The purpose of the study was to investigate the construct and criterion validity of a shortened form of the Total Individual Progress Level I Pre-kindergarten Screen (TIP-SF). The subjects for the analysis of construct validity were 342 students from a rural and suburban school district in east-central Indiana who were administered the TIP-SF prior to kindergarten entrance during the years 1985 and 1986. The subjects for the analysis of criterion validity were a subset of 153 students who were administered the TIP and TIP-SF prior to kindergarten entrance in 1985, and were subsequently administered the PMARP prior to their first grade year in 1986.Principal components analysis with varimax rotation was conducted to evaluate the underlying constructs of TIP-SF. From the 28 items entered as variables, 10 factors with eigenvalues greater than 1.00 emerged. One-, two-, three-, four-, and five-factor solutions were successively imposed and evaluated. The solution containing four factors,Scholastic Aptitude, Motor, Eye/Hand Coordination, and Communication, was selected as the "best" solution. The obtained factors were similar in number, but dissimilar in nature to the pre-established subscales.Simple and step-wise multiple regression and canonical correlation analyses were used to evaluate the relative ability of scores obtained from TIP and TIP-SF to predict performance on Primary Mental Abilities Readiness Profile (PMARP) subtests. In each of the four canonical analyses, one significant and meaningful correlation between the sets of predictor and criterion variables was obtained. Step-wise multiple regression analyses were used to determine more specifically the predictive ability of TIP and TIP-SF factors and pre-established subscales. Zero-order correlations were computed between the TIP and TIP-SF total scores and the PMARP subscales.Overall, the results of these analyses indicate that the use of the TIP total score provides the best prediction of PMARP subscales. While the TIP-SF total score reliability is comparable to that for the TIP total score, it was not generally as highly related to the PMARP subscale scores. The linear composites of the TIP and TIP-SF factor scores and TIP pre-established subscale scores were approximately equivalent to one another for the prediction of PMARP scores.

This research study focused on early childhood education programs that were implemented by public school districts in Indiana. The research questions addressed in this study were as follows: 1. What benefits related to student achievement does an investment of financial and human resources in preschool and/or full-day kindergarten programs show for students and for a school district? 2. What means of funding do school districts utilize to implement an early childhood education program? 3. What characteristics do successful early childhood programs possess, as determined by school district administrators? The online survey, which was utilized to collect this data, was developed by the researcher. This survey was distributed to public school superintendents of 164 small and mid-sized school corporations in Indiana, of which 43 were small school corporations (0 to 1,000 students) and 121 were mid-sized school corporations (1,001 to 5,000 students). Of the total sample of 164 school districts, 48 surveys were returned, which resulted in a 29.3% response rate. The data collected in this study showed the following results: 1. Students in the preschool programs showed increased acquisition of socialization skills and improved motivation in school. 2. School districts utilized a combination of federal funds, state funds, and federal grants to support their preschool programs. 3. The preschool programs were designed to incorporate the best practice characteristics of a curriculum based on the state early learning standards. The programs also were staffed with teachers who have four-year college degrees and have small class sizes of 20 students, with a staff-to-child ratio of ten students per adult (10:1). These school districts could serve as a model for other school districts that are planning to implement a preschool program through a review of their experiences in designing the program, staffing the program, funding the program, and supporting the academics in the program. / Department of Educational Leadership

The purpose of this study was to determine the screening measures used to assess students entering kindergarten in the state of Indiana. In addition, this study sought to determine how the data from these measures are used to inform classroom reading instruction. Eighty-nine schools participated in the study and sixty-two of those schools completed the entire survey, as they were amongst the schools that assess students upon entrance into kindergarten. The survey was sent a total of four times. General findings indicated that Indiana schools assess students inconsistently upon entrance into kindergarten, with variations existing in the administration procedures of screening measures and the type of screening measure. Schools who responded to this survey generally expressed dissatisfaction with current screening measures administered and the results gathered from these measures. In addition, schools who participated in this study reported the use of data to inform classroom instruction, but not all schools specified that reading instruction was informed by the data. / Department of Elementary Education

Contemporary education does not leave students with all of the necessary skills to navigate the increased complexity of the shrinking globe. The loss of practical skills for sensitive engagement with the built and natural environment is a root cause of sustainability issues. Sustainable environmental systems education informed by the principles of forest kindergarten and Katie Davis’ Six Strategies for Environmental Learning are focused on embodied experience, teaching intellectual as well as ethical and emotional lessons leaving learners with the practical skills that they need to engage with holistic environmental systems. Natural systems sustain themselves in the way that designed systems also should. "The natural consumption cycle is a closed loop system where the waste of one is consumable of another." (9 Orr, 2004) Interior space fights the inevitable decay that is part of a natural life cycle, overlooking long-term life cycle implications. The sustainable systems and process of the built environment can be informed by the closed loop system of natural consumption. Design can remind humans of their role in the ecosystem. This closed loop system can also inform the evaluation of materials and furniture and the reuse of materials that might otherwise have been overlooked, resulting in the use, and production, of less new materials. This project explores the typology of Forest Kindergarten within the interior environment using a framework informed by concepts of nature inspired design, systems inspired design and material inspired design in order to challenge expectations of contemporary education and the built environment in order to leave users with new expectations of their role in the natural ecosystem.

