Elementary preservice teachers often struggle with their relationships with their students. Research suggests that they have internalized robust teaching scripts that limit their learning of progressive pedagogical methods. As a result of these scripts and relational patterns learned in their family of origin they become progressively more authoritarian and controlling under the situational pressures of traditional classrooms. From the perspective of narrative psychology our sense of self is constructed from meanings that we attach to critical early childhood events, the stories we tell about ourselves, and the way we habitually position ourselves towards others. This critical phenomenological study explored with preservice teachers the ways in which the meanings they attached to early childhood events influence who they become as teachers and how they relate to students. Fourteen preservice elementary school teachers selected from a teacher education program shared their life stories during an interview prior to a two-day orientation circle meeting at the beginning of their prepracticum semester. Participants met in two support circles meeting four times during the semester. The interviews and circle meetings were tape-recorded. The data were analyzed to identify their stories and the way they navigated the discourses of power in their narratives and any emerging cultural themes. The data from five of the participants were analyzed in detail using Stanton Wortham's tools to determine how they were positioning themselves within their narratives and in the storytelling event. All the participants identified critical early childhood events that influence how they construct themselves as students and teachers. They employed the same discipline practices that they experienced in early childhood. Binary opposites of culturally valued concepts were used in self-construction. Their narratives revealed multiple, interwoven, mutually supportive, conflicted and contradictory stories and clashing societal discourses as they struggled to become teachers in relation to students. Implications for teacher education included using circles along with written collaborative autobiographies and case studies of young students to identify and critically analyze the discourses that interpellate themselves and their students. Further research is required to follow students through two years of teaching. More diverse groups should be studied.

Despite current research evidence connecting family involvement to students' academic learning, non-mainstream families' funds of knowledge are insufficiently valued as relevant to public schools' curricula and academic genres, a practice that limits diverse families' inclusion as equal partners in their children's education. This two-year-long ethnography (2005-2007), grounded in sociocultural and sociohistorical theories, investigated the struggles and possibilities that two elementary teachers and their students' non-mainstream families faced while trying to reach common understandings about working collaboratively to develop home-classroom partnerships at a time of a national educational reform under the politics of high stakes accountability of the NCLB Law of 2001 and a state local policy of English-only education in Western Massachusetts. Focusing on a third grade teacher and her English Language Learners (ELL) Latino students and on a regular kindergarten teacher with half of the students of Latino origin, the study explored the evolution of participants' assumptions about non-mainstream students and their families, the participants' co-construction of social and literacy practices, and the dialogical practices conducive to partnerships for fostering home-school partnerships and improving diverse students' literacy development. Findings suggest that: (1) some specific social and literacy practices co-constructed through dialogical interactions between urban school teachers and Latino families positively influenced home-classroom partnerships that worked for nonmainstream families; and (2) the participant teachers' critical reflections on their own assumptions and ideologies brought them new understandings about Latino families' funds of knowledge and child socialization practices, helping them to know the whole child and to better provide academic support for ELL students. Implications for practitioners point at the importance of gaining an in-depth understanding of building relationships with non-mainstream families in urban schools to implement home-school partnerships that work for all families. Implications for state agencies, stakeholders, and administrators are: (1) a need to redefine the field of family involvement for a comprehensive action plan for involving non-mainstream families as equal partners in their children's education; and (2) the need for serious commitment towards supporting urban teachers by allocating time and funds for professional development.

The purpose of my study was to explore and investigate how children respond to the use of a new learning center, which is focused on the concept of multiplication, and to the use of specifically designed learning games. The literature review presented supports the view that a structured approach to games, one where learners' tactics are specified and guided, does have a significant educational effect. This study was meant to be another test of the assumption that games are a valuable addition to our repertoire of methods for teaching and was based on the belief that games can generate enthusiasm and excitement; and students can become strongly motivated by the use of games. The study is significant because very few studies have dealt, empirically, with students "playing" educational games in the classroom. Through my in-depth study, I intended to find out what happens to students when they play; what they think; how they get involved in the game; and how an educational game, as part of a learning center, can be included in the classroom. Mainly, I would like to emphasize in my study the unique part played by the educational game in the curriculum. The effectiveness of the use of the new learning center, in terms of construction of personal knowledge, and construction of social knowledge, was demonstrated. Playing with the games appears to have increased the students' involvement in the process of social interaction which resulted in them creating a microcosm of society, and also creating their own knowledge of the concept of multiplication. The results also indicate that playing, as a part in the learning process, appears to have had a great impact on the students' academic performance, in terms of their math and social skills. This study has demonstrated that an inclusion of educational games can provide an important form of interaction needed in the classroom.

