Philosophiae Doctor - PhD / Early learning opportunities in South Africa are both inaccessible and unequal in quality due to facility and household-level factors. With minimal resources, Early Childhood Development (ECD) facilities in poor communities provide low-quality ECD services to children. Part of the reason that ECD facilities are under-resourced and of poor quality is their inadequate funding. The disparity in quality means that poor children may still lag behind children who have had access to high-quality, well-resourced ECD facilities. Beside facility-level factors, the process of early learning is also influenced by household factors. Studies have found that low-cost stimulations such as storytelling, singing and playing with household objects can be used as tools to promote early development within the confines of the household.

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Thesis advisor: Eric Dearing / Despite global efforts toward improving gender equity in education, gender-based disparities in learning opportunities and academic outcomes are still prevalent. Many gender differences in learning and academic outcomes begin emerging early in life, even before children start formal schooling. Both theory and empirical evidence point toward children’s exposure to gender-differentiated treatment from caregivers that arises from gendered stereotypes, expectations, and cultural norms. As young children’s brains have evolved to detect the subtlest nuances in their environments, even small gender differences in learning experiences could have lasting consequences in their developmental trajectories and later-life outcomes. In turn, understanding gender disparities in early learning opportunities is critical to catalyzing young girls’ and boys’ positive learning trajectories from early on. A major challenge for the field, however, has been the very limited attention given to these issues in low- and- middle-income countries (LMICs), where about 90% of the world’s children live. The present dissertation consists of three empirical papers focused on young children in LMICs, providing significant contributions to the cumulative knowledge on gender differences in early learning. Respectively, the three papers: (1) provide a thorough accounting of gender disparities across and within 71 countries, (2) uncover specific caregiving mechanisms that help explain these gender disparities in early learning outcomes across and within countries, and (3) delve into the perceptions and meaning makings of mothers and fathers about gendered parenting practices at the local level. By so doing, this dissertation pushes forward our understanding of gender disparities in early learning opportunities and development across multiple ecological levels. The results may help inform global policy and practice aimed at gender equity, a matter of social justice that has proven to affect the social fabric, economic vitality, and political stability of nations. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2024. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Counseling, Developmental and Educational Psychology.

