The effects of visual and auditory stimuli on the movement behavior was explored with pre-school children. 52 children, age 3 to 5 years, were divided into four groups. Each group performed a dance activity, two subjects at a time, under the following conditions: group 1-music/mirror, group 2-no music/mirror, group 3-music/no mirror, and group 4-no music/no mirror. The activity involved a mimicked dance (there was an adult modelling the dance movements) and an independent dance (the subjects danced by themselves, making up their own dance). The music groups danced to Hap Palmer's "Let's Dance" and the "Jig" from The Little Mermaid Soundtrack. Results indicated significant differences in on-task behavior (highest for no music/mirror and music/no mirror), and in rhythmic movement (highest in music conditions). Statistical differences were not found for mimicked movement or for the movement behavior in the independent activity. The experimenter concluded that young children have difficulty processing more than one sensory stimuli, simultaneously, in a new movement activity. Further research involving practice, and other populations is discussed. / Source: Masters Abstracts International, Volume: 31-01, page: 0023. / Director: Jayne M. Standley. / Thesis (M.M.)--The Florida State University, 1992.

Parents of kindergarten and third grade children were surveyed using the Parent Involvement Questionnaire (PIQ) to determine the kinds of child involvement activities in which parents are engaged and the amounts of time parents are spending in child involvement activities. Teachers were asked to rate classroom behaviors and academic achievement of the children using the Classroom Behavior Inventory (CBI). Analyses of variance and Pearsons' correlations were utilized to determine: (1) a relationship existed between the kinds of child involvement activities of parents and the academic achievement of the children; children of parents participating in more overall child involvement activities were rated higher on academic achievement than children of parents participating in fewer overall child involvement activities; (2) the kinds of child involvement activities of parents differed by grade level of the child; parents of third graders participated in more school, community and overall child involvement activities than parents of kindergarten children; (3) the amounts of time spent in child involvement activities differed by family form; stepfamilies spent more time in community and school child involvement activities than other families. There were significant relationships between the CBI subscales of creativity, verbal intelligence, dependence, and distractibility and the variable of kinds of child involvement activities obtained from the PIQ. The results of the study have implications for parent educators in curriculum planning, teachers in designing parent involvement programs, and family professionals in working with diverse family forms. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 50-04, Section: A, page: 0870. / Major Professor: Eileen M. Earhart. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1989.

This longitudinal study was undertaken to examine the developmental progression of banging during the second half year of life. The second purpose was to determine if and when banging is used 'appropriately,' that is, as a function of object properties. Twenty infants were videotaped while presented with five pairs of objects, one pair at a time, for one minute each at monthly intervals. Object pairs were varied systematically along the hardness/sound potential dimension, to promote more or less banging. Results indicate that in some instances banging may go through a short period of indiscriminate use before it is applied appropriately, as with the cubes. In other instances, banging appears to be used selectively upon its emergence, as was the case with the dowel. Infants evidenced more banging of hard or rigid objects than of soft and flexible ones. An independent group of ten-month-olds exhibited the same discriminate banging, suggesting that the present findings may reflect developmental change rather than the effects of repeated testing / acase@tulane.edu

