<p>Play is an important part of a child&rsquo;s development. Play is often defined as an activity done for its own sake, characterized by means rather than end. Pretend play receives a huge focus at the pre-school and kindergarten levels, especially socio-dramatic play. Socio-dramatic play, common from around 3 years of age to six years of age, is a type of pretend play. Socio-dramatic play incorporates sustained role taking and a narrative line. This study intends to examine pretend play in greater detail and to determine if the structuring of pretend play by the teacher can positively affect student social and behavior skills. The two students under study, a 5-year old female with limited social skills and a 6-year old boy who exhibits poor behavior skills. The two students under study were placed in an unstructured and structured dramatic play area center through the course of the study. The researcher used a duration recording form, a partial recording form, and field notes to measure behavior. The results of the study showed that the children improved their behaviors during the structured dramatic play area center time. </p>

This study investigates the potential of learning stories to provide a means to incorporate Indigenous perspectives and transform the educational status quo by working with locally based early childcare educators to knead the learning story approach into something community specific. This is an action research project grounded in Indigenous methods and methodologies embedded in processes of transformative education informed by post-colonial discourse and de-colonial theory. The study found that learning stories provide a medium through which children can see themselves as part of a world that includes Inuit knowledge(s) and practices. These stories provide a place through which identities grounded in Inuit knowledge(s) and language can be formed. By creating learning stories, the work of the educator and children together becomes visible to children, parents, and the educator’s colleagues. The process of creating learning stories and planning for them strengthens connections with Elders, who become through the process recognized for their role as valuable transmitters of cultural knowledge. / Graduate

<p> Precision teaching (PT) is a measurement system used in multiple settings for all types of behavior, from driving to mathematics. The ultimate goal of PT is to develop fluent, free operant behaviors through analyzing response frequencies on a standard celeration chart. Research has found PT to be effective at improving both the speed and accuracy of academic skills. There is little research, however, in the effects of learning channels, a component of PT, as they relate to the acquisition of academic skills. The present study examined the relationship between single and multiple learning channels on the acquisition of mathematics skills by five 1^st graders in a public school setting. Implications related to universal designs for learning (UDL) utilized in educational environments are also discussed. </p>

<p> The focus of this comparative study was to examine the connection between attendance in preschool and kindergarten students' literacy success as measured by the Developmental Reading Assessment (DRA2+). Historical data were obtained from the DRA2+ scores of 1,080 kindergarten students in one Missouri school district for the 2010-2011, 2011-2012, 2012-2013 school years. The study was also used to determine the perceptions of kindergarten educators of the impact of preschool on their students. The following overarching question was: What difference exists when comparing the DRA2+ scores of kindergarten students who had a preschool experience and those who did not? Additionally, the perceptions of teachers working with students who had received an early learning experience and students who had not received an early learning experience were gathered. Using a t-test to examine the difference between the mean scores of participating and non-participating students, there was a statistically significant difference in scores of students who participated in preschool and those who did not for 2010-2011; however, there were not statistically significant differences in the sets of data for 2011-2012 and 2012-2013. Educators surveyed in this research perceived that students who had not received an early learning experience seemed to have more difficulty learning the basics of school life; attending for longer periods of time; taking direction; using manipulatives, such as scissors, pencils, and crayons; and getting along with peers.</p>

<p> This study focused on the relationships between educator reading fluency constructs, reading fluency instruction and oral reading fluency assessment. Survey responses from sixty-six elementary educators in rural and urban north Georgia were analyzed to reach an understanding of why educators are likely to equate reading fluency with reading fast (Rasinski, 2009) and focus reading fluency instruction on raising reading rates (Manzo, 2005). The mixed-methods survey analysis informed a grounded theory describing the relationships between factors related to educator misunderstanding.</p><p> The mixed-methods analyses of survey responses indicated educator reading fluency constructs may or may not be related to reading fluency instruction and interpretation of oral reading fluency assessment scores. Similarly, findings suggested that oral reading fluency assessment use may or may not be related to educator reading fluency constructs, reading fluency instruction and interpretation of oral reading fluency assessment scores. Although a single source for educator misunderstanding was not isolated, the significant role of misinterpretation of oral reading fluency assessment scores and misunderstandings about the intended purposes of reading fluency instruction was demonstrated. Evidence suggested the need to clarify the intended use of oral reading fluency assessment scores with educators and administrators to guide appropriate instructional decision-making.</p>

