The reauthorization of the Individuals with Disabilities Act required that early intervention services for young children from birth to age 3 take place in their natural environment. However, limited research has been conducted on the impact of this requirement on the actual service providers who work within the home environments. Lewin's field theory on behavior, individual person, and the environment formed the theoretical framework for this descriptive case study, which examined the perceptions of developmental therapists on how their service is influenced by the inner-city home environment. Ten developmental therapists in a midwestern metropolitan city were interviewed about their beliefs and experiences on working within this environment and the influences of those beliefs and experiences on service delivery. Participants were members of a developmental therapy association of a Midwestern U.S. state who provided services in the inner city. Participant responses were transcribed, put into categories and assessed for themes. Five common elements within the inner-city environment were found to influence service delivery: (a) traffic of nonparticipants: (b) noise from TV, radio, and so on: (c) safety while traveling: (d) transient families: and (e) need for professional development. In addition, this study examined the providers' perspectives on their educational preparation to work in this setting. The results identified from this study provided the basis for a much-needed reform to the current professional development model and identified professional learning communities (PLC) as the guide to implement change. Incorporating PLCs can equip inner-city therapists with the ongoing support and training that is needed to provide services in a variety of environments, which increases the effectiveness of their service delivery while providing measurable outcomes and continuity of services for children. This study influences change at local and federal levels by reviewing current practices to effectively implement meaningful professional development.

Early childhood development programs enhance children's development of knowledge, skills, and processes. Despite efforts to improve early childhood education in the United States, poor student performance in early literacy and kindergarten achievement is still occurring, and questions remain unanswered about the utility of early childhood education programs. Drawing from the theory of constructivism, the purpose of this quantitative, quasi-experimental, retrospective study was to determine the effectiveness of early childhood programs on the literacy achievement of kindergarten children. The research question addressed the differences in literacy achievement of kindergarten children based on the early childhood programs they attended. Using repeated measures analysis of variance tests for 501 student test scores, no significant interaction effects existed between program participation and gains across time for prewriting (F [2, 998] = 0.87, p = .42), cognitive (F [2, 998] = 0.84, p = .43), or language (F [2, 998] = 1.26, p = .28). However, using the Pearson correlation coefficient, younger participants had significantly more gain from pretest to posttest for prewriting (r [499] = .14, p = .002) and cognitive (r [499] = .21, p = .001) but less gain for language (r [499] = .10, p = .03). Knowing that literacy achievement can be improved in an early childhood setting contributes to the knowledge base on the effects of early learning. Educators could benefit from these findings when implementing early childhood policies and adopting effective practices to help develop successful readers in kindergarten and beyond.

Many researchers have documented that reading fluency scores continue to be a national concern for the United States and have suggested that early reading failure has long-term detrimental effects on society. However, much less is known regarding specific interventions that could reduce this concern. Investigators in other studies have suggested the development of early school-home partnerships to improve reading scores. The purpose of this quasi-experimental study was to evaluate the effectiveness of a systematic school-home intervention to improve reading fluency scores. Following the theoretical foundation of emergent literacy theory and Joyce Epstein's framework, the research question focuses on the association between reading fluency scores and early school-home communication. The intervention consisted of using informative memos, regular mailings of information to home address, and monthly newsletters to parents. Participants represented four kindergarten classes in a diverse northeastern US community (n = 85). Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills (DIBELS) was used to gather data. Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) revealed that there was a significant statistical difference in the reading fluency scores between the control and treatment groups. Based upon the observed increases in reading scores, the early school-home intervention was effective. It is suggested that schools apply this school-home communication intervention particularly in the early grades and encourage parent participation. These findings make an important contribution to social change by providing schools, parents, and school leaders with a systematic method to enhance reading performance by targeting students at an early age and their parents to promote long-term student success and enhance academic learning.

The aim of the thesis was to systematically record and analyse the transformation of the Czech kindergarten after 1989. To understand the transformation of the kindergarten based on the testimonies of kindergarten teachers with a long touch of practice and to create a coherent continuity of ideas that allow to understand the transformation of Czech pre- school education. The thesis is divided into theoretical and research parts. The theoretical part describes the changes that the education and care of the little ones has undergone over the century. In the introductory chapter, the author briefly discusses the beginnings of preschool education. Knowing that this period is too far removed from the present and from education as a whole, but the central roots and historical transformations of preschool education are so central to the thesis that the author briefly mentions them. After the events of November 1989, Czech preschool was also undergoing transformational changes. The main principle of the transformation of Czech education became a non-directive, partnership approach to the child, based on understanding, respect and tolerance, which is the subject of the last chapter of the theoretical part. The aim of the research part was to analyse the transformation of the concept and perspectives of...