[ES] Desde 2006, las Instituciones de Educación Superior (IES), las políticas educativas y los agentes de interés han abordado las recomendaciones de la UE destinadas a proporcionar un marco para el aprendizaje permanente en una sociedad del conocimiento. Estrategias como "Europa 2020" o "Educación y formación 2020" (ET2020), centradas en el crecimiento inteligente a través del desarrollo del conocimiento y la innovación (COM, 2010), intentan responder a los nuevos desafíos globales que trae la era digital. Nuevos conceptos como la especialización inteligente, la competencia digital o la ciudadanía digital, entre otros, son piedras angulares para cumplir con las demandas del mercado laboral de la 4ª Revolución Industrial. Recientes encuestas a alumnos actuales evidencian altas tasas de abandono y repetidores (OCDE, 2016), y su baja motivación para acceder a nuestros campus siguiendo las metodologías existentes. La brecha entre lo que los estudiantes esperan y lo que reciben del profesorado es, hoy por hoy, insuperable; porque el modelo universitario fue creado, desarrollado y actualizado en la era pre-háptica, cuando se incorporó el proceso de Bolonia para la estandarización de la educación superior europea al diseño curricular (2010). Las universidades tecnológicas españolas, en un esfuerzo por satisfacer las necesidades de los futuros ingenieros, intentan diseñar estrategias que incorporen esas habilidades cruciales para que sus graduados puedan prosperar en una sociedad de trabajo digital (OCDE, 2019) de la mejor manera posible. Desde 2010, la irrupción de teléfonos inteligentes y tabletas en nuestros hogares (dispositivos hápticos) y la vida normal ha traído un nuevo gesto, la interacción háptica, a nuestro bienestar social y a nuestra forma de vida. Dentro de esa interacción hay elementos como conectividad global, formatos digitales, alfabetización en nuevos medios, comunicación instantánea, interactividad o personalización que ha afectado a todos los miembros de la sociedad sin importar la edad, incluidos los niños de la Generación Háptica que, en este momento, están observando e imitando todo tipo de gestos y comportamientos llevados a cabo mientras desarrollan su personalidad. El diseño etnográfico de la investigación desde una perspectiva de las Ciencias Sociales guía la labor realizada en esta disertación y confirma que la interacción háptica en manos de la primera infancia brinda increíbles posibilidades para impulsar la creatividad, la adquisición del idioma inglés y el aprendizaje experto, entre otras muchas posibilidades de aprendizaje si se usan estos dispositivos aprovechando al máximo sus características lecto-escritoras integradas que lo facilitan. Esta capacidad intrínseca motiva las preguntas de investigación de esta tesis. En poco tiempo esos niños, los iScholars, que han adquirido mucho de su aprendizaje mediante interacciones hápticas innatas desde muy pequeños, llenarán nuestros campus universitarios trayendo consigo unas necesidades de aprendizaje diferentes en un nuevo escenario que combina entornos educativos formales, informales y no formales con una perspectiva más amplia. Teniendo en cuenta este panorama, se configura un nuevo escenario de aprendizaje, el Atrium, para permitir que las asignaturas STEM acojan a la Generación Háptica: los iScholars. El Atrium, como un espacio polivalente, ofrece a la educación superior la posibilidad de configurar los títulos universitarios desde una perspectiva STEHEAM que se cree satisface las necesidades de los estudiantes universitarios de 2030 que anhelan conocimiento académico, habilidades profesionales y adquisición de competencias. / [CA] Des de 2006, les Institucions d'Educació Superior (IES), les polítiques educatives i els agents d'interés han abordat les recomanacions de la UE destinades a proporcionar un marc per a l'aprenentatge permanent en una societat del coneixement. Estratègies com "Europa 2020" o "Educació i formació 2020" (ET2020), centrades en el creixement intel·ligent a través del desenvolupament del coneixement i la innovació (COM, 2010), intenten respondre als nous desafiaments globals que porta l'era digital. Nous conceptes com l'especialització intel·ligent, la competència digital o la ciutadania digital, entre altres, són pedres angulars per a complir amb les demandes del mercat laboral de la 4a Revolució Industrial. Recents enquestes a alumnes actuals evidencien altes taxes d'abandó i repetidors (OCDE, 2016), i la seua baixa motivació per a accedir a nostres campus seguint les metodologies existents. La bretxa entre el que els estudiants esperen i el que reben del professorat és, ara com ara, insuperable; perquè el model universitari va ser creat, desenvolupat i actualitzat en l'era pre-hàptics quan el Procés de Bolonya per a l'estandardització de l'Educació Superior Europea es va incorporar al disseny curricular (2010). Les universitats tecnològiques espanyoles, en un esforç per satisfer les necessitats dels futurs enginyers, intenten dissenyar estratègies per a incorporar aqueixes habilitats crucials per a que el seus graduats puguen prosperar en una societat de treball digital (OCDE, 2019) de la millor manera possible. Des de 2010, la irrupció de telèfons intel·ligents i tauletes en les nostres llars (dispositius hàptics) i la vida normal ha portat un nou gest, la interacció hàptica, al nostre benestar social i a la nostra forma de vida. Dins de esa interacció hi ha elements com a connectivitat global, formats digitals, alfabetització en nous mitjans, comunicació instantània, interactivitat o personalització que ha afectat a tots els membres de la societat sense importar l'edat, inclosos els xiquets de la Generació Hàptica que, en aquest moment, estan observant i imitant tot tipus de gestos i comportaments que es realitzen al seu voltant mentre desenvolupen la seua personalitat. El disseny etnogràfic de la investigació des de una perspectiva de les Ciències Socials guia l'investigació realitzada en aquesta tesi i confirma que la interacció hàptica en mans de la primera infància brinda increïbles possibilitats per a impulsar la creativitat, l'adquisició de l'idioma de l'anglés i el aprenentatge expert, entre altres possibilitats d'aprenentatge, sempre que s'usen aquestos dispositius aprofitant al màxim les seves característiques lecto-escritores integrades que el faciliten. Aquesta capacitat intrinseca motiva les preguntes d'investigació d'aquesta dissertació. En poc temps, eixos xiquets: els iScholars, que han adquirit molt de la seva alfabetització amb gestos hàptics innats des de la primera infància, ompliran el nostres campuses universitaris portant amb ells unes necessitats d'aprenentatge differents en un nou escenari que combina entorns educatius formals, informals i no formals amb una perspectiva mes ampla. Tenint en compte aquest panorama, es configura un nou escenari d'aprenentatge, l'Atrium, per a permetre que les assignatures STEM s'enfronten a la Generació Hàptica: els iScholars. L'Atrium, com un espai polivalent, ofereix a l'educació superior la possibilitat de configurar els títols universitaris des d'un abast STEHEAM que es cree satisfarà les necessitats dels estudiants universitaris de 2030 a la recerca de coneixement acadèmic, habilitats professionals and acquisició de competències. / [EN] Since 2006, Higher Education Institutions (HEIs), educational policies, and stakeholders have addressed to the EU recommendations aimed to provide a framework for lifelong learning in the knowledge society. Strategies like "Europe 2020" or "Education and Training 2020" (ET2020), focusing on smart growth through the development of knowledge and innovation (COM, 2010), try to answer the new global challenges that the digital era brings. New concepts like smart specialization, digital competence, or digital citizenship, among others, are keystones to fulfil the labor market skills of the 4th Industrial Revolution. Recent surveys, among nowadays students, evidence high drop-out and repetition rates (OECD, 2016), and their low motivation to join our campuses following the existing methodologies. The gap between what the students expect and what they receive from faculty is nowadays insurmountable because the university model was created, developed, and updated in the pre-haptic era when the Bologna Process for standardization of European higher education was incorporated into the curricula design (2010). Technical Spanish universities, in an effort to meet the needs of the future engineers, are trying to design strategies that incorporate those crucial skills so that its graduates can prosper in a digital working society (OECD, 2019) in the best possible way. Since 2010, the irruption of smartphones and tablets in our households (haptic devices) and normal life has brought a new gesture, the haptic interaction, to our social well-being and to our way of living. Within that interaction there are elements like global connectivity, digital formats, new media literacies, instant communication, interactivity, or personalization that have affected to all members of society no matter the age, including the Haptic Generation children that are, right now, spying and imitating all sort of gestures and behaviors performed around them while developing their personalities. The ethnographic design from a Social Science perspective guides the research conducted in this dissertation confirming that haptic interaction in the hands of early childhood brings possibilities for boosting creativity, English language learning, and expert understanding, among other learning possibilities while using the device at its best capacity for literacy learning (using its in-built features). This capacity arises the research questions of this dissertation. In no time, those children: the iScholars, who have acquired literacy learning with innate haptic gestures since early childhood will be filling our university campuses bringing different learning needs in a new scenario that blends formal, informal, and non-formal educative settings within a broader scope. Having this landscape in view, a new learning scenario, the Learning Atrium is configurated to enable STEM subjects to face the Haptic Generation: the iScholars. The Atrium, like a polyvalent space, offers higher education the possibility to shape the university degrees from a STEHEAM scope that it is believed to meet the 2030 university student's needs in search of scholar knowledge, professional skills, and competencies acquisition. / Llobregat Gómez, N. (2020). STEM subjects face the Haptic Generation: the iScholar [Tesis doctoral]. Universitat Politècnica de València. https://doi.org/10.4995/Thesis/10251/139137

