Only one quarter of American students in Grades 4, 8, and 12 were considered at or above the proficient level in writing in 2002 and 2007. The purpose of this quantitative study was to identify the effect of the instructional strategy known as writer's workshop on students' writing achievement. Writer's workshop is an instructional strategy involving daily writing and systematic lessons. The research question guiding this study examined the writing achievement of students taught through writer's workshop versus students taught through the county's writing curriculum which utilizes journal writing on a regular basis but does not involve systematic lessons or daily writing. Writer's workshop was implemented in 3 Kindergarten classrooms, totaling 45 students, and scores from these students were compared to the scores of the students in the control group, totaling 45 students, none of whom had been exposed to writer's workshop. The participants were 90 Kindergarten students enrolled in a suburban elementary school in the southeastern United States. The students were randomly placed in experimental and control conditions. A pre- and posttest derived from a 10 stage developmental writing rubric was used to measure writing achievement. An independent-measures t test on posttest scores determined a significant difference in writing achievement when the writer's workshop strategies were integrated into the curriculum. Results from this study may contribute to positive social change by maximizing young learners' academic success, confidence, and self-image as their written communication abilities and skills improve.

No description available.

published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education

Unser tägliches Umfeld ist heute mehr als jemals zuvor durch die Präsenz von Medien geprägt. Wir begegnen ihnen in schulischen Einrichtungen, am Arbeitsplatz, im häuslichen Bereich oder in unserer Freizeit und nutzen sie gleichermaßen zu Informations- und Unterhaltungszwecken. Dass sich dieser Trend im Laufe der nächsten Jahre weiterhin fortsetzen und verstärken wird, steht außer Frage. Auch in Bezug auf Vor- und Grundschüler lässt sich diese Tendenz beobachten. Um die jüngsten Mitglieder unserer Informationsgesellschaft vor eventuellen medienbezogenen Risiken zu schützen, wird diese Entwicklung durch eine in öffentlichen Diskussionen vielfach zu vernehmende Forderung nach Medienkompetenz begleitet. Allerdings beruht die Mehrheit von Modellen und Konzepten zur Entwicklung und Förderung von Medienkompetenz im Kindesalter nahezu ausschließlich auf theoretischen Annahmen. Aus diesem Grund sollten mittels des durch die Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) geförderten Projekts "Der Erwerb medialer Zeichenkompetenz im Vor- und Grundschulalter: Grundlagen und Förderung", welches zugleich die Grundlage der vorliegenden Dissertation darstellt, folgende Forschungsfragen beantwortet werden: a) Wie lassen sich kindliche Fähigkeiten in Bezug auf Medienkompetenz erfassen?, b) Wie entwickelt sich Medienkompetenz im Verlauf der (frühen) Kindheit? und c) Welcher Zusammenhang besteht zwischen Medienkompetenz und anderen relevanten kognitiven und akademischen Fähigkeiten und der Kompetenz, aus medial vermittelten Inhalten zu lernen? Zu diesem Zweck wurden drei empirische Studien mit Vor- und Grundschülern durchgeführt, die sich mit der Entwicklung der medialen Zeichenkompetenz beschäftigten. Es stellte sich heraus, dass sich die mediale Zeichenkompetenz, welche ab circa. vier Jahren erworben wird, förderlich auf den Erwerb von Lesekompetenz und mathematischen Kompetenzen, auf ihre Vorläuferfähigkeiten sowie auf medienvermitteltes Lernen auswirkt. Zudem zeigte sich, dass die mediale Zeichenkompetenz als ein, zumindest partiell, eigenständiger, symbolisch-kognitiver Bereich zu interpretieren ist, welcher zwar gewisse Verbindungen zu Intelligenzleistungen aufweist, aber dennoch als von ihnen verschieden betrachtet werden muss. Aus den Resultaten folgt somit, dass es günstig wäre, mit Kindern zwischen vier bis sechs Jahren ein Training der medialen Zeichenkompetenz durchzuführen.

Thesis (M.A.)--Indiana University, 2010. / Title from screen (viewed on July 29, 2010). Department of History, Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI). Advisor(s): Anita Morgan, Robert G. Barrows, Daniella J. Kostroun. Includes vitae. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 108-113).

The aim of the thesis is to define basic terms - evaluation, evaluation theory, responsibilities and the role of the director of the kindergarten, kindergarten director's evaluation as a tool for his/her development. The practical part is focused on describing the tension between ideas and practice in the evaluation of the directors of kindergartens in the Czech Republic. The theoretical part focuses on explanation of the term "evaluation" and includes description of various theories of evaluation and their classification using not only Czech but also foreign literature sources. At the same time the terms such as the director of the kindergarten, his/her responsibilities and roles including the specifics of the work of the director of the kindergarten are explained. The end of the theoretical part is devoted to the evaluation of the director of the kindergarten. The practical part describes the findings which relate to the evaluation of the director of the kindergarten from the Czech School Inspectorate perspective. The basic tools of the support of the directors are described including not only the ability for their usage, their strengths, but also barriers that prevent the use of these tools. Based on the research, there are described not only changes aimed at encouraging the directors of...

published_or_final_version / Education / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education

The Thai government has strongly advocated for the learner-centered education for the past decade. Success For Life Thailand (SFLT), a brain-research-based early childhood education program blended with the theories of the developmentally appropriate practices and child-centered philosophies, has been implemented in Thailand for over 8 years. The purposes of the present study were to: (a) describe the current statuses of the Thai early childhood educators' learner-centered beliefs and practices, (b) identify if the SFLT training workshop affects teachers' learner-centered beliefs and practices, and (c) examine if other variables, along with familiarity with the SFLT program, predict teachers' learner-centered beliefs and practices. Ninety-three preschool and kindergarten teachers participated in the study. Among them, 17 were SFLT trainees in 1999 and 2000 (i.e., the previously trained group), 43 were trained in Year 2006 (the currently trained group), and the others were comparable to the currently trained group by matching the key personal and school variables. The Teachers Beliefs and Practices Survey: 3-5 Year Olds (Burts et al., 2000) and the Learner-Centered Education: the Assessment of Learner- Centered (ALCP) for K-3 (McCombs, 2001) were used to collect data on the various domains of the learner-centered beliefs and practices. Findings reveal that: (a) Thai teachers highly endorse learner-centered beliefs, (b) Thai educators demonstrate relatively low levels of developmentally appropriate practices and high levels of developmentally inappropriate practices (DIP) in comparing with the American early childhood educators, (c) the previously trained SFLT teachers score higher on the DAP domains and lower on the DIP domains than the other two groups, and (d) familiarity with the SFLT program, along with teacher's education level, years of teaching experience, and the total number of students in the classroom do not predict variations on the different domains of the DAP and learner-centered learning questionnaires. Future studies need to use indigenous measurement instruments appropriate to Thai education to evaluate the impacts of the SLFT program on teachers' learner-centered beliefs and practices when more trainees become available, and possibly to include other teacher, student, and school variables.

The assumptions of this project imply that concepts concerning the relationships among living organisms can be assimilated by the child only if his experiences include exploration of his environment and the opportunity to discover these relationships himself. In order to help him progress, an interested, informed teacher who will encourage and help him is of prime importance. Because progress needs to be started as early as possible, kindergarten age children will be the focus of this project. Here the school should use the opportunity to begin developing the environmentally aware citizen. Unfortunately, few texts and guides in environmental education have been developed for teachers working in the kindergarten. A beginning curriculum utilizing the curiosity in the children and the order of the environment is needed. This project will be an example of a way to fulfill this need. Therefore, the purpose of this project is to develop a series of activities into a curriculum guide in environmental education for use by teachers in kindergarten. Specifically, this will be a kindergarten environmental education curriculum guide for approximately sixty students in three classes at Melrose Community School in Melrose, Putnam County, Florida.