The problem identified for this study was that principals of elementary schools often do not have the appropriate preparedness and readiness required for meeting the needs of children and teachers in the primary grades. The purpose of this study was to examine the perception of early childhood campus leaders regarding how well-prepared they are to supervise a high-needs campus that consists of primary grades which include prekindergarten through third grade. Qualitative methodology of case study design with a phenomenological perspective was selected. A finding of this research study was principals' preparedness for supervising early childhood grade levels was because their prior work experience in early childhood. Also, supports for the principals are needed to impact how they supervise early childhood grades, but careful consideration of which supports are needed must be made. The final finding was principal actions when supervising early childhood classrooms are based on their opinion about quality rather than the district defined quality document. Recommendation for further research are to replicate this with a larger population and sample; conduct a quantitative study of the impact of early childhood leadership on student outcomes that would follow a cohort of students through elementary school; and conduct a qualitative case study of principal leadership preparation that includes a teacher focus group to determine if the leadership practices are impacting teacher practices.

<p> The purpose of this action research study was to evaluate the effectiveness of a year-long implementation of the Reggio Emilia approach on transitional kindergarten (TK) programs of a large public school district in southern California. Teachers in 3 TK classrooms had received training from the trainer (researcher for this study) on Reggio approach prior to the onset of the school year and the beginning of this research study. The study used a multi-site case study design involving three teachers, three principals, and three parents drawn from three schools. Data was collected through interviews, an observational checklist, field notes, and reflective journal entries in three phases of the study: before, during, and after the school year. </p><p> Relevant documents were also collected during each phase. Results of the year-long research documented some improvements in teaching strategies and classrooms managements as well as factors that pose challenges to implementing the Reggio approach in TK programs: (a) teachers&rsquo; lack of in-depth knowledge of the Reggio approach, (b) high teacher-child ratio of TK classrooms, and (c) utilization of a hybrid curriculum that unsuccessfully attempted to merge California preschool learning foundation and the kindergarten common core standards. Other important challenges included lack of family involvement, high demand on academics that ignored inquiry-based learning, focus on imagination, and the whole child approach, which were the hallmarks of the Reggio philosophy. Children&rsquo;s formal assessment based on school district&rsquo;s benchmarks and mandates also contradicted Reggio&rsquo;s emphasis on authentic assessment through documentation.</p>

This study addresses the potential of preschool educational television programs to contribute to the literacy development of young children. Unlike the vast majority of television-related research undertaken in the United States, this examination is not limited to nationally-produced programming, but looks to other English-speaking countries for an international perspective on the problems and possibilities of literacy series developed for young children. Ten preschool educational television programs from Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States are examined via a videotape content analysis to determine the literacy potential of these program "texts." The literacy potential of children's broadcast texts has been determined within a broad framework of holistic language and learning theories developed by such researchers as Cambourne, Dewey, Eisner, Goodman, Harste, Holdaway, Rosenblatt, Smith, Vygotsky, and others. By composing a narrative of each sample episode; analyzing each program's use of visual, formic, and linguistic codes; constructing an argument for the applicability of holistic theories to television texts; and ultimately examining each sample episode through a holistic lens, a view of literacy-directed programming as it presently exists in four English-speaking countries is developed. The findings suggest that holistic learning principles applied to television texts hold great potential in providing valuable literacy-focused television events to children. Elements in the sample programs such as thematic integrity, explorations of ideas and concepts through sign systems, emphasis on child participation, language and ethnic diversity, regular inclusion of print on the screen from a variety of quality children's literature, and frequent inclusion of literacy events with children and adults demonstrated holistic principles in the sample episodes and contributed to the literacy potential of preschool programming. Characteristics of the episodes such as randomness, isolation of language subsystems from language wholes, failure to present literacy demonstrations, and exclusion of children from the visual text suggested ineffective television texts from which children had little opportunity to construct meaning. Concluding remarks explore the development of a prototypical holistic television program for preschoolers and suggest the benefits of such broadcast programs for children, their parents, media researchers/producers, and educators.

This autoethnographic exploration of pedagogy or the craft of teaching was undertaken while I worked as a reception class teacher in a large English primary school. Naturally occurring data that developed out of the process of teaching and learning were used to construct multiple case studies (Stake, 2006). An iterative process of analysis using inductive and deductive methods enabled me to explore the nuances of pedagogical practice, including those that had been tacitly or intuitively known. The work of Hart, Dixon, Drummond and McIntyre (2004) Learning without Limits, and the metaphor of craft were used as a theoretical framework to support this exploration of how and why pedagogical choices and decisions were made and justified. Analysis revealed how pedagogical thinking was embedded within the complex process of life within the community. Commitment to the core idea of learners’ transformability and the principles coagency, everybody and trust (Hart et al., op. cit.) were found to be necessary but not sufficient to explain pedagogical thinking. A principled belief in possibility was added to articulate how I could be determined for children’s learning without determining what would be achieved. Analysis of how these principles functioned was articulated as a practical cycle of choice, reflection and collaboration. This cycle ensured that the principles were shared within the community. The notion of attentiveness to imagination was developed to articulate how I worked to create and sustain an inclusive environment for learning. Attentiveness was used to reflect the necessary constancy of the process of teaching and learning. Imagination was used to articulate how the process of recognising children’s individuality was achieved by connecting their past, present and future lives, acknowledging how possibilities for learning were created by building on, but not being constrained by what had come before.

