The diploma thesis is divided into the theoretical and research part. In the theoretical part, we explain the concepts of pre-school age and its development. We are dealing with the division of pre-school institutions into state, non-state and private. We describe the possibilities of alternative education. Definition of legislative documentation of pre-school education. The research section focuses on non-state and private preschool institutions. What these devices differ from state kindergarten and what they offer in pre-school education.

The study was carried out to investigate the implementation of the Malawian ECD policy in CBCCC in Namatubi Kanyenjere area. Both primary and secondary techniques were used to carry out the research. Literature review was carried out to ascertain the evolvement of ECD over the years and establish the basis of the current policy. Interviews were carried out with three respondent groups namely CBCCC committees, care givers and government officials. This was done to assess perceptions, attitudes and knowledge of the ECD policy among communities as well as the roles played by different stakeholders in the policy implementation. Over 90% of the CBCCC in Chitipa were initiated by communities and duly registered by the government. However there is little monitoring thereof by the government officials which dwindles the activities of the centres. Communities, stakeholders and government face various challenges that require concerted efforts to help improve the implementation of the ECD policy. / Development Studies / M.A. (Development Studies)

The study contributed to preschool education by highlighting the attitudes and perceptions of parents and preschool teachers and practitioners concerning preschool education in general, and the teaching of thinking skills in particular. Furthermore, information with regard to developing guidelines for a preschool learning programme to assist unqualified and underqualified preschool practitioners in predominantly rural areas was generated. The literature study revealed that all areas of development, that is, cognitive, physical, social, moral and emotional are interrelated. Therefore, development in cognition is influenced by, and influences the other areas. Cognitive development in particular, is most rapid during the preschool years and should be stimulated at this stage. A qualitative study was undertaken to determine the attitudes and perceptions of preschool teachers/practitioners and parents with regard to preschool education in general, and the teaching of thinking skills to enhance cognitive development in particular. Four preschools in Region 3 of the Northern Province were observed to investigate the teaching of thinking skills and also the learning programmes used in these institutions. The findings from the literature and research studies led to the following conclusions: * Parents are uninformed concerning their role in stimulating the cognitive development of their children. * Preschool education is regarded as being very important for children. * There are no prescribed learning programmes or explicitly stated guidelines underlying preschool education. * Thinking skills are taught to a greater or lesser extent in preschools, although the intentional mediation is missing. *The training of preschool practitioners is a neglected area. In view of the conclusions, the following recommendations were made: * Underqualified and unqualified preschool practitioners should receive training. * Partnership between parents and preschool practitioners should be encouraged to ensure continuity between the home and the preschool. * Parents' support programmes should be developed to empower them as their children's most significant mediators. * Thinking skills should be infused in preschool learning programmes and activities. * Remote, rural areas should be supported by the goverment and NGOs with the provision of preschool education. * Prescribed guidelines and learning programmes should be developed to assist unqualified and underqualified practitioners in rural and disadvantaged areas in the Northern Province. / Psychology of Education / D. Ed. (Psychology of Education)

The study focussed on determining whether there were any distinguishing characteristics that comprised the background of the gifted Indian pre-school child. The paucity of literature on the Indian pre-school child forced the researcher to rely on international studies. The theoretical composition of the study reviewed personality and normative development, as well as cognitive development of the gifted pre-school child. Family background and stimulatory activities that parents engaged children in, were also explored. The empirical investigation combined the use of quantitative and qualitative techniques. Initially, parents, teachers and peers were responsible for selecting the research sample. The sample of eighty-three children was subjected to the administration of the JSAIS. Of this twentyfive were selected in order for the questionnaire to be administered to their parents. Results of the questionnaire indicated that parents undertook to stimulate their children by engaging them in activities that they were of the opinion would promote their intellectual development. The results of the questionnaire were corroborated by interviews that were conducted with six of the parents. Relevant excerpts from five of the interviews are presented as well as a full interview with one of the parents. The results reveal that parents continuously strive to stimulate their children so that they can ensure that the potential that they believe their children possess can be actualised. / Psychology of Education / M. Ed. (Guidance and Counselling)