This collective case study examined the factors affecting the collaborative relationship between teachers and early childhood educators (ECEs) teaching together in elementary schools as Early Learning Teams in the first year of implementation of full-time kindergarten in Ontario. There are six major adjustments required concurrently by the Ontario government’s new policy in all kindergarten classrooms: team-teaching (sharing instruction, not just classroom management); supporting ECEs as new staff; changing from theme-based to inquiry-based; balancing the School District’s literacy goals with provincial play-based curriculum; double the instructional time, and the increased number of children in the classroom (up from 19 to 24-30). Two of the four classrooms studied in a rural Ontario school district were full-day, every day kindergartens (FDK) for 4 and 5 year olds and the other two were alternate full-days. Data were collected through classroom observations and interviews with principals, kindergarten teachers and ECEs. Case study theory guided the collection and analysis of data with open coding of transcripts, active code notes and memos to help answer the question of how to best implement FDK programs in Ontario. Results indicated that the FDK Team relationship itself enabled and constrained classroom instructional strategies, which would in turn have an impact on student outcomes. Collaborative practice involved a process that was affected by both internal factors (such as teacher foreknowledge of ECE skills), and thirteen external factors which arose from government and school district mandates, as well as practices of the school principal. Examples are: planning time, pay differential, hiring practices and adjusting to the new curriculum at the same time as the team adjusts to team teaching. The collaboration of more than 9,500 teacher and ECE teams is key to the success of Ontario’s new full-time early learning program. The education sector needs to adopt the long-established business practice of supporting team development through recognizing progressive teaming stages, such as those identified by Tuckman (1965). Recommendations are made for principals, school districts offices, government policy, FDK teachers, ECEs, and colleges that provide ECE training. A mnemonic for the four attributes evident in high-functioning collaborative integrated teaching teams (RISE) is proposed.

