Basic communication skills are foundational for children's success in school and are dependent largely on their language experiences early in life. The purpose of this study was to examine two professional development models and family child care providers' use of turn-taking strategies that promote language in young children. The first professional development model consisted of a 10-hour nonformal training focused on supporting early language development. The second included the nonformal training and on-site mentoring. The 48 family child care programs were randomly assigned to one of the professional development models or a control group. Hierarchical linear modeling was used to examine the average increase in the frequency of providers' use of turn-taking strategies over three observations. Results indicate that both forms of professional development support increased use of language promoting turn-taking strategies as compared to a control group. Professional development that includes on-site mentoring support appears to be related to greater increases in providers' use of informational talk and didactic utterances over training only.

Reading success has been linked to high school completion, future job success, and future generations of children who can read. Unfortunately, children who are unable to read on grade level by the end of first grade are at a great disadvantage and unlikely to catch up later. Without the ability to read and comprehend text, all aspects of schooling become progressively more difficult and the challenge of poor reading ability can be so difficult to overcome that many poor readers will not complete high school. For these reasons, it is important to identify early experiences in a child's family environment that predict the early skills that are necessary for later reading and reading comprehension. The child's family environment includes the quality of both the general home setting and specific kinds of parent-child interactions. The skills necessary for reading success include vocabulary, phonological skills, and other early literacy skills, but broader cognitive and regulatory skills may also be necessary. Because children from low-income families are at higher risk for reading problems, this study examines extant data on early environments, early development, and second-grade reading from a sample of 117 children from low-income families who participated in a longitudinal study from the child's infancy to second grade. Early family environments and children's early cognitive and other skills that are measured at 36 months and just prior to kindergarten entry at 54 months, were analyzed in relation to their second-grade vocabulary, reading ability, and reading comprehension. The results of this analysis of extant longitudinal data help identify early predictors of reading success for children at risk for reading problems.

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...

This study was conducted to see if a difference exists in the language arts proficiency levels of 2,080 fourth grade students with regard to gender, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status from 2010 through 2012 on the Tennessee Comprehensive Assessment Program. Specifically, this study considered the possibility that a difference existed in language arts proficiency levels between males and females. A quantitative study was used to find differences in the language arts proficiency levels from 2010 through 2012 for males and females in the fourth grade in an upper East Tennessee urban school system. A quasi-experimental design was selected because preexisting data were collected on 2,080 fourth grade students enrolled and assessed in 2010, 2011, and 2012 in an upper East Tennessee school system. The language arts proficiency levels from the Tennessee Comprehensive Assessment Program (TCAP) were collected for each of the students in the study. This study found a significant difference in the language arts proficiency levels with regard to gender, socioeconomic status, and ethnicity on the Tennessee Comprehensive Assessment Program from 2010 through 2012 for 2,080 fourth grade students in an upper East Tennessee School district. In general males and females tended to score in the basic and below basic proficiency levels. White males and females generally scored in the proficient and advanced levels while males and females from the other ethnic groups scored in the below basic and basic levels. Students who received free or reduced lunch benefits scored at the below basic and basic levels of proficiency regardless of gender. Students who did not receive the same benefits were generally proficient or advanced on the language arts portion of the TCAP. White students as a group generally scored higher than students from other ethnic groups. Students who received free and reduced lunch benefits generally received lower proficiency scores than their peers who did not receive the same benefits.

Beginning with birth, typically developing children use strategies to communicate, and the functions of their language change with maturation and interaction. Since communication cannot exist if both parties do not participate, it is important to not only study the ability of the child, but also the behavior of the adult. Numerous studies have examined the behavior of the parent or other domestic adult, but few have included the study of teacher behaviors. This study investigated teachers’ response to four types of nonverbal communication attempts made by infants. The gestures included: deictic, affect signaling, object-related, and conventional. The type of response was also documented as facilitating dialogue or discouraging dialogue. Thirty infant teachers and/or teacher assistants from 11 centers in Northeast Tennessee were videotaped for 30 minutes. Videos were coded to determine which of the defined functions teachers were most likely to respond to and if the response facilitated or discouraged dialogue. The results showed that overall, teachers responded to 25% of nonverbal attempts; 75% of the infants’ nonverbal attempts teacher offered a non-facilitative response or missed the gesture. Pearson correlations determined that there were relationships between children’s attempt to communicate and teachers’ response in all four types of nonverbal communication, including deictic, r (30) = .659, p = .000; affect signaling, r (30) = .917, p = .000; object-related, r (30) =.848, p = .000; and conventional, r (30) = .794, p = .000. There were several relationships between the number of nonverbal attempts by children and teachers offering a facilitative responses including affect signaling, r (30) = .776, p = .000; object-related, r (30) = .635, p = .000; and conventional, r (30) = .514, p = .004, but not with deictic attempts. There were relationships between the number of nonverbal attempts by children and teachers offering discouraging responses in all 4 types of nonverbal language, including deictic, r (30) = .706, p = .000; affect signaling, r (30) = .630, p = .000; object-related, r (30) = .582, p = .001; and conventional, r (30) = .439, p = .015.