In the present investigation, the effects of two types of phonological awareness training programs on word learning in young children were examined. Forty-eight non-reading kindergartners completed training. The study, a repeated measures design, consisted of three experimental conditions. Condition 1 (the AB group) involved phonological awareness training that included analysis and blending activities. Condition 2 (the B group) involved training that included only blending activities. Condition 3 (C group) consisted of a variety of language experience activities. Major hypotheses were focused on the differential effects of two training programs in facilitating development of explicit phonological awareness skills, generalization of awareness skills to performance on academic-related tasks involving phonemic knowledge, and generalization to word learning on a reading analogue task. A regression technique was used to evaluate the subjects' performances on several dependent measures categorized as direct phonological awareness tasks (segmenting and blending), academic-related tasks (experimental reading and spelling, letter-sound association, Woodcock Word Attack and Word Identification tests), and a reading analogue task. Consistent with the hypothesis, the AB combination training group performed significantly better than the language experience control on the posttreatment segmenting task. The AB and B groups outperformed the C group on the blending skill measure and a novel segmenting-like phoneme elision task. With respect to academic-related measures, significant results were obtained for only one posttest. AB and B groups performed better than the control group on the experimental reading task. The most dramatic results occurred for the paired associate reading analogue task. Even though the largest effect in the study was produced by the blending / training only condition (B group), only the AB group demonstrated significantly better word learning ability than did the C group. These findings suggest that a phonological awareness training program in which both segmenting and blending skills are taught is the most effective approach for enhancement of early developing reading skills in kindergarten children. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 52-09, Section: A, page: 3226. / Major Professor: Joseph K. Torgesen. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1991.

The purpose of this study was to descriptively investigate sample associations between mentors' emotional empathic tendency, proteges' perception of the mentoring relationship, and proteges' teacher self-efficacy belief. To provide the data for these calculations, three questionnaires were administered to 26 mentor-protege pairs in the Florida State University Early Childhood Teacher Education Program, who had been teaching together for three semesters in primary (K-3) classrooms. Scores were paired, and Pearson Product Moment correlations were calculated. Mentor and protege perceptions of the mentor-protege relationship, and mentor suggestions for enhancement of the program were studied using mentor and protege written responses to open-ended questions. / Findings indicated some sample evidence that linear relationships existed between mentors' level of emotional empathy, the proteges perception of the mentor-protege relationship, and the proteges' teacher self-efficacy belief. The scores on the instruments suggested some interesting and supportive observations. The mentors had a relatively high level of emotional empathic tendency, the proteges rated their mentor-protege relationships highly, and the proteges had a high level of teacher self-efficacy belief. / Mentors and proteges were very satisfied overall with the program, and felt that the long-term placement had allowed time and opportunity for the development of the mentor-protege relationship, which contributed to the proteges' teaching confidence and competence. / A number of commonalities were found in the mentor and protege perceptions of their relationship. Three categories of important mentor characteristics were identified under the headings of mentor as nurturer, expert colleague, and role model. Mentors and proteges described a successful mentor-protege relationship as a close friendship, characterized by honesty, mutual respect, and professionalism. / Mentor suggestions for program enhancement included increased collaboration between mentors and university faculty, mentor input into the syllabi for protege methods courses, opportunities for mentors to help teach methods classes, and increased involvement of university faculty in the public school classrooms. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 56-08, Section: A, page: 3084. / Major Professor: Virginia P. Green. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1995.

In this dissertation, the problem of early childhood teacher turnover is approached from the perspective of professional identity. During three-part semi-structured interviews with twelve highly-educated infant-toddler teachers working in NAEYC-accredited centers in a mid-Atlantic metropolitan area, participants shared information about their career decisions and professional identities. The participant teachers, who were more highly-educated than a representative sample would be, generally "fell into" the career without having had any pre-service training specific to working with infants and toddlers. Teachers described their jobs in terms of boredom and / or frustration, and found more value in experiential learning than from formal professional development opportunities. Teachers in this study self-identified as professional "teachers" while perceiving themselves to be other-identified as unskilled "day care workers." Teachers in this study did not view teaching infants and toddlers as a long-term career option. The findings suggest that the public's perception of infant-toddler teachers as unskilled workers may encourage highly-educated teachers to leave the profession. I use these findings to make recommendations for pre-service educators, administrators, and policymakers.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Lehigh University, 2009. / Adviser: Christine L. Cole.

Thesis (M.Ed.)--Memorial University of Newfoundland, 2000. / Bibliography: leaves 123-134.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2009. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 70-06, Section: A, page: . Adviser: Liora Bresler. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 178-189) Available on microfilm from Pro Quest Information and Learning.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2002. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references. Available also from UMI Company.