Doctor of Philosophy / Curriculum and Instruction Programs / Marjorie R. Hancock / With the implementation of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (PL 107-110) many pedagogical practices for literacy learning have been re-examined to align themselves with the results of the National Reading Panel report (2000). The federally funded Reading First initiative mandates systematic and explicit instruction of the key components identified by the National Reading Panel report (phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension). Higher accountability and high stakes testing has caused reflection regarding how instructional time is spent in classrooms. This qualitative case study was conducted in a combined setting of a kindergarten classroom and music education classroom in a small mid-western community over a period of nine weeks, from February 15 through April 23, 2007. This study, framed in the socio-cultural theory of constructivism (Vygotsky, 1978) and Gardner’s Theory of Multiple Intelligence (2004) explored the way a kindergarten teacher and music educator provided literacy learning opportunities for young children. Data were collected through detailed observational fieldnotes, interviews of the kindergarten teacher and music educator, and conversations with children. Data analysis revealed five characteristics that framed the literacy learning environment which included: 1) providing a caring community; 2) use of conversations; 3) connections to prior knowledge and community; 4) collaboration; and 5) consistency. Pedagogical commonalities were found to include: 1) a gradual release of responsibility; 2) use of metacognition; 3) a sharing of quality children’s literature; 4) purposeful oral language development; and 5) use of active engagement in learning, especially the use of gesturing. Data also revealed evidence of support of six components of early literacy learning: 1) phonemic awareness; 2) phonics; 3) fluency; 4) vocabulary; 5) comprehension; and 6) concepts about print. Data identified that the classroom teacher provided more incidences of instruction coded as phonemic awareness, phonics, and comprehension; with the classroom music educator providing more evidence of coded events for fluency and vocabulary learning. Analysis of combined events identified a balance of instructional methods, experiences, and techniques identifying the critical importance of the elementary music educator’s role in supporting early literacy learning of young children and the importance of collaboration in meeting needs of children.

The main purpose of the Master Thesis is creation of the business plan on the establishment of the new preschool education institution Family Education Center. The center will be specialized in operating a kindergarten as well as in organizing educational and personal development activities for children and adults. The theoretical part of the thesis gives some insights on the importance of the entrepreneur and enterprises in the society, provides description of the basic requirements for a business plan and characteristics of the preschool education system in the Czech Republic. Practical part provides an application of the theoretical findings on the creation of the actual business plan. This part verifies the viability and competitiveness of the business project on the basis of the market analysis, marketing and financial plan.

At the present time there is common agreement among academics and practitioners that the notion of inclusion means more than simply access to education. The mere placement of children in mainstream educational environments does not suffice to foster participation and equal opportunities for success. In Greece, this is particularly the case for children with challenging behaviour, the majority of whom are educated in mainstream classrooms. Personal experience shows that students and experienced kindergarten teachers feel ill prepared to manage these children. This, in most cases, results in the children being isolated from the pedagogical process. This form of internal segregation, in addition to the fact that the teacher’s role, and consequently teacher education, is key in promoting inclusive practices, provides the overall rationale of this study. Initial teacher education is a context in which changes in professional values, knowledge and beliefs can and do occur. Within this frame, the present study examined the initial kindergarten teacher education provided to kindergarten teachers with an aim to shed further light into how they can be better prepared to accommodate the needs of their hard-to-manage pupils within mainstream settings. Using an activity theory perspective, the study was designed in such a way so as to allow student teachers to be followed in their transition between university and school through their school placement. This allowed for a coupling of the university and school contexts and thus provided a means of analysing contrasting practices in order to find possible misalignments and contradictions between these two contexts. The aim was to learn more about how these two systems can be better aligned with implications for improving the initial kindergarten teacher education curricula and pedagogy. A qualitative multiple case study design was employed in order to explore student teachers’ experiences of their teaching practice. The participants in the study were drawn mainly from student teachers on a four-year teacher education programme at one of the universities in Greece. Beginning teachers were also observed and asked to reflect retrospectively on their transition from university learning to actual teaching at school. Inadequate preparation, lack of relevant modules and the gap between theory and practice were a few of the constraints that were pointed by this study. However the interest focused on the way these elements were located in concrete contextual conditions. The constraints students and beginning teachers face in developing inclusive practices for their challenging pupils are located at the level of the contrasting practices and discourses of the school practicum. Within these constraints students and beginning teachers adopt particular student teacher/teacher identities with ramifications on the children who have challenging behaviour.

The aim of my Thesis is preparing a business plan, which will show us the comprehensic picture about commissioning of the kindergarten. Through the financial plan I will valorize realization, competitiveness and financial benefits of this project.The purpose is to gather all informatins into integrated document and focus on weakpoints, which could jeopardize this project.

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Den här studiens syfte och genomförande handlar om hur förskollärare upplever sig kunna bemöta barns frågor och funderingar kring religion och tro. Studien har utgått från frågeställningarna: På vilket sätt beskriver förskollärarna sig bemöta barns frågor om religion? Vilka arbetssätt uttrycker sig förskollärare tillämpa för att bemöta barns frågor och funderingar om religioner?  Underökningen har genomförts i ett rektorsområde i centrala Stockholm där fyra förskollärare har intervjuats. Resultaten indikerar att förskollärare visar tendenser till att kunna bemöta barns frågor och funderingar kring religion. Resultaten i studien visar dock på svårigheter såsom att religionsundervisningen inte är planerad, utan uppstår vid spontana tillfällen. Resultatet visar också att förskollärarna menar att det pågår en debatt kring religion i förskolan som påverkar religionsundervisningen. Den spontana och oplanerade undervisningen och debatten påverkar kvaliteten på religionsundervisningen inom förskolan. / This study is aimed to understand how preschool teacher’s in Sweden experience their own capability of responding to children’s questions and thoughts about religion. The study has two primary questions of which the analysis is based on. These two are “How does the preschool teacher describe the situations when facing children’s questions about religion?” and “What working methods are described as used while answering children’s thoughts and questions about religion?” The study has been conducted in Stockholm and the participated preschool teachers all work within the same school area. The study is a qualitative study maintaining four interviews and the analyses are based on Sheridan (2007), Sheridan and William (2018) Dimensions of pedagogical quality in preschool. The study shows that the preschool teachers feel somehow confident in meeting children’s questions about religion, but within the Swedish preschools community there is an ongoing debate. This debate contributes to preschool teachers and other staff members avoiding the subject religion.

The present thesis summarises information about today's kindergarten, about its important curriculum policy documents and about the main participants of its educational process - the teacher and the pre-school children. It deals with the school climate and with its influencing factors, focusing on the work climate in kindergartens, namely on human relations, communication and its risks. This thesis maps and evaluates kindergarten teachers' perception of the social and work climate and what they find prominent, how the school/class climate quality influences kindergarten teachers' work performance, what sort of factors encourage the optimal climate and what sort of factors curb it. It aims to verify the functioning of teachers' pedagogical cooperation in classroom curriculum development and the functioning of collective activities in kindergarten. KEYWORDS Kindergarten, kindergarten teacher, pre-school child, social and work climate in kindergarten, relations, communication and risks in kindergarten.