This collective case study examined the factors affecting the collaborative relationship between teachers and early childhood educators (ECEs) teaching together in elementary schools as Early Learning Teams in the first year of implementation of full-time kindergarten in Ontario. There are six major adjustments required concurrently by the Ontario government’s new policy in all kindergarten classrooms: team-teaching (sharing instruction, not just classroom management); supporting ECEs as new staff; changing from theme-based to inquiry-based; balancing the School District’s literacy goals with provincial play-based curriculum; double the instructional time, and the increased number of children in the classroom (up from 19 to 24-30). Two of the four classrooms studied in a rural Ontario school district were full-day, every day kindergartens (FDK) for 4 and 5 year olds and the other two were alternate full-days. Data were collected through classroom observations and interviews with principals, kindergarten teachers and ECEs. Case study theory guided the collection and analysis of data with open coding of transcripts, active code notes and memos to help answer the question of how to best implement FDK programs in Ontario. Results indicated that the FDK Team relationship itself enabled and constrained classroom instructional strategies, which would in turn have an impact on student outcomes. Collaborative practice involved a process that was affected by both internal factors (such as teacher foreknowledge of ECE skills), and thirteen external factors which arose from government and school district mandates, as well as practices of the school principal. Examples are: planning time, pay differential, hiring practices and adjusting to the new curriculum at the same time as the team adjusts to team teaching. The collaboration of more than 9,500 teacher and ECE teams is key to the success of Ontario’s new full-time early learning program. The education sector needs to adopt the long-established business practice of supporting team development through recognizing progressive teaming stages, such as those identified by Tuckman (1965). Recommendations are made for principals, school districts offices, government policy, FDK teachers, ECEs, and colleges that provide ECE training. A mnemonic for the four attributes evident in high-functioning collaborative integrated teaching teams (RISE) is proposed.

Thesis (Ed. D.)--University of Hawaii at Manoa, 1996. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 237-246). / Microfiche. / xvii, 246 leaves, bound ill. 29 cm

This study explored how kindergarten teachers think and behave in the promotion of creativity in young children, particularly in relation to music. It centred on three case studies of Hong Kong kindergarten teachers (nursery, lower and upper class) who were recognized in their school communities as demonstrating exemplary music pedagogy. Using the paradigm of social constructivism, relationships were investigated among creative person, process, product and environment in the promotion of musical creativity in early childhood. Multi-faceted descriptions of the kindergarten contexts included video-taped transcriptions of children's musical creative processes during free play, the teachers' scaffolding of their learning, stimulated recall with teachers, researcher-collected field notes, anecdotal records and photographs of the classroom context. Each of these data sources were documented in narrative form in a series of vignettes, and analysis of musical outcomes centred on instrumental play, background music, movement, singing and imaginative play. Recommendations drawn from the study include several principles for the promotion of musical creativity in young children, such as making room for play within the curriculum, providing environments rich in resources, scaffolding young children's musical creativity, advocating for creative music in the kindergarten curriculum, and providing excellent role models for young children.

This study is of moral development in young children, with a focus on justice as fairness, a term appropriate to the life experience of three- and four-year-old children. The subjects were twenty-eight children attending two groups in a preschool centre (sessional kindergarten), eighteen female and ten male. The ages ranged from three years four months to four years eight months at the commencement of the study. The children were studied for one year at their kindergarten. Five problem areas were explored: (1) moral reasoning; (2) behaviour in peer conflict interactions; (3) relationship between moral reasoning in response to hypothetical dilemmas and behaviour in real-life conflicts;(4) construction of an instrument to describe and measure early moral reasoning and behaviour; (5) moral education within a preschool setting. Semi-structured interviews using Kohlberg-type dilemmas, and naturalistic observations of spontaneous social interactions in free play situations, were the methods used. Pretest and post-test interviews and observations were six months apart. Teachers of one group of children participated in a moral education project which included a process for using naturally-occurring peer conflict in the kindergarten to facilitate moral development.

Thesis (M. Ed.)--Kutztown University, 1988. / Source: Masters Abstracts International, Volume: 45-06, page: 2763. Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 70-79).

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Toronto, 2004. / Adviser: Janette Pelletier.