This thesis examines three different aspects of education policy to ascertain their effects on individual outcomes, both in the classroom and in the labour market. The goal is to provide new empirical evidence using robust identification strategies that can inform better policy. The first chapter looks at the role of pre-primary education in Germany using the German Socio-Economic Panel data set (GSOEP) to determine if attending an early education programme for longer increases the probability of attending a higher-level secondary school at age fourteen. I employ family fixed effects estimation and quasi-experimental analysis to control for selection. The results of the family fixed effects estimation show a small and negative impact of attending early education for more years. In the quasi-experimental analysis, based upon a federal law change in 1996, I find no impact of more years of early education on later schooling outcomes. In the second chapter of this thesis, I again use the GSOEP to examine the recent German reform to extend the length of the primary school day. I exploit the quasi-experimental roll-out of reform to assign treatment to women and look at whether increasing school hours increases the likelihood that mothers enter into employment or extend their hours if already working. I find that the policy has an effect at the extensive margin, drawing more women into the labour market, but that there is no significant impact of the policy at the intensive margin. In the final chapter I turn my attention to how peers' non-cognitive traits impact an individual's learning outcomes. Using an educational panel from Flanders, Belgium, I use the linear-in- means model of peer effects as well as several non-linear models to see how peers' personalities in a classroom affect Dutch and math scores. The results show that having more conscientious peers on average positively impacts Dutch and math scores, but that a greater dispersion of conscientiousness hurts Dutch outcomes. I also find that having more extroverted peers on average hurts math performance.

The work deals with the specifics and importance of teaching children foreign language at an early age through physical exercises and activities that support the learning process. The theoretical part explains the developmental characteristics of children prerequisites for language, some important principles of teaching, teacher competencies but also those that acquire the children themselves in the process of learning in connection with the Framework curriculum for preschool education. The work also includes an overview of the most common methods used in teaching a foreign language at an early age. Another part of the work is devoted to the psychomotor, importance of movement in the learning process linked with the health education . The practical part consists of a collection of psychomotor exercises divided into three main thematic areas of teaching - color, body, animals that is intended as an inspiration for teaching English to preschool children. The research includes validation results of this teaching programme using the methods of observation and video analysis of the target group.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-11T19:24:20Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2012-08-07Bitstream added on 2014-06-13T20:52:02Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 casagrande_al_me_rcla.pdf: 1110101 bytes, checksum: 3b72a6f4af19bdddba2c91b0d8ab2503 (MD5) / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) / Esta pesquisa busca estudar as parcerias firmadas entre os municípios médios paulistas e instituições privadas para a oferta de educação infantil. Este estudo é parte integrante da pesquisa interinstitucional intitulada A oferta educacional na educação infantil: arranjos entre o público e o privado (BORGHI coord., 2010), financiada pelo Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq) e desenvolvida no âmbito do Grupo de Estudos e Pesquisas em Política Educacional (Greppe). Mais especificamente, a pesquisa faz uma análise descritiva, no conjunto dos municípios selecionados, considerando: o ano de início da primeira parceria; o tipo da instituição privada parceira; a justificativa para adoção e manutenção da parceria; o termo que regula as parcerias; o formato do subsídio do poder público às instituições parceiras; o ano de integração das instituições ao sistema de ensino; a faixa etária atendida pelas instituições privadas parceiras e a forma de contabilização das matrículas conveniadas no censo escolar. Para subsidiar as análises propostas, foi realizado um levantamento teórico sobre a reforma do Estado empreendida no Brasil na década de 1990 e o contexto político e econômico no qual se insere, bem como sobre a trajetória da educação infantil e do seu financiamento, passando por sua ligação com o assistencialismo até chegar a sua consolidação legal como um direito educacional. O conjunto dos municípios pesquisados se constituiu a partir dos municípios paulistas de médio porte (conforme classificação do IDGE) que firmaram tais parcerias até o ano de 2009, num total e 23 municípios aqui denominados com letras de A a X. Para compor o conjunto de municípios a serem estudados, foram utilizadas informações do banco de dados Parcerias público-privado, resultante da... / This research seeks to study the agreements between the average counties and private institutions for the provision of early childhood education. This study is part of the research between institutions entitled The educational provision in kindergarten: arrangements between public and private (Borghi coordinator, 2010), financed by the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq) and developed within the Group Studies and Research in Educational Policy (Greppe). More specificalIy, the research is a descriptive analysis in all the cities selected, considering: the first year of partnership, the type of private partner institution, the justification for the adoption and maintenance of the partnership, the term governing partnerships; subsidy format of public power partner institutions, the year of integration of the institutions to the education system, the age served by private institutions and partner and de accounting form of the enrolIments covenanted in the school census. To support the proposed analyzes, we performed a theoretical survey on the state reform undertaken in Brazil in the 1990 and the political and economic context in which it operates, as well as on the trajectory of early childhood education and its financing, through its connection with welfare until their legal consolidation of education as a right. All the municipalities surveyed was formed from the mid-sized counties (according to the mGE classification) have entered into such partnerships by the year 2009, totaling 23 municipalities here and named with letters A to X. To compose the set of cities to be studied, we used information from the database Public-private partnerships, resulting from interinstitutional research Strategies for the Municipal Provision of Basic Education: analyzing public-private partnerships in the... (Complete abstract click electronic access below)