<p> According to the National Center for Child Poverty, in 2011 nearly half of the 72 million children in the U.S. were living in low-income families. Through this study, the author examined the effect that student poverty has on teachers&rsquo; beliefs about student print knowledge including school readiness and print literacy. Teachers&rsquo; beliefs were explored using a social justice framework that surrounds an explanatory sequential design. This mixed methods research helped me to identify whether or not teachers&rsquo; beliefs about students differ based on family socio-economic status (SES). The author of this study worked with a large urban school district located in the California Central Valley. The school district administers a Head Start preschool program and a California State preschool program. A total of 89 preschool teachers from these preschool programs participated in a Likert-style questionnaire. Participants were asked to share their beliefs about student print knowledge, school readiness, and parental involvement based on their 2016-2017 students. After collecting all questionnaires, 10 participants were interviewed to further investigate the effect of poverty on teacher&rsquo;s beliefs about students and families. The overall findings of this study showed that poverty level thresholds between the two preschool programs did not appear to have an effect on participant&rsquo;s beliefs regarding student print literacy, school readiness, and parental involvement. Participants were consistent in beliefs across both programs. Overall, participants were more positive in the areas of school readiness and parent involvement. Participants in both preschool programs were less positive in regards to student print literacy. </p>

The purpose of the study was to determine if there was a difference in parental perceptions of four-year-old children who have been cared for in home care or day care, and in child-rearing practices of parents who enrolled their children in day care or cared for them at home. / The 51 children were 46-60 months old and came from intact, middle-class, Caucasian families. The day care children were enrolled in commercial day care centers. The Perception of Parents interview schedule and the Child-Rearing Practices Questionnaire were used to gather the data. / "Mother" was the parent who was nicer, kissed, tucked children in bed, and cared for sick children. "Father" was the parent who yelled, punished, was smarter, and was the object of child's anger. Day care daughters named "mother" as the parent who gave ice cream cones, and to whom the child would go for help more often than home care daughters. Day care sons named "father" as the parent who played outside with the child more often than home care sons. / Daughters of employed mothers stated that "mother" was smarter, played outside with the child, and gave ice cream cones more often than daughters with nonemployed mothers. Sons of employed mothers gave "father" as the parent who played outside with the child more often than sons of nonemployed mothers. / Fathers of home care sons used fewer behavioral rules than fathers of day care sons. Fathers of home care daughters used more rewards with children than fathers of day care daughters. Fathers of day care children preferred schoolage children over younger children more often than fathers of home care children. / Fathers of sons with employed mothers used fewer behavioral rules than fathers of sons with employed mothers. Fathers of daughters with nonemployed mothers rewarded children more often than fathers of daughters with employed mothers. Fathers of children with employed mothers preferred schoolage children over younger children more often than fathers of children with nonemployed mothers. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 42-10, Section: A, page: 4287. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1981.

The purpose of this study was to determine whether children in a day care setting increase in their development of listening vocabulary, concepts about print, and oral language proficiency when exposed to a daily read-aloud program with language interaction, to a greater extent than those exposed to (1) a read-aloud program without language interaction, (2) no planned read-aloud program or (3) from interaction with an adult in a setting other than story time. / Thirty-six children, ages three to five, attending a day care center serving a minority, racial group in a low-economic area were randomly placed into three treatment groups and one control group. All of the subjects were administered three pre-tests and three post-tests. For ten weeks the researcher met with the three treatment groups on a daily basis. Groups One and Two heard the same stories, the difference between the groups being the amount of language interaction initiated by the researcher. Group Three worked freely with art materials. / The effect of the reading aloud, language interaction and the interaction of the two were each addressed by the three post-tests. Analysis of covariance was used to measure differences, the covariates being the three pre-tests and ages of the subjects. There were no statistically significant results from the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test or Development of Oral Language test. The results from the Concepts About Print test did show a statistically significant effect from reading aloud. Results from the Concepts About Print test did not show statistically significant effects for language interaction or the combination of reading aloud and language interaction, however. / Subsequent analysis of the means and standard deviations for each of the four groups, on each of the post-tests, plus a look at the gains and losses made by the subjects from the pre-tests to the post-tests did provide some interesting insight into possible reasons for the lack of significance in this study. Some possible variables examined were: group dynamics, actual language interaction occurrences, size of groups, age variations in groups, length of study, and physical setting and situation. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 47-05, Section: A, page: 1598. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1986.

