Darbo tikslas: nustatyti pirmų klasių mokinių fizinio aktyvumo ir mitybos sąsajas su šeimų socialine ir ekonomine padėtimi Kauno miesto mokyklose. Darbo uždaviniai: 1. Įvertinti Kauno miesto pirmų klasių mokinių fizinį aktyvumą; 2. Įvertinti Kauno miesto pirmų klasių mokinių mitybos ypatumus; 3. Išanalizuoti Kauno miesto pirmų klasių mokinių šeimų sociolinius-ekonominius veiksnius; 4. Nustatyti sąsajas tarp Kauno miesto pirmų klasių mokinių fizinio aktyvumo, mitybos bei šeimos socialinės-ekonominės padėties. Tyrimo metodika: COSI tyrimo pagrindu, apklausos anketoje tėvams/globėjams buvo pateikti 48 klausimai. Anketą Kauno mieste užpildė 407 tėvai. Duomenų statistinė analizė atlikta naudojant SPSS 19.0 for Windows programą. Rezultatai: Pusė Kauno miesto pirmų klasių mokinių yra fiziškai aktyvūs – 53,4% berniukų ir 55,3% mergaičių. Švieži vaisiai pirmų klasių moksleivių racione vartojami dažniau nei šviežios daržovės (p<0,05), Bulvių traškučiai, pica yra valgomi retai – kelis kartus per mėnesį, o sausainiai ir saldainiai pirmų klasių mokinių valgomi 1-3 kartus per savaitę. Didžioji dalis 82,2% berniukų ir 77,9% mergaičių gyvena pilnoje šeimoje (p>0,05), namuose su visais patogumais. Daugumos tėvų išsialvinimas yra vidutinis, mamų – dažniausiai yra aukštasis. Išvados: Dauguma Kauno miesto pirmokų yra fiziškai aktyvūs. Nustatyta, kad dauguma pirmokų pusryčiauja kiekvieną rytą. Švieži vaisiai pradinių klasių moksleivių racione vartojami dažniau nei šviežios daržovės. Pirmų klasių... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / The aim of the study: set the first grade students of physical activity and dietary links to families' social and economic situation in Kaunas city schools. The objectives of the study: 1. Rate Kaunas city first-grade students of physical activity; 2. Rate Kaunas city first-grade students nutrition features; 3. Analyze Kaunas city first-grade students of families of social and economic situation; 4. Identify links between Kaunas city first grade students of physical activity, nutrition and social and economic situation. Research Methods: COSI research-based questionnaire survey to parents / guardians were present 48 questions. The form is filled out in Kaunas 407 parents. The statistical analysis was performed using SPSS 19.0 for Windows program. Results: Half of the city of Kaunas first grade students are physically active – 53,4% of boys and 55,3% girls. Fresh fruits in the diet of first-grade students used more often than fresh vegetables (p<0.05), potato chips, pizza is eaten rarely – a few times a month, and cookies and candy in the first grade eaten 1-3 times a week. The majority of the 82.2% of boys and 77.9% girls living in nuclear family (p>0.05), at home with all the amenities. The majority of parents are išsialvinimas average, mothers – are usually higher. Conclusions: Most of the the city of Kaunas and first graders are physically active. It was found that the majority of first graders have breakfast every morning. Fresh fruits in the diet of the children were... [to full text]

The diploma thesis called "Regional Education of the Local Region Taught at the Lower Grade of Elementary School (Based On the Example of ORP Prachatice)" deals with the problems of teaching about local region in the subject of Geography taught at the lower grade of elementary school. The theoretical part koncerns the geographical characteristics of the region and the place of the thesis among the curriculum. The second part consists of the didactical material aimds to 4th and 5th graders of the elementary school in the region of Prachatice. The material has its grounds in the information collected in the theoretical part. The didactical material is supplemented with worksheets and didactic guide for teachers. The practical part is based on the present Framework Educational Pragramme for Elementary Education.

From a sociocultural perspective, individuals learn best from contextualized experiences. In preservice teacher education, contextualized experiences include authentic literacy experiences, which include a real reader and writer and replicate real life communication. To be prepared to teach well, preservice teachers need to gain literacy content knowledge and possess reading maturity. The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of authentic literacy experiences as Book Buddies with Hispanic fourth graders on preservice teachers’ literacy content knowledge and reading maturity. The study was a pretest/posttest design conducted over 12 weeks. Preservice teacher participants, the focus of the study, were elementary education majors taking the third of four required reading courses in non-probabilistic convenience groups, 43 (n = 33 experimental, n = 10 comparison) Elementary Education majors. The Survey of Preservice Teachers’ Knowledge of Teaching and Technology (SPTKTT), specifically designed for preservice teachers majoring in elementary or early childhood education and the Reading Maturity Survey (RMS) were used in this study. Preservice teachers chose either the experimental or comparison group based on the opportunity to earn extra credit points (experimental = 30 points, comparison = 15). After exchanging introductory letters preservice teachers and Hispanic fourth graders each read four books. After reading each book preservice teachers wrote letters to their student asking higher order thinking questions. Preservice teachers received scanned copies of their student’s unedited letters via email which enabled them to see their student’s authentic answers and writing levels. A series of analyses of covariance were used to determine whether there were significant differences in the dependent variables between the experimental and comparison groups. This quasi-experimental study tested two hypotheses. Using the appropriate pretest scores as covariates for adjusting the posttest means of the subcategory Literacy Content Knowledge (LCK), of the SPTKTT and the RMS, the mean adjusted posttest scores from the experimental group and comparison group were compared. No significant differences were found on the LCK dependent variable using the .05 level of significance, which may be due to Type II error caused by the small sample size. Significant differences were found on RMS using the .05 level of significance.