The intent of this thesis was to study, in depth, the experiences of four adolescent mothers who underwent a home intervention program. I studied two mothers who did well with teaching their 12-month old children during play, and two mothers who did not do as well. All four mothers received weekly intervention from the time of their child's birth through 12-months of age. I studied the following variables: 1) how much time the home visitors spent on selected child development and parenting topics; 2) the mother's perceived social support; 3) how many community resources the mother used; and 4) if the infant was healthy and within normal developmental range. All of the mothers struggled in their lives, yet varied in the quality and time of most of the variables. It was striking how different each one was from the other. The implications of the study are important for child development specialists who can use the qualitative data within this document to better understand first time adolescent mothers in order to improve the outcomes of the home visitation services that they provide to mothers and infants. After spending time studying these four adolescent mothers, I would recommend that adolescent women not get pregnant. Adolescence is a time that is meant for experiences and self-discovery and should be spent free from a dependent child who critically needs them. Future research and funding should be spent on preventing adolescent pregnancy and ensuring that flexible curriculum be utilized by the home visitors in order to meet the varying needs of adolescent mothers.

Early childhood education teachers have been challenged with the demands for accountability in literacy and English language development, as well as kindergarten readiness skills of preschool children. Researchers have studied professional learning communities (PLCs) as a framework for professional development and student achievement. However, few have studied the effects of PLCs in preschool. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to explore how PLCs support preschool teachers in Head Start and other preschool programs. The research questions involved understanding teaching and learning opportunities for early childhood education (ECE) that can produce positive child outcomes. Using social constructivist assumptions, data collection began with interviews of the leadership team that oversees the ECE services within a suburban Southern California school district. Additional data was gathered from archival records, field observations, and interviews of 20 teachers clustered into 4 PLC groups. Observational data were coded from video recordings via checklists derived from the review of the literature. Interview data were coded for a priori themes based on the literature, were continually reviewed for additional emergent themes, and discordant data separated for later consideration. Coded data were analyzed thorough the sequential method outlined by Janesick, yielding 7 factors related to increasing teacher learning and 4 related to increasing student learning. These results were employed to create a district-wide PLC professional development plan for ECE teachers. The study has implications for social change by supporting collaborative cultures of teacher leadership that continually improve ECE instruction and student learning.

台灣早期的幼教發展，於政府長時期疏於管理下，導致現今幼教界存在諸多糾結複雜的問題，這些客觀外在環境條件所產生的問題，直接衝擊幼教核心之一「教師」角色的生存空間。在高師資流動性特質之幼教場域中，那些資深專業工作者如何能夠在所處的社會情境脈動中，長時期持續朝向自我選擇之幼教職業道路推進，為本研究的核心關注。透過一位資深幼教工作經歷的園長之生命視窗—她的工作經驗世界，理解幼師職業生涯運轉歷程的樣貌；並從主體生命故事敘說之縱向歷史回顧中，理解其中透露的重要社會結構變遷訊息。 本研究採取質性研究方法中的傳記研究取向，以德國社會學者Fritz Schütze所發展之「敘述訪談法」(narrative interview)進行資料採集工作，訪談一位具有二十九年幼教工作經歷的幼兒園園長。訪談結果整理為敘述文本後，並參照Fritz Schütze所提出的理論建構分析方案，對文本進行結構描述以及概念抽象化分析的整體形塑，以回應欲探究的問題。 經過資料分析過程，逐漸釋出本研究主體—杏芬園長「不成長就會被淘汰」的生命信念意涵，文本透露出自我完成性在主體生命開展歷程中，為一種突破環境限制與期望朝向更好的動力，促使主體一再超越現實環境的限制，萌生其積極性意義。「不進則退」生命觀於時間流動中架構出主體的生活經驗世界，形成生命能量內塑與外推之上揚動力，於接受工作挑戰與追求成長歷程中蛻變。於是可以看出，環境或自我本身的未確定性，雖然帶來了限制，卻也充滿無限可能性。最後，研究者就文本解析之內容，提出「公私幼消長生態下幼師的生存處境」議題進行探討；並且參照Csikszentmihalyi創造力系統論觀點，建立一個類似的系統原型，從個人、學門及領域三個面向，闡釋研究主體長期安身立命於幼教職業工作中的可能因素。 / “Either growing or eliminating”— A description analysis of a kindergarten teacher’s life revolving Due to the lack of management by the government in Taiwan in early years, there are many problems that exist in the field of early childhood education. Those impact the survival of the key personnel, the teachers, in this field directly. In the social context of high turn over ratio of the teachers in this field, how senior teachers keep standing fast at the post and moving forward is the center concern of this research. By interviewing a senior teacher’s working experience, the researcher gets to know the different patterns of the career of a kindergarten