Social Work / M.Diac. (Play Therapy)

This dissertation was initiated to investigate the preprimary teacher's role in identifying and assisting learning disabled preprimars. The literature section consists of a study of the normal process of child development and the phenomenon of learning disability and its manifestation in preprimars. The philosophy of inclusion and a number of existing programmes for learners with learning disabilities were examined. The empirical research assessed the responses of preprimary teachers from the Eastern Cape to a questionnaire, their experiences in dealing with preprimars with learning disabilities in a typical preprimary group were analyzed and a summary of the findings was made. Recommendations have been given to teachers regarding the identification of learning disabilities in preprimars, the assistance and support needed to enable the teacher to assist the learning disabled preprimar and the need for additional training to equip her to do so. / Educational Studies / M. Ed. (Orthopedagogics)

The purpose of my study is to find out whether and how preschool teachers work with biology with the youngest preschool children. I also intend to investigate whether teachers in toodler groups believes that the biology related targets within the curriculum preschool policy document are achievable and how they intend to work with them practically. I have conducted interviews with four preschool teachers who are working with the youngest preschool children. The interviews describe how the preschool teachers work with biology integrated into the everyday practice by taking note of what the children show interest in and then acts together with them. They emphasizes the importance of working close to the child to overcome barriers and demonstrate sustainable approach to nature. The preschool teachers believes that the curriculum documents related to biology are reasonable and achievable, they claims to be working with them on the children's level.

published_or_final_version / abstract / toc / Educational Psychology / Master / Master of Social Sciences

No description available.

The teaching of young children has been of varying interest to educators, but with as many as 62% of women with children under the age of six in the workforce early childhood education in all-day programs assumes added significance. While many good quality curriculum guides are available for half-day programs there are few for all-day programs. This curriculum guide for an all-day program for three and four year olds addresses the physical learning environment of the center and the role of the teacher as well as the written program. A set of goals encompasses the entire day, acknowledging the role of the center in socialization and acculturation. Sample plans and evaluation techniques show clearly how these goals may be accomplished. It is hoped that such a curriculum guide may enable the non-education major to achieve an excellent program which will foster the social, emotional, cognitive and physical growth of the children.

The problem with which this investigation is concerned is that of determining the procedures and methods elementary school principals in Texas utilized to implement the state-supported kindergarten program. A questionnaire was developed and content validity established by five authorities in the field of early childhood education. The questionnaire was forwarded to 100 randomly selected elementary school principals in Texas, and 94 percent returned the completed form. This study has a twofold purpose. The first is to describe the most frequently used procedures to implement the state-supported kindergarten program. The second is to identify those procedures used that are not educationally beneficial to young children to assist in statewide planning.

M.Ed. (Education) / Please refer to full text to view abstract

This study explores beliefs and practices about standards of quality in Texas public prekindergartens as viewed from various perspectives, including prekindergarten teachers, administrators of prekindergarten programs, and families of prekindergarten students. These beliefs and practices are compared with widely-accepted national standards of quality for preschool programs.

Twenty-seven parents with young children were randomly assigned to an experimental group which underwent an affective skill-building program, or one of two control groups. Pre and postassessments measured levels of communication, discrimination, and child vocalization for each parent. Multilinear regression analysis indicated that final communication skills among the three groups were significantly different. Final communication skills of the experimental group were significantly greater than those of the Hawthorne control group. Final discrimination skills for the three groups showed a trend toward being significantly different. Levels of child vocalization did not show significant changes. The experimental program was successful in improving accurate parent-child communication in the affective realm.