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This study examined the effects of specially designed thinking journal activities that have been attributed with encouraging reflective thinking, on instruction using generic, or content-free problem solving software. Sixty-three fourth grade students participated in four instructional sessions using a software package called Moptown Hotel. Students completed separate posttests that measured (1) performance on problems of the same kind as those used in instruction, and (2) transfer of skills to other kinds of problems. Scores of students who wrote thinking journals prior to testing were compared with scores of students who did not. Results indicate that students who wrote thinking journals performed the same as students who did not when tested on problems similar to those practiced in class. Tests in which students transferred their skills to word problems, however, produced significant differences. There was no significant difference between scores when averaged over all four weekly occasions. However, for the final session alone, students who wrote thinking journals scored higher on tests of problem solving transfer than students who did not (p < .01). The study also examined the relationship between the degree of metacognitive thought displayed in students' journal entries, and their measured problem solving ability. Results indicate that students who had higher average reflectivity scores also had higher average problem solving performance and transfer scores (p < .05). It was also noted that the significant relationship between reflectivity and scores of problem solving ability was only observed in male students. It was concluded that under the right conditions, and for the right kinds of problems, thinking journal writing can help students understand their own thinking processes, resulting in improved problem solving behavior. The study also raises the question of whether there are differences between the ways that male and female students apply metacognitive awareness gained through journal writing experiences.

The purpose of this study was to examine first-graders' construction of knowledge of graphophonemic and orthographic relationships. Three levels of treatment were assigned randomly to three groups of first-graders in their first semester of first grade. Treatment varied in student engagement with reading and writing texts based on student interests and in the amount of interaction students had with one another and the researcher as they read, wrote, and examined words, word patterns, and graphophonemic relationships. The study was based on a quasi-experimental nonequivalent control group design (Campbell & Stanley, 1963) with an added within-subjects factor of 12 weekly test occasions. These weekly tests involved students writing a researcher-dictated continuous text selected by students in the full-treatment group from the larger portion of text read each week. Additional elements of qualitative research were included in the design and analyses. Quantitative analyses revealed statistically significant results. Qualitative data analyses confirmed that students who interacted daily with each other and the researcher in reading and writing activities constructed more knowledge about graphophonemic and orthographic relationships than peers from the partial-treatment group and the control group. Results led to conclusions and implications involving a reexamination of current and traditional methods of spelling instruction and assessment for young children.

This study examined correlations between four dimensions of maternal scaffolding, maternal beliefs and values, children’s temperament, and children’s performance and use of self‑regulation strategies on problem‑solving tasks. There are two foci of this study: examining factors that predict the quality of maternal scaffolding, and assessing the relationship between quality of maternal scaffolding and children’s problem solving. Participants consisted of 10 mother‑child dyads in the experimental group and 10 children in the control group. Using a pre- and post‑test design, children were given near and far transfer independent problem‑solving tasks. The experimental group also worked with their mothers on one task during a scaffolded interaction. Maternal beliefs predicted quality of maternal scaffolding, and quality of maternal scaffolding predicted children’s monitoring during the post‑test. Mothers’ scaffolding techniques appear to be related to their beliefs about parenting and educating children, and children appear to learn certain self‑regulation strategies during optimal scaffolded interactions.

The performance measures from the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study revealed no measurable growth in the U.S. average reading scores of 4th graders for the period between 2011 and 2016. Therefore, the diverse learning needs of students need to be customized if the education system is to accomplish its goal to graduate well-informed individuals capable of sustaining a lifestyle conducive to a democratic society. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of differentiated instruction on 3rd graders' reading comprehension. The theoretical foundation for this teaching approach was Vygotsky's zone of proximal development. The research question focused on a comparison of differentiated and nondifferentiated instruction and the effects on 3rd graders' Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) reading comprehension scores. In this cross-sectional, quasi-experimental causal comparative study with N = 128 3rd-grade students, archival PARCC reading scores for the years 2015, 2016, and 2017 were analyzed with several 2-tailed independent sample t tests to determine the differences between the groups. The students in the experimental group (n = 64) received differentiated instruction, students in the non-experimental group received nondifferentiated instruction (n = 64). The duration of the intervention lasted for the entire school year. The statistical analysis results revealed that differentiated instruction significantly improved the students' PARCC reading scores in all 3 years. The intimation for positive social change is allowing stakeholders to provide opportunities to teachers to learn and apply differentiated instruction for their students, thus helping them to become proficient readers, which in turn might increase the human capital contributing to and competing in a global society.

