<p> Research in the area of early childhood has confirmed that children accessing high-quality programs lead to better outcomes in kindergarten as well as later in life (Committee for Economic Development, 2006; Frabutt &amp; Waldron, 2013; Hudson, 2014; Stewart, 2015; Temple &amp; Reynolds, 2007). The factors highlighted in research contributing to these outcomes have included teacher effectiveness and classroom quality (Armor, 2014; Fernandez, 2010; Ryan, Whitebook, Kipnis, &amp; Sakai, 2011). One factor missing from current research and policy is the role of the early childhood leader. The purpose of this basic interpretive qualitative study is to gain insights into how early childhood leaders&rsquo; experiences have shaped their understanding of leadership, focusing specifically on directors from licensed early childhood programs in Northern Virginia. The central research question guiding this inquiry is: What are the experiences of pre-kindergarten leaders in licensed pre-kindergarten programs in Northern Virginia that inform their development as a leader? Three sub questions are also included: What led an individual to become a pre-kindergarten leader? What has influenced the leadership philosophies of pre-kindergarten leaders? What has influenced the current leadership practices utilized by pre-kindergarten leaders? Data from interviews, walkthroughs, and document analyses with seven directors from early childhood centers in Northern Virginia were examined. Through this process, five themes emerged: generational influences, collegial influences, past work experience, environmental influences, and leadership characteristic and behaviors. Three conclusions were built upon these themes to address the research questions. First, participants entered the field of early childhood due to generational influences with their child entering preschool or just by &ldquo;falling into&rdquo; the field. Once in the field, collegial influences encouraged participants to pursue the director position. Participants also rose through the ranks, by beginning as a volunteer or teachers&rsquo; aide, becoming a teacher, and then ultimately becoming a director. Second, a director&rsquo;s philosophies were reinforced through the media as well as professional organizations. Finally, a director&rsquo;s practices were informed through collegial influences, past experiences, and environmental influences.</p><p>

<p> Promoting global awareness is commonly cited as a main benefit of early foreign language education; however, little research backs this claim. This study explores a partial Spanish immersion preschool and how it shapes young children&rsquo;s global awareness and knowledge of foreign languages and cultures. The study used a series of games, activities, and interviews to address the following three aspects of the classroom: (1) foreign language activities and language use, (2) how global awareness was portrayed by students and teachers, and (3) the beliefs, goals, and motivations of parents who chose to enroll their children there. The frameworks of translingualism and global education informed analysis of classroom observations, activities with children, and interviews with parents and teachers.</p><p> Findings indicated that children did show signs of early learning related to global awareness, though language and culture were not always the primary goals for parents and teachers at the school. Children&rsquo;s literature and games allowed children to express their views and understanding about their learning about Spanish and other cultures in the classroom. They were able to talk about speaking Spanish in school and knew some words and phrases learned through exposure from the teachers in the classroom. Parents and members of the staff expressed their beliefs in the value of early second language exposure; however, primary needs of the children such as keeping them safe and developing a nurturing environment were always the priority. The findings will inform future development of language immersion programs for young children and give directors of such programs insights into what parents may hope for their children to learn regarding language and other cultural instruction.</p><p>

The Marshmallow Test, a self-imposed delay of gratification task pioneered by Walter Mischel in the 1960’s, showed that young children vary in their ability to inhibit impulses and regulate their attention and emotion in order to wait and obtain a desired reward (Mischel & Mischel, 1983). The Marshmallow Test offers an opportunity to observe and measure children’s decision-making and self-regulation in an emotionally charged context of often conflicting motivations. Additionally, this task provides a context to investigate how compliance with rules and self-regulation may depend on or compete with each other. In this dissertation, I examine the marshmallow test by comparing different criteria of ‘success’ in this task with the two ways in which children can ‘fail’ to delay, either by voluntarily terminating the task, or by breaking one of the rules. Though distinctly observable behaviors, these have traditionally been considered equivalent in indicating the end of the delay period. In two studies, I examine the cognitive, behavioral, and demographic measures that characterize these behavioral choices. First, I conducted a cross-sectional behavioral study of children ages 3-7. My findings in the first study suggest that models predicting delay of gratification performance for compliant children do not apply to noncompliant children. Secondly, I carried out a secondary analysis of longitudinal data in which the children participated in the marshmallow task at age 4.5, followed by subsequent assessments in elementary and high school (NICHD Early Child Care Research Network, 1998). In this analysis, I found that there were no substantial differences in behavioral or cognitive longitudinal outcomes between the two modes of termination of the task, with the exception of certain academic outcomes in mathematics.