A thesis presented in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF EDUCATION 2004 / This dissertation is located in the field of early childhood development. It is situated in the context of education for learners with special educational needs (ELSEN). The specific context was Deaf children who learn through the medium of South African Sign Language . The study is an investigation into the cognitive and social "value-addedness" of computer technology on profoundly deaf young learners. A Vygotskian theoretical framework was used to explore the efficacy of the computer as a tool for learning in the profoundly Deaf. Social and collaborative learning with peers was investigated. A case study was conducted with a cohort of seven profoundly Deaf Grade R learners (aged 516 years) at a special needs school in the Western Cape. The research methodology was an empirical investigation within a qualitative research paradigm, using observation and interviews. The report provides a descriptive account that makes use of illustrative vignettes. The study concludes that the computer influences social development within the cohort. The computer was also able to scaffold children's understanding of mathematical tasks and thereby provide a cognitive influence on learning.

Thesis (MTech (Education))--Peninsula Technikon, Cape Town, 2002 / Within the broad theoretical context provided by debates on the importance of focussing on programme teaching towards workplace-orientated goals and greater cooperation between the world ofwork and the higher education sector in order to develop work integrated curricula, this study attempted to investigate the relevance of the diploma in educare with regard to meeting the needs ofeducare centres. The study as a whole is set against the general literature on the development of the transdisciplinary curriculum that integrates the world of work with academic programmes and the development oftransdisciplinary curriculum in educare in particular. The literature that was surveyed covered the following aspects: The needs ofthe educare practitioner in the workplace, important aspects that need to be present in the Early Childhood curriculum in order for the child to learn effectively and how could the higher education sector and the workplace, work together to develop a balanced curriculum that is offered to the educare practitioners at the institutions. Along with this investigation quantitative as well as qualitative data were collected about the curriculum that is offered to potential educare practitioners by means of questionnaires, interviews and focus group interviews. The conclusion drawn from the findings of the literature survey and the investigation is that the integration of theory and practice in the teaching and learning processes should be encouraged if the development and professional growth of students are to be achieved, and more interaction should take place between the higher education sector and the workplace in order to increase the performance levels of students and their employability in the workplace. The present study therefore, is an attempt to encourage the integration oftheory and practice and collaborative efforts between higher education institutions and the worklllace in curriculum development and is in line with the new South African curriculum that places emphasis on the relevance of education to the needs ofthe workplace and to the lives of South Africans.

Practitioners working with children under three are often marginalised; both in terms of group settings and in terms of being a focus of research (see Manning-Morton, 2006; McDowell-Clark and Baylis, 2012). This research prioritizes the practitioner’s voice by exploring the subject area of personal theory. In this thesis, personal theory is conceptualised as a composite of understandings and experiences including policy, organisational procedures, Early Years literature, training and Continuing Professional Development as well as personal and professional experiences, beliefs, and values. As Stephen and Brown (2004) indicate, particular constructions of care, learning, and children shape what is considered desirable educational practice. Drawing on Aristotle’s intellectual virtue of phronesis, this research’s aim is to understand how practitioners’ personal and professional experiences and understandings contribute to practitioners’ construction of personal theory. Research questions focus on: 1) understanding which relationships are particularly influential, 2) understanding which experiences are particularly influential and 3) identifying key features of practitioners’ personal theories. Case study methodology frames the research design. The research demonstrates that although personal theory is tacit, linking to specific instances of practice enables practitioners to articulate personal constructions of care, learning and children. Findings relate to six key characteristics of practitioners’ personal theories: practice as an ‘Ethic of Care’, practice as pedagogy, practice as ‘subsitute mothering’, practice as distinctive for children aged birth to three years, practice as rooted in experience and practice as emotional activity. Joan Tronto’s (1993, 2013) ‘Ethic of Care’ affords further consideration of personal theory; particularly the contradiction between personal theory that shapes engagements with young children as an ‘Ethic of Care’ and that which shapes engagements as ‘substitute mothering’. The thesis’ discussion highlights how the articulation and discussion of personal theory enables a richer construction of Early Years professionalism and professional identity within Birth to Three settings.