Tikslas: Nustatyti Kauno miesto pirmų klasių mokinių fizinio aktyvumo ir mitybos ypatumus bei jų sąsajas su tėvų sveikatos būkle. Uždaviniai: Įvertinti pirmokų fizinį aktyvumą; Išanalizuoti pirmokų mitybos ypatumus; Įvertinti subjektyvią tėvų sveikatos būklę; Nustatyti vaikų mitybos ir fizinio aktyvumo ypatumų sąsajas su suaugusių šeimos narių sveikatos būkle. Tyrimo metodika: šis magistro darbas parengtas atlikus Lietuvos vaikų augimo stebėsenos tyrimą, kuris buvo vykdomas vadovaujantis PSO Europos vaikų nutukimo stebėsenos iniciatyvos (angl. WHO European Childhood Obesity Surveillance Initiative – COSI) protokolo. Magistro darbe buvo atliktas mitybos įpročių, fizinio aktyvumo ir tėvų subjektyvios sveikatos vertinimas. Magistrinio darbo tikslinė grupė – Kauno miesto pirmų klasių mokiniai ir jų tėvai. Tiriamąjį kontingentą sudarė 6–8 metų vaikai (n=407; 51,1 proc. berniukų ir 48,9 proc. mergaičių) ir jų tėvai (n=407). Rezultatai: nustatyta, kad beveik du trečdaliai berniukų ir mergaičių (atitinkamai 60,1 proc. ir 61,8 proc.) lanko sporto ir /ar šokių būrelius. Du penktadaliai berniukų ir mergaičių (40 proc.) būrelius lanko 2 dienas per savaitę. Nustatyta, kad savaitgaliais ilgai (>2 val.) televizorių žiūri beveik visi pirmokai (93,6 proc.). Vertinant mokinių mitybą nustatyta, kad du trečdaliai (67 proc.) pirmokų pusryčiauja kasdien. Dažniausiai pirmų klasių mokiniai varotoja šviežių vaisių (62,4 proc.), virtų daržovių (58,7 proc.). Tėčių ir mamų turinčių antsvorio ar... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / The goal of the thesis: to identify the relations between pecularities of first-graders‘ nutrition and physical activity and health status of their parents in Kaunas city. Objectives:To evaluate the first-graders’ physical activity; To analyse the peculiarities of first-graders’ nutrition; To evaluate the health status of parents of first-graders; To find relations between pecularities of first-graders‘ nutrition and physical activity and health status of their parents. Methods: This master thesis is based on Lithuanian children's growth monitoring study, which was carried out in accordance with the WHO European Childhood Obesity Surveillance Initiative - COSI protocol. Master thesis analyses habits of nutrition, physical activity and subjetive evaluation of parents‘ health. Target group of the research is first grade students and their parents in Kaunas city. Generally, the research study consists of 6-8 year old children and their parents. A total number of participants of the survey is 407 first-graders (51.1 percent boys and 48.9 per cent girls) and 407 parents. Results: The survey shows that almost two thirds of boys and girls (60.1 per cent and 61.8 percent) attend sports and/or dance clubs. The largest proportion (two fifths) of boys and girls attends clubs two times a week. The research shows that almost all of first-graders (93,6 per cent) spend a lot time (more than two hours) watching television on weekends. The nutrition survey shows that 67 per cent of children... [to full text]

The purpose of the study was to compare two instructional methodologies designed to improve the intonation accuracy of seventh grade violin and viola instrumentalists. The collection of data was in regard to (1) instructional methodology: aural and aural/visual, (2) performance tasks: A, B, and C; (3) individual pitches (seven from each of the music tasks), and (4) differences between instrument groups: violin and viola. Sixty-eight seventh grade string students from three string classes of two middle schools were randomly assigned to two experimental groups: (a) aural and (b) aural/visual. The instructional period was implemented daily in ten-minute sessions during twenty days by the orchestra instructors of each school. A pretest-posttest format was used to determine if there were any changes in the subjects' intonation accuracy from prior to after the instructional phase was implemented, and if these changes could be attributed to any of the methodologies. The testing material used on both testing sessions included three performance tasks composed of seven notes each. Subjects were recorded on both testing occasions. The data were the scores of absolute pitch deviation, measured in cents from equal temperament, from the pre- and postest; these were treated with analysis of variance. The ANOVA on the posttest scores indicated a non-significant difference between the instructional methodologies in their effectiveness to improve the subjects' ability to play in tune.