This study examines the effect of an intervention called Native Numbers on the development of number sense and quantitative skills in low-SES preschool children (ages 5 to 6) in Mexico City, using a randomized control trial (RCT). Native Numbers (NN) is a math curriculum built as an application for iPads that includes activities on number concepts, relations, ordering and counting. The study was conducted in 2014, with eight participating schools and an analytic sample of 249 students. The intervention lasted two weeks in each school, and compared students randomly assigned to a group using NN with a group using iPads with no educational content. Data was collected on pre and post measures of student’s cognitive skills, as well as contextual information from families. This study shows a small potential positive effect of Native Numbers on quantitative abilities of children, though there is a lack of statistical power to find significant effects. However, heterogeneous effects of the treatment were found for mothers’ schooling. A statistically significant interaction between treatment and mother’s years of education revealed that the impact of the treatment was significantly higher for children whose mothers had fewer years of education. The frequency of home numeracy activities was also statistically significant in this model.

In Kindergarten classrooms, teachers work to help students learn new information and skills but, as non-experts, students often make mistakes. Making mistakes and, subsequently, receiving corrective feedback are assets to the learning experience (Huesler & Metcalfe, 2012). Young children tend to be open-minded about mistakes, but around age five or six, they begin to develop a fear of failure – a sensitivity about making errors that can constrain their choices during learning (McClelland, 1958; Conroy, Coatsworth, & Kaye, 2007). Furthermore, previous research has indicated that student-teacher relationships exert a strong influence on the student academic and social learning experience (Pianta, Hamre, & Stuhlman, 2003). That said, presently little is known about the features of mistake-related, teacher-student interpersonal interactions in Kindergarten classrooms, and how the classroom context and community influence the responses to student mistakes during instruction. The purpose of this dissertation study is to more deeply explore and articulate how Kindergarten teachers respond to mistakes in real-world, classroom contexts. An analysis of teacher interviews (Study 1) yielded five central themes that illustrate common ways Kindergarten teachers respond to student mistakes. Then, the method of portraiture (Study 2) was used to create rich narratives reflecting the nature of day-to-day responses to mistakes for two teachers and their respective classroom communities. These studies offer in-depth elaborations of how teachers respond to mistakes in practice. The work is both a foundation for further research on mistakes and learning, and a resource for practitioners, school leaders, and policymakers. In particular, this research has implications for the initial training and ongoing professional feedback provided to teachers. Taken together, the two studies can be shared with teachers, particularly those working in early childhood settings, to help them better understand the strategies used by others to help students learn from their mistakes.

<p>This research project offers educators a close and intimate view of the researcher's personal teaching efforts and a reflective account of responses to instruction. This qualitative reflective self-study includes written records of attempts to create and deliver reading comprehension lessons. It also includes a detailed account of how the researcher's reflections and insights affected lesson design as well as her responses to the academic, social, and emotional needs of the students. Furthermore, this self-study examines how teachers' and administrators' attitudes impact teaching and learning, with a thoughtful emphasis on how the gifts of under-represented students may be used in effectively planning instruction. Specifically, this self-study presents how reflection is used to examine the application of various teaching strategies with eight elementary school students attending a reading comprehension intervention class at an urban school in California. The researcher chronicles her use of culturally relevant teaching practices grounded in high expectations, and a belief in the importance of student empowerment for the purpose of increasing social justice and equity for all students. In this study, reflective notes of lessons are presented. Additionally, how the lessons were designed in order to create opportunities for a small group of African American and English Language Learner students to use their talents and gifts to improve comprehension of text are detailed. This teacher-research study provides insights on how a cycle of deep reflection and consideration of planned instructional actions and design might be improved. As part of the reflection and instructional planning process described in this study, there is focus on the students' thinking and learning processes and domains that support the students as they become self-empowered, independent, and confident readers. The examination of the thinking process of the students, as well reflection and self-examination of instruction by the teacher-researcher, are the center of study. Ultimately, a vivid story unfolds of how both the students and teacher-researcher become more empowered as gifted readers, writers, and communicators of transformation.