This study articulates Plains Cree Elders and Plains Cree early childhood teachers image of the child. The research was carried out in the spirit of the Reggio Emilia approach to early childhood educationan approach dependent on establishing a locally created image of the child within a cultural context. The data was collected using qualitative and Indigenous research methodologies. According to the Plains Cree Elder participants, learning about the Plains Cree image of the child requires a spiritual and holistic understanding of the child from the moment of conception. The teacher participants hold similar beliefs to the Elders, yet often vacillate between Plains Cree and Westernized images of childhood. For many of the participants, the effects of residential school have been noted as an obstacle, as they strive to draw on the strengths of their traditional Plains Cree teachings when relating to children.

The purpose of the study was to investigate early childhood educators' understandings and beliefs about the role of the early childhood learning environment. In particular, this study was conducted in four Reggio Emilia inspired Canadian childcare and preschool classrooms in order to examine how the fundamental principles of the Reggio Emilia approach were interpreted within a Canadian context. Semi-structured interviews were employed with ten educators to investigate their knowledge, experiences, and beliefs about the learning environment. The data sources included interview notes, audiotapes, and photos of the classroom environment without any child/adult present. The teachers’ beliefs about the role of the learning environment were reflected in materials, aesthetics, and documentation. First, the participants believed that children need to have access to a wide range of materials to stimulate and support their play. Second, several participants stressed the importance of creating the sense of well-being that an aesthetically-pleasing and well-kept classroom provides. Finally, the concept of making learning visible requires a number of participants to collect the children’s works and experiences in as many types of media as possible. The findings suggest that such an interpretation of environment is highly dependent on teachers’ and other adults’ views of development; that variations in practices may reflect cultural differences in both beliefs about, and expectations for, their children. In order to move beyond traditional rituals and responsibilities associated with the early childhood setting, more extensive research in early childhood environments is needed.

This study is an inquiry into the professional identity constructions of early childhood educators, where identity is conceptualised as social and contextual. Through a genealogical analysis of narratives of four Queensland early childhood teachers, the thesis renders as problematic universal and fixed notions of what it is to be an early childhood professional. The data are the four teachers’ professional life history narratives recounted through a series of conversational interviews with each participant. As they spoke about professionalism and ethics, these teachers struggled to locate themselves as professionals, as they drew on a number of dominant discourses available to them. These dominant discourses were located and mapped through analysis of the participants’ talk about relationships with parents, colleagues and authorities. Genealogical analysis enabled multiple readings of the ways in which the participants’ talk held together certainties and uncertainties, as they recounted their experiences and spoke of early childhood expertise, relational engagement and ethics. The thesis concludes with suggestions for ways to support early childhood teachers and pre-service teachers to both engage with and resist normative processes and expectations of professional identity construction. In so doing, multiple and contextual opportunities can be made available when it comes to being professional and ‘doing’ ethics. The thesis makes an argument for new possibilities for thinking and speaking professional identities that include both certainty and uncertainty, comfort and discomfort, and these seemingly oppositional terms are held together in tension, with an insistence that both are necessary and true. The use of provocations offers tools through which pre-service teachers, teachers and teacher educators can access new positions associated with certainties and uncertainties in professional identities. These new positions call for work that supports experiences of ‘de-comfort’ – that is, experiences that encourage early childhood educators to step away from the comfort zones that can become part of expertise, professional relationships and ethics embedded within normative representations of what it is to be an early childhood professional.

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No description available.