The purpose of this study was to test the proposition that children of kindergarten age who had planned opportunities for enriched sociodramatic play would demonstrate increased levels of language performance. A 35 day study employing an Applied Behavior Analysis repeated measure multiple baseline design across subjects was undertaken to experimentally determine if there was a functional relationship between enriched sociodramatic play and an increase in levels of language performance. / Treatment conditions were enriched sociodramatic play which included (a) a shared background of information, (b) ample time, space, and realistic props, and (c) play tutoring by an adult; baseline conditions were unstructured free play. Forty-eight 15 minute language samples were collected and analyzed from three subjects matched for age, I.Q., ethnic background, and economic status, Major findings were as follows: (1) Use of words which were specifically related to a theme increased for all subjects during enriched sociodramatic play. (2) Mean length of T-unit increased for all subjects during enriched sociodramatic play. (3) Use of all words increased for two out of three subjects during enriched sociodramatic play. (4) Use of words for concepts of color, shape, number, quantity, space, and time increased for two out of three subjects during enriched sociodramatic play. (5) Two subjects increased performance on measures of specific vocabulary words, mean length of T-unit, all words and concept words during enriched sociodramatic play. (6) One subject increased performance on measures of specific vocabulary words and mean length of T-unit during sociodramatic play; performance on measures of all words and concept words was inconclusive. (7) All subjects frequently used all seven functions of language during samples taken from both unstructured free play and enriched sociodramatic play; mean number of functions increased slightly for one subject and decreased slightly for two subjects during the treatment conditions. / Based on these findings, it was concluded that a functional relationship existed between sociodramatic play and language performance. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 47-01, Section: A, page: 0079. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1985.

The present study investigated whether the spontaneous play of young children reveals levels of precursory classificatory behavior that correspond with the range of chronological ages reported by Sugarman (1983). With the purpose of documenting the conditions and variables that may contribute to the identification of classificatory patterns as children play, the study also investigated whether play maturity (Hulme & Lunzer, 1966) correlated with a child's highest observed phase of classificatory behavior. / Twenty subjects (2 girls and 2 boys at 12, 18, 24, 30 & 36 months) individually were exposed to two settings: play and non-play. Children engaged in a minimum of 10 minutes of unstructured play in an indoor preschool play setting. They also were brought to a lab-like setting, devoid of toys, and exposed to four arrays of objects, each comprised of four items of one kind and four items of another kind. / Patterns of classificatory behavior used by the subjects as they arranged stimulus objects in the non-play setting and play materials in the play setting were identified. Ratings of each child's highest phase of classificatory behavior exhibited in each setting were derived by applying the Classificatory Behavior Inventory record form. Each child's highest level of play maturity then was correlated with his or her highest phase of classificatory behavior. / The study found that not only were the same classificatory patterns observed in the two settings, play and non-play, but these behaviors occurred at substantially the same age levels as indicated by Sugarman. A direct and positive correlation existed between highest phase of classificatory behavior and the child's level of play maturity. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 48-03, Section: A, page: 0555. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1987.

High-quality school based learning practices are believed to have lasting effects on young children’s achievement. These practices include early mathematics instruction that now extend to promoting geometric and spatial sense in young children. The key contributors to these quality experiences are the early childhood teachers, whose developmentally appropriate practices are noted to shape future success of young learners. Therefore, the present study explored prekindergarten teachers’ instructional practices used to promote geometric and spatial sense in their classrooms. Additionally, this research examined the perceptions, understandings, and experiences that informed the VPK teachers’ geometric and spatial instruction. Participating in the study was a sample of five VPK teachers from three child development centers in a mid-sized county in Northern Florida. The data sources examined in the study consisted of classroom observations, video-stimulated recall interviews, and document analysis. The findings indicated that Voluntary prekindergarten teachers’ (VPK) emphasis on Developmentally Appropriate Practices (DAP) emerged as a major theme that typically presented along with subthemes such as play, active/hands-on, and guided instruction during geometric and spatial activities. The data also suggest that VPK teachers’ instructional practices were informed by both their experiences working with mentors and their role as lead teacher. However, the data also suggest that the VPK teachers in the study had an incomplete knowledge of the VPK developmental standards and benchmarks for instruction, and demonstrated surface level understandings of geometric and spatial concepts in general. Finally, the findings from this study may be beneficial when considering professional development trainings for current VPK teachers in an effort to improve the quality of mathematics instruction. / A Dissertation submitted to the School of Teacher Education in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Summer Semester 2018. / June 27, 2018. / Includes bibliographical references. / Lindsay Dennis, Professor Directing Dissertation; Motoko Akiba, University Representative; Elizabeth Jakubowski, Committee Member; Ithel Jones, Committee Member.