This collective case study examined the factors affecting the collaborative relationship between teachers and early childhood educators (ECEs) teaching together in elementary schools as Early Learning Teams in the first year of implementation of full-time kindergarten in Ontario. There are six major adjustments required concurrently by the Ontario government’s new policy in all kindergarten classrooms: team-teaching (sharing instruction, not just classroom management); supporting ECEs as new staff; changing from theme-based to inquiry-based; balancing the School District’s literacy goals with provincial play-based curriculum; double the instructional time, and the increased number of children in the classroom (up from 19 to 24-30). Two of the four classrooms studied in a rural Ontario school district were full-day, every day kindergartens (FDK) for 4 and 5 year olds and the other two were alternate full-days. Data were collected through classroom observations and interviews with principals, kindergarten teachers and ECEs. Case study theory guided the collection and analysis of data with open coding of transcripts, active code notes and memos to help answer the question of how to best implement FDK programs in Ontario. Results indicated that the FDK Team relationship itself enabled and constrained classroom instructional strategies, which would in turn have an impact on student outcomes. Collaborative practice involved a process that was affected by both internal factors (such as teacher foreknowledge of ECE skills), and thirteen external factors which arose from government and school district mandates, as well as practices of the school principal. Examples are: planning time, pay differential, hiring practices and adjusting to the new curriculum at the same time as the team adjusts to team teaching. The collaboration of more than 9,500 teacher and ECE teams is key to the success of Ontario’s new full-time early learning program. The education sector needs to adopt the long-established business practice of supporting team development through recognizing progressive teaming stages, such as those identified by Tuckman (1965). Recommendations are made for principals, school districts offices, government policy, FDK teachers, ECEs, and colleges that provide ECE training. A mnemonic for the four attributes evident in high-functioning collaborative integrated teaching teams (RISE) is proposed.

Additional information available on a CD stored at the Merensky Library.The purpose of this study was to explore the concept of quality in early learning centres which could serve as the groundwork for the development of an early learning quality assurance framework in South Africa. The data used reflects different beneficiaries‘ experiences of quality in early learning centres. The unique contexts of, and situations at early learning centres were considered. A theoretical framework, based on Woodhead‘s model on quality development, informed the study. The framework consists of input (structural), process and outcome quality indicators. In this explanatory instrumental case study framed within social constructionism, the researcher partnered with 235 teachers, 235 mothers and 235 teacher students from a middle income group, to generate mixed method data using surveys, as well as interviews and reflective journals in a statistical and thematical analysis. Beneficiaries‘ conceptualisations of quality mirrored accepted norms of quality in early learning centres. Beneficiaries indicated the following as indicative of quality: children‘s social-emotional well-being and holistic development, a normative foundation for values and respect, effective infrastructure and accountable learning. Aspects regarded as quality indicators by beneficiaries were available at early learning centres. In this regard early learning centres provided more indoor than outdoor facilities. The latter were mostly static outdoor structures which could negatively impact on sensory- and motor development. The promovenda developed a draft quality assurance framework based on the following criteria: school climate, infrastructure, curriculum, communication, teacher competence, learning environment, and support services. The findings show that aspects perceived by beneficiaries as quality indicators in an early learning centre are predominantly process indicators and hard to ‗measure‘ in a quantitative way. A quality school climate enables emotional and social well-being. In this regard, the findings suggest that for the beneficiaries quality concerns were not about that which early learning centres have provided in terms of facilities (input indicators), but rather about centres that promote children‘s holistic well-being. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2012. / Educational Psychology / unrestricted

Thesis (Ph.D. (Language Education)) --University of Limpopo, 2018 / Despite the introduction of a number of educational policies and measures (for example, the Foundation for Learning Campaign, the National Reading Strategy (2008), Integrated National Literacy and Numeracy Strategy (INLNS) (Department of Basic Education, 2011), Certificate in Primary English Language Teaching (CiPELT)) in 2012-13 to increase the quality of education during and over twenty three years of democracy in South Africa, there are still problems with regard to reading levels of rural South African learners in the intermediate phase. The in/ability to read at grade level, still persist even after the introduction of teaching of English as a subject from Grade 1 in all schools as prescribed by CAPS. Available literature on reading in/abilities in South African schools concedes that the problem lies in the primary schools. The aim of this study was to investigate and determine an effective approach to teaching reading skills in the intermediate phase. I employed convergent parallel design as both the quantitative and qualitative strands were used concurrently and equally. The convergent parallel design is suitable for this study as it allows me to compare and contrast quantitative statistical results with qualitative findings for corroboration and validation purposes. The four main approaches which are; Phonemic awareness, Read-aloud, Shared Reading and Guided Group Reading were tested through the employment of an intervention administered to individual groups of grade 4 learners applying a particular approach for seven weeks. In the light of the aim of the study, it is clear from data presentation that Read-aloud approach yielded better results in terms of developing and promoting reading skills in the rural intermediate phase. Results of post-intervention comprehension test show that the Read-aloud group had remarkable improvement in terms of the number of learners who could read at an acceptable level. Teachers’ experiences about an effective approach were explored through the questionnaire and interviews; and their responses corroborated findings from learners’ post-intervention comprehension test. Nevertheless, Group Guided Reading should not be ignored as the group that was taught reading using this approach had significant improvement that was corroborated by teacher participants’ responses in both the questionnaire and interviews. Thus, in this study I argue that Read-aloud promote and develop reading skills in the rural intermediate phase.

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