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身體是一個媒介，使整個社會文化藉由身體的接觸刻印到身體裡，並透過身 體再體現文化。幼兒亦同，但相較於其他年齡層的個體，幼兒的身體更容易受成人期待或學校規範形塑。例如幼兒的扮家家酒遊戲、排隊、睡覺、吃飯等，藉由與自身以外的人、事、物接觸，有意或無意地學習社會文化。本研究旨趣於幼兒的身體如何被學校裡各種規訓機制所改造，進而看見幼兒在儀態化身體所體現的文化意識形態。因此將研究焦點關注在三個焦點，分別為（一）幼兒園課程的身體規訓；與（二）儀態化身體所體現的文化意識形態；（三）幼兒的身體如何抵抗與挑戰大人的規則。藉由一個幼兒園班級的民族誌研究，記錄幼兒園的生活的四面向：靜態教學（團討、角落、課程）、動態教學（排隊、運動）、用餐、睡覺。 本研究以Foucault 的觀點，從上述四個面向整理幼兒園課程對幼兒身體的 規訓手段，並配合Bourdieu 的分析歸納幼兒的身上所體現的四種儀態化身體（團結、受命、被管控、僵固），以瞭解規訓的策略在幼兒身上所體現的樣貌。此外，本研究也發現幼兒身體所出現四種型態身體的抵抗（挑釁、隱蔽、愉悅、溢出框架）。藉著被策略控制與抵抗之間來呈現幼兒園中教師與幼兒互動的立體樣貌。 / This is a research about early childhood education, culture and everyday lives in the kindergarten. The main points in this study is the body plays as a mediation with social culture and ideology. Social culture manifested through the body. The children’s bodies learn social culture by imitating what their observation, complying with rules in the kindergarten, etc. Researcher gets in one kindergarten in Taiwan with an ethnographic method, and pays attention to how children’s bodies were disciplined and shaped. Thus, this research focuses on three questions: 1. What are disciplinary strategies in the kindergarten? 2. What kinds of cultural values reveal through the children’s hexis bodies? 3. How children's bodies challenge and resist adult`s rules? According to these three questions, this study recorded four aspects of everyday life in kindergarten from curriculum, sleeping, table manners and queuing. The role of researcher is to fieldnotes and to analyze these data, In order to know how school disciplines children’s body. The research field is one kindergarten in Yonghe District, New Taipei,City,Taiwan. There are thirty children in this kindergarten (twenty-nine children are five years old and just one child is three years old) and two teachers, Ms. Ann and Mrs. De. This is a typical public kindergarten in Taiwan, and the curriculum model adopts Project Approach. The researcher analyzes observations with the theoretical framework about the body and society. To examine discipline curriculum in kindergarten from Foucauldian perspective and to see cultural values reflected in the children`s bodies in Bourdieuan perspective. The findings of research are as follows: 1. Teachers use four oriented (dynamic teaching, static teaching,eating and sleeping) strategies to discipline children in kindergarden. 2. Children's bodies was molded into four kinds of hexis bodies(mutually beneficial, inflexible, ordered and managed). 3. Children also resist the rules of adults by four kinds of resistance of the body (pleasure, hidden, provocation and overflow). The everyday lives in kindergarten is multiple meanings constructed by teachers and students. Thus, bodies carry with multiple meanings with discipline, hexis and resistance.