Les changements contemporains obligent l'université à redéfinir ses missions et à relever divers défis. À travers le monde, cette organisation vit des problématiques liées aux méthodes d'enseignement, aux styles d'apprentissage et aux usages pédagogiques des Technologies de l'Information et de la Communication (TIC). Cependant, la recension des écrits révèle un manque flagrant d'études qualitatives interprétatives réalisées in situ et impliquant les acteurs1 des écoles de formation à l'enseignement secondaire du Cameroun. Cette realité compromet l'évolution des connaissances scientifiques dans le champ des pédagogies universitaires. Afin de déterminer des pistes de résolution des problèmes liés aux défis des universités et remédier au manque des recherches constate, il s'avère nécessaire d'explorer les representations sociales des acteurs de l'ENS (École normale supérieure) de Yaounde et de l'ENSET (École normale supérieure d'enseignement technique) de Douala. Notre question principale de recherche se lit: Quels sont les facteurs qui facilitent l'implantation de l'apprentissage en ligne dans les écoles normales supérieures camerounaises selon les administrateurs, les enseignants et les étudiants de ces établissements ? Comme réfèrents conceptuels, cette recherche considère: trois propositions d'implantation des changements, deux modèles pédagogiques, et plusieurs modèles de facteurs influençant les innovations technopédagogiques. Elle adopte une démarche à la fois systémique, qualitative/interprétative intégrant la méthode des cas. Une stratégie d'échantillonnage par saturation permet d'inviter des acteurs de terrain à participer aux entretiens semi-diriges. L'ensemble des participants comprend: quatre administrateurs, quatre enseignants et trois groupes d'étudiants de l'ENSET; six administrateurs et trois groupes étudiants de l'ENS. La reconstitution interprétative des représentations recueillies laisse émerger six catégories de facteurs facilitant l'apprentissage en ligne, que nous situons selon les échelles macro, meso et micro du système de formation innovant. Un schéma illustré une vision globale des facteurs déterminés et par ce fait, il indique des moyens pour relever les défis des universités en regard des composantes du contexte. Quant à la complexité de l'apprentissage en ligne et à l'état des lieux étudiés, cette proposition reste ouverte à toute modification pouvant renforcer sa contribution scientifique. 1Afin d'alléger le texte, dans cette thèse, le genre masculin désigne toute personne.

This study examined the effects of an early reading intervention with 652 students with disabilities and students at-risk of reading failure over the 2004-2005 school year. An intervention was put into place in a general education setting in Kindergarten (n=155), first (n=246) and second grade (n=251) that consisted of 30 minutes a day of explicit intensive instruction that focused on phonemic awareness, phonics, and fluency in a small group setting. The intervention met the requirements of a Tier II intervention. After one school year of intervention, students who were at risk of reading failure or who were already identified as being eligible for special education services made significant progress toward predictive reading benchmarks as assessed by using DIBELS measures. The greatest gains were seen in kindergarten and first grade.This study provided evidence that the intervention was effective with students who were socio-economically at risk. Sixty-five to 80% of students in the study were eligible for free or reduced lunch and 31 to 54% were students with disabilities yet made significant progress toward reading benchmarks. The intervention seemed to ameliorate the `negative' effects of special education status or low socio-economic status. As urban schools struggle to meet AYP, this is an encouraging and welcomed development. / Department of Special Education

Thesis (MPhil)--Macquarie University (Australian Centre for Educational Studies, Institute of Early Childhood), 2007. / Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of master of Philosophy Macquarie University, Australian Centre for Educational Studies, Institute of Early Childhood. 2007. Bibliography: p. 199-227.

This dissertation presents the results of an intervention study examining whether electronic picturebook applications on a tablet computer support the development of print knowledge in preschool age children in low literacy childcare environments. Print knowledge is one of the earliest literacy skills to develop and there is evidence that children who enter kindergarten without this skill are less likely to be reading on grade level two years later (Piasta et al., 2012; Whitehurst & Lonigan, 1998). Since print knowledge is so critical for later literacy development, it is important to make sure that all children acquire this capacity. The sample for this study consisted of 3 and 4 year old children who attended six low literacy classrooms in four childcare centers located in Delaware and Chester Counties. Classrooms were randomly assigned as either experimental or control. A tablet computer preloaded with interactive electronic picturebooks was added to the experimental classroom for children to interact with during free play. Teachers were told not to use the tablet for individual, small or large group reading and there were no other changes to the literacy environment. Children were allowed to play with the tablet as a free choice activity. There were no changes to the literacy environment of the control classrooms. A pre-test/post-design using the Get Ready To Read Screening tool measured changes in children’s print knowledge learning over the three month period of time in which the study was conducted. The quality of the literacy environment was measured at the beginning and end of the study. Additional data were gathered through teacher and family questionnaires and classroom observation. The frequency and duration of tablet use was also tracked. The results indicate that there were no positive significant differences in print knowledge from pre to post test. This indicates that the teacher is still the most critical component of the emergent literacy environment. / Educational Psychology