroom involves emotion work, not emotional labor. The study provides several implications. The first is that our perception of the emotional scaffolding process in the early childhood education context can be expanded. The second is the importance of sufficient preservice training. The third is that a principal who respects a teacher’s decision-making and practices can help a teacher provide effective emotional scaffolding. The final and perhaps most important implication is that an awareness of self is the most important element contributing to better decision-making in creating a meaningful and engaging environment for their students. / text

This study is a qualitative case study of one writer, my daughter Zoe, over a period of two years comparing her writing at home with the writing completed at school during kindergarten and first grade. This study involves descriptions, interpretations, and analyses of Zoe's writing, including the processes and products across the two settings. There are two frames through which the writer and her writing are described, analyzed, and interpreted in this study. The first frame focuses on the purposes for and functions of Zoe's writing activity at home and in school. This includes our present understanding of written language development in terms of purposes and functions, the conditions writers require in order to write, determinants of written language, and the various systems upon which writers rely to make meaning. The second frame through which Zoe's writing is described, interpreted, and analyzed in this study focuses on the nature of the two settings, the home and the school. The settings are analyzed in terms of the activities and experiences in which the writer engages within each setting. The goal of this study is to understand the nature of a young child's writing activity across the home/school settings by analyzing the writing she did in each of those settings. The impact of the social nature of the settings upon her writing activity are also considered. A theoretical framework for written language use and development is presented and discussed as a vehicle for understanding and developing writing programs and developing supportive relationships between the school and the home.

This multiple-case study describes the literacy events that occurred during play in three holistic preschool classrooms over a four-month period. The data includes field notes from observations and from discourse with participants, audiotape transcriptions, interviews, and writing samples. Analytic induction was used for the analysis. Within play, literacy was used as: a support for play themes, a frame for play themes, and as an extraneous aspect of play. Literacy events involved transactions with print, as well as social transactions. Social transactions within literacy events were analyzed for whether they involved: self-construction of meaning, joint construction of meaning, direct instruction, or challenge. The data show that in print-rich environments, where reading and writing materials are accessible, and where literacy is an expected way of life, teachers can meaningfully facilitate literacy development. The teachers capitalized on the many teachable moments that arose during play by carefully observing children and making relevant literacy-related contributions. The children explored and developed their own understandings about literacy, and at the same time, nurtured literacy development in their peers; literacy development was both personal and social. By themselves, and with support from peers and teachers, the children explored the functions and features of written language, they tested their hypotheses about written language, and they developed strategies used by successful readers and writers. Play was found to be a meaningful and effective medium for facilitating literacy development.

This dissertation is a study of case-based instruction in early childhood teacher preparation. I sought to determine if case-based instruction could be used effectively to develop theoretical knowledge, cognitive processes, and decision-making skills in preservice early childhood teachers, and if case-based instruction provided any measurable benefit over more efficient traditional didactic instructional practices. Results indicate case-based instruction can enhance preservice early childhood teachers' learning of theoretical knowledge when used in combination with standard textbook readings and conventional examinations. Findings also indicate case-based instruction may differentially impact students with different levels of prior knowledge. Some data suggest traditional didactic instructional can positively impact preservice teachers' cognitive processes and decision-making skills. Results also indicate case-based instruction may facilitate consolidation of misconceptions held by early childhood preservice teachers.