Thesis (M Social Work)--Stellenbosch University, 2001. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The aim of the study was to present guidelines for the composition of a parent orientated sex education programme for pre-school children. An exploratory study was undertaken to describe and investigate the nature and extent of parental sex education to pre-school children. The investigation was done by first exploring existing research literature and describing it. The empirical study was based upon both the literature study and mothers' opinions on sex education. Pre-school children are disproportionately !ll0re likely to be sexually abused with devastating consequences which result in behavioural and emotional problems throughout their lives. The ultimate responsibility of prevention of child sexual abuse should be with the parent. However, two problems persist. Firstly, parents are often the perpetrators and therefore it is not justified to leave the responsibility solely to the parents. Secondly, parents who want to teach their children prevention strategies often lack the skills and knowledge. Therefore, the concept of a prevention structure in which the child can live and find support should be put into practice by the school. Prevention strategies should include sex education, a neutral home environment and a safe environment for disclosure of sexual abuse. This prevention structure should include the teacher, the social worker and the parent. These three components should support each other to implement an atmosphere of prevention and healthy sexual development. Linking and inter-dependence are important because there is always a possibility that one of the participants may be corrupt. Social workers should provide an effective basis for a personal safety programme to parents which should be supported and facilitated by schools. Training parents to become sex educators encourages better parent-child communication, builds the family support network, and has an impact on the ability of the family to deal more positively with sexual concerns. This does not only result in the prevention of sexual abuse but also contributes to the healthy sexual functioning, development and understanding of the sexuality of pre-school children. Through parent orientated sex education, parents can also dispel sexual myths and misinformation that their preschool children gain from peers and other sources. Despite the increasing public awareness devoted to sexual abuse and the advantage of sex education, a formal prevention education structure has not yet been implemented for pre-school children in South Africa. The first objective of this study was to describe and investigate the extent of parental sex education presented to pre-school children. The second objective was to investigate the acceptability of a sex education programme for pre-school children. The third objective was to describe the physical and sexual boundaries existing in the home environments of parents of pre-school children and finally to determine the sexual behaviours of pre-school children, which parents regard as acceptable. The main conclusions, based on the findings of the study, indicated that parents were in favour of sex education for pre-school children and that they require more information which would empower them to sex educate their pre-school children at home. They were also in favour of a classroom-based sex education programme. In conclusion it is recommended that a sex education programme is to be implemented at pre-schools for parents of pre-school children, as well as a classroom based sex education and a personal safety programme for pre-school children. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die doel van die navorsing is om moontlike riglyne vir 'n ouer-georiënteerde seksopvoedingsprogram vir pre-primêre kinders saam te stel. 'n Verkennende studie is onderneem om die omvang en aard van ouer-georiënteerde seksopvoeding vir pre-primêre kinders te ondersoek. Verder is bestaande navorsingsliteratuur bestudeer en beskryf. Die empiriese ondersoek wat daarop volg, is gebaseer op sowel die literatuurstudie as moeders se menings oor seksvoorligting. Pre-primêre kinders het 'n groter kans om seksueel gemolesteer te word wat kan lei tot die ervaring van emosionele- en gedragsprobleme, met vernietigende gevolge vir die res van hul lewens. Die uiteindelike verantwoordelikheid om die kind teen molestering te beskerm, berus by die ouers. Dit skep egter twee probleme. Ten eerste is die ouer dikwels self die oortreder en daarom kan die verantwoordelikheid nie uitsluitlik by die ouer berus nie. Tweedens, is die ouers wat wel seksopvoeding aan hul kinders wil bied, dikwels weens 'n gebrek aan kennis en vaardighede, onbevoeg om dit te doen. Dit is daarom die skool se verantwoordelikheid om 'n voorkomende struktuur te skep waarin die kind kan leef en ondersteuning kan vind. 'n Voorkomende strategie moet seksvoorligting, 'n neutrale leefruimte sowel as 'n veilige omgewing vir die bekendmaking van seksuele molestering insluit. Hierdie voorkomende struktuur moet die onderwyser, die maatskaplike werker en die ouer betrek. Hierdie drie komponente moet mekaar ondersteun om "n atmosfeer van voorkoming en gesonde seksuele ontwikkeling te implimenteer. Aangesien die integriteit van die partye nie gewaarborg kan word nie, is noue skakeling en interafhanklikheid van die drie komponente belangrik. Maatskaplike werkers behoort "n effektiewe persoonlike veiligheidsprogram, wat deur die skool ondersteun en gefasiliteer word, aan die ouers te voorsien. Ouers as seksvoorligters bevorder die kommunikasie tussen ouer en kind, verstewig die ondersteuningsnetwerk van die gesin en ontwikkel die vermoë om seksuele aangeleenthede openlik te hanteer. Gevolglik word seksuele molestering voorkom en gesonde seksuele funksionering bevorder. Die ouer verkry ook insig in die seksuele ontwikkeling van die pre-primêre kind. Deur middel van ouer-georiënteerde seksvoorliging, kan ouers mites en verkeerde inligting, wat dikwels deur die portuurgroep oorgedra word, regstel. Ten spyte van die toenemende mediadekking en bewuswording van die voordeel van seksopvoeding, is daar nog geen formele opvoedkundige voorkomende veiligheidsprogram in Suid-Afrika geïmplementeer nie. Die eerste doelwit van die studie was om die omvang en aard van pre-primêre kinders se seksuele opvoeding te ondersoek. Die tweede doelwit was om ouers se aanvaarding van seksvoorligting van pre-primêre kinders te ondersoek; die derde doelwit was om die fisiese en seksuele grense in die huislike omgewing te ondersoek en laastens, om aanvaarbare seksuele gedrag van pre-primêre kinders te ondersoek. Daar word tot die gevolgtrekking gekom dat ouers wel ten gunste is van ouergeoriënteerde seksvoorligting vir pre-primêre kinders en dat hulle die behoefte het aan leiding om dit te doen. Die ouers is ook ten gunste van die aanbieding van seksvoorligting in die klaskamer. Daar word aanbeveel dat 'n veiligheidsprogram, wat 'n ouer-georiënteerde seksvoorligtingsprogram vir ouers van pre-primêre kinders, sowel as seksvoorligting in die klas behels, in skole geïmplimenteer moet word.