The purpose of this study was to first identify and describe the literary response behaviors exhibited by pre-schoolers in a literature rich setting. Next, the study examined these response behaviors as indicative of the characteristics of theorist Michael Benton's 'secondary world' of literary response (1983) and of psychologist D. W. Winnicott's 'third area' of play (1971). Finally, the study considered the possibilities inherent in these secondary worlds for the creation and exploration of meaning on the part of pre-schoolers. This study utilized ethnographic methods of participant observation, in-depth interviewing, informal conversations, field notes and videotaping. Validity was established and checked through trianglization using the adults in the setting and two outside readers. The findings of this study are culture specific. This ethnographic study offers ways of thinking about, considering and discussing how young children use their experiences of interacting with books and responding to books to create meaning for their lives. Response behaviors were identified, described and organized into three general categories: (1) Individual/dyadic response behaviors involving one child/book(s), two children/book(s) and a child/adult/book(s), (2) Communal response behaviors involving several children/book(s) or several children/adult/book(s), and (3) Guided/directed response behaviors which always involved several children, an adult and book(s), and, in addition, had a specific goal or objective. Response behaviors in each of these categories covered a broad range of activities and formed an integral part of the living and learning experiences of the pre-schoolers in this day care setting. Both physically and humanly this setting was an organized and supportive environment which expected and encouraged interactions with and response to books. Within this setting, reliable and trustworthy relationships were formed which both allowed and encouraged the creation of secondary worlds. Such secondary worlds were intermediate between inner psychic reality and outer shared reality, were dependent upon individual contributions and provided place and opportunity for the creation of meaning. The pre-schoolers used these secondary worlds to explore self identity, emotions, competency development and to expand and integrate their ways of being in the world.

This study tested the effectiveness of an inservice training program for (1) teaching telecommunication skills to teachers who were relatively inexperienced in the use of computers, and (2) assisting teachers in designing and implementing telecommunications activities in their curriculum. Nine elementary teachers participated in an innovative telecommunications project between two local schools. Three of the teachers completed the four session model training program in which they learned the skills necessary for using a telecommunications Bulletin Board System. During the six-week initial implementation phase, a coaching strategy was employed, in which the teachers were observed and assisted while practicing telecommunications. The teachers developed a degree of expertise in using telecommunications and they were able to implement this technological innovation in their curriculum as indicated by the activities and impact upon student learning. During the first cycle of use the teachers were becoming stabilized in the use of telecommunications as they began to refine integration of this media in new areas of their curriculum. The coaching the teachers received was evaluated as being most helpful in assisting teachers in the implementation process. Perceived future barriers to implementation relate to the lack of phone lines and the scarcity of support assistance in the schools. This study has considerable implications for policy makers responsible for the incorporation of technological innovations in school curricula. The results indicate that teachers given an extensive system of training and implementation support are able to effectively integrate telecommunications activities in their curriculum.

Mathematics curriculum innovation has been launched in Taiwan recently in order to reflect the changing needs of the 21st century. The underlying assumptions of reform are: a learner-centered approach, emphasis on confluent education, and a problem-solving & reasoning approach. Research has revealed that teachers' beliefs can negatively interact with curriculum reform. On the other hand, some studies document that beliefs have little effect on instructional behavior. Therefore, this study attempts to investigate three questions: (1) what are the teachers' beliefs about the teaching and learning of mathematics in Taiwanese elementary schools and in what ways are teachers' beliefs congruent with the ongoing trend of reform; (2) what is the general picture of teachers' mathematical instructional practices in Taiwanese elementary schools and in what ways are these instructional practices congruent with the ongoing trend of reform; and (3) what is the relationship between teachers' beliefs and their instructional practices? Basically, this study combines qualitative and quantitative methods in collecting and analyzing data. That is, teacher interviews and questionnaires were administered in order to understand teachers' beliefs about teaching and learning mathematics while observational checklists and naturalistic field observations were used to portray instructional behavior. The major findings of this study are: (1) Elementary school teachers' beliefs tend to hold with the traditional absorption learning theory and seem incongruent with the undergoing curriculum reform. (2) The instructional practices tend to reflect a traditional teacher-centered classroom and also seem incongruent with the launched reform. (3) Teachers' beliefs about teaching and learning play a vital role in shaping their instructional behavior; the situational constraints merely play a minor role. In light of the above findings, some implications such as teacher education were drawn to broaden teachers' beliefs.

Thirteen low-skilled sixth graders enrolled in 4 classes in 3 different schools were identified using a combination of teachers' rankings and skill test scores. The thirteen were interviewed both individually and in small groups, and were observed over two contiguous units of their physical education class. Use of the Brophy-Good Dyadic Interaction recording instrument was interspersed throughout the study. All low-skilled students experienced physical education classes as humiliating, frustrating, embarrassing, and barely tolerable. They were subjected to continuous criticism and harassment by their peers--abuse which their teachers did not challenge or act to limit. Success was largely attributed to previous experience and luck. It was rarely attributed to instruction and practice. Failure was attributed to inability or lack of effort. Students devised a number of behaviors to reduce continued failure, from announcing failure in advance, to avoiding the learning task. The professional rhetoric of "providing a positive learning environment for all" and "having fun in physical education class" must be re-examined in light of this study.

Within the period of each student teaching experience a series of transfers takes place in which responsibility for decision-making in instruction and classroom management is shifted from the cooperating teacher to the student teacher and culminates with the assumption of the role of teacher by the student teacher. The purpose of this study was to investigate the transfer of instruction and classroom control and the degrees of freedom allowing the student teacher to make decisions during the preservice clinical experience. Six categories were used as a framework to discipline the collection of the data: Time Sequence, Readiness, Formal Communication--Conferences, Informal Communication--Cues and Signs, Degrees of Freedom and Proximity, and Legal and Moral Responsibilities. The methodology involved three phases of investigation: oral interviews, classroom observations, and questionnaires. The population in Phases 1 and 2 consisted of ten matched pairs of cooperating teachers and student teachers who were interviewed and observed. In Phase 3 nine cooperating teachers and eight student teachers comprised a different, non-matched population who responded to two types of questionnaires. All participants were from elementary preservice clinical experiences in western Massachusetts. Collected data from the three phases were qualitatively analyzed to identify significant factors relative to the transfer of control. Cooperating teachers and student teachers had no personal explicit time sequence to grant or receive the transfer of control but believed an implicit pattern existed. Student teachers had no personal criteria for readiness to assume control but determined it by personal successes in classroom management, lesson ownership, and pupil respect. Cooperating teachers had an implicit pattern for determining readiness based on these factors. Conferencing varied in length and content; reflective thinking and philosophical discussion were not major components. Cues and signs were important indicators of the progress of the transfer of control. Student teachers needed to experience degrees of freedom to make decisions as they assumed control. They believed the cooperating teacher's proximity affected the mode of instruction and limited the degrees of freedom in their instructional and management styles. Legal questions limited the latitude of the student teacher's risk-taking and decision-making potential.

The purposes of this dissertation were to compare the creative thinking of kindergarten students from three different child rearing backgrounds who participated in two curriculum approaches. Another purpose was to identify suggestions for promoting and developing creative thinking in children. The three child rearing styles examined were: democratic, autocratic and overprotective. The two curriculum approaches were: Readiness Activities Oriented Curriculum and the Academic Oriented Curriculum. The Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking Figural Form A was translated and adapted to suit Thai students (Rungsinan, 1978). The Torrance Tests yielded three measures: fluency, originality and elaboration. The Kindergarten Curriculum Evaluation Form developed by the researcher was used to identify fourteen kindergarten schools that participated in the study. The Questionnaire Concerning Child Rearing Practices was adapted from the questionnaire developed by Thumnut (1979) and revised by Kiattikul (1988). A total of three hundred and seventeen children participated in the study. The data were analyzed using analysis of variance procedures. The following findings emerged from the study: (1) There were no significant differences in fluency, originality and elaboration scores among students from different child rearing backgrounds. (2) The students in the readiness kindergarten programs scored significantly higher on fluency, originality and elaboration than students in the academic kindergartens. (3) The measure of elaboration emerged as a variable which was highly significant and may be of practical significance. In promoting and developing creative thinking in kindergarten students, the researcher suggests the use of brainstorming, webbing and pretending as techniques to help students produce new ideas and form relationships between concepts, to encourage their imagination and to involve students with minimal amounts of direction, exposition and instruction.

Ever since national legislation has become involved in the testing of our students, the face of social studies education in elementary school classrooms has changed drastically. With the passage of Goals 2000 in 1993, social studies instruction in elementary school classrooms has seen a steep decline in the time allotted. Also, the attitude of administrators and teachers in elementary schools has taken away the importance of social studies in the classroom. While social studies has seen a big change in the amount of time dedicated to instruction in the past 20 years, there is still hope for the important topics that are taught in elementary social studies classes. The results of 69 preservice elementary teachers who responded to my survey regarding time allotted to social studies education revealed that more than half had only observed social studies in the elementary classroom even once. In my research, I have concluded that teachers have been making up for time lost in social studies by adding it to the other core subjects taught throughout the day.