published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education

published_or_final_version / Education / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

本研究旨在探討幼兒園家長與教師對幼兒園服務品質觀點之差異。本研究主要採Goodnack（2000）以焦點訪談所得的19個學校服務品質項目，來發展幼兒園服務品質的項目，並且根據Lovelock和Wirtz（2005）提出的「消費者整體服務」的觀念，再將所發展的幼兒園服務品質項目歸納到核心服務和附屬服務。 本研究除了比較家長與教師對幼兒園服務品質構面，在重要度認知上是否有差異，也探討教師與家長對幼兒園服務品質的滿意度是否有差異；接著探究教師的幼兒園服務品質滿意度是否與教師的工作滿意度有相關？再來又探討教師工作滿意度與幼兒園招生績效是否有相關？最後探討家長的幼兒園服務品質滿意度與幼兒園招生績效是否有相關？ 本研究採用文獻分析、問卷調查與訪談等研究方法。問卷調查以台北市「大同區、松山區、萬華區、文山區」等四區之所有公私立幼兒園為對象，每園抽取3位教師與3位家長，共計有公私立幼兒園106園，教師與家長各有318人進行問卷調查，最後回收381份，其中有效問卷教師168份、家長130份，問卷回收率達59.9%。所得資料以獨立樣本t考驗、成對樣本t考驗、皮爾森積差相關等方法進行研究分析。 本研究獲得以下結論： 一、家長和教師對幼兒園服務品質構面，在重要度的看法上有顯著差異；家長比教師更為重視附屬服務。 二、教師的幼兒園服務品質滿意度與教師工作滿意度有顯著正相關。 三、教師工作滿意度與幼兒園招生績效無顯著差異。 四、家長的幼兒園服務品質滿意度與幼兒園招生績效無顯著差異。 五、教師與家長的幼兒園服務品質滿意度有顯著差異。 依據研究所得結論，本研究對幼兒園提出以下建議，以做為幼兒園增進其服務品質的參考：一、瞭解家長和教師所重視的幼兒園服務品質構面，園方應設法改善較不滿意之項目。二、培養幼教專業人員擁有服務品質的知能與態度，家長與幼兒都是幼兒園服務的主要對象。三、落實幼兒園自我評鑑，強化幼兒園自我改進能力。四、定期進行家長對於幼兒園服務品質之期待與滿意度現況調查，藉以幫助行政者來改善他們提供的服務品質。五、形塑幼兒園的服務品質管理文化，提升品質融入生活之中。 以下為對未來研究的建議： 一、深入探討幼兒園服務品質滿意度與幼兒園招生績效之影響因素。 二、研究分析方法可使用路徑分析（SEM）等，藉此深入分析因果。 三、進行幼兒園服務品質之質性研究。 【關鍵字】幼兒園、幼稚園、服務品質、教師、家長 / The purpose of this study is to compare the difference in perspective on service quality in kindergarten between parents and teachers. This study adopt 19 school service quality dimensions that were developed by Goodnack（2000）.According to these 19 school service quality dimensions, the study develop kindergarten service quality dimensions. Further more, this study base on the concept of consumer whole service which were brought up by Lovelock and Wirtz（2005）.Finally, I put kindergarten service quality dimensions into core service and additional service. This study adopts research methodologies of literature review, questionnaire survey, and interview. The survey subjects include both public and private kindergarten’s teachers and parents from 4 administrative regions of Taipei City in Taiwan .Namely, 106 kindergartens , from which 318 teachers and 318 parents are sampled. The retrieved probability is 59.9%. The research data acquired is analyzed by SPSS/15.0 Chinese version based on research purpose and question, and quantified data is explored through descriptive analysis, t-test and Pearson cross-product correlation. According to the analysis and discussion of the study results, the conclusion are as follows: 1. There is a noticeable difference between parents’ and teachers’ perspective on service quality dimension in kindergarten. Parents emphasize additional service more than teachers. 2. Teachers’ service quality satisfaction and job satisfaction have a positive correlation. 3. There is no noticeable difference between teachers’ job satisfaction and kindergarten enrolled achievement. 4. There is no noticeable difference between parents’ service quality satisfaction and kindergarten enrolled achievement. 5. Parents’ and teachers’ service quality satisfaction in kindergarten have noticeable difference. Based on the above conclusions, the suggestions are provided for administrators and teachers of kindergarten as references to help improve the service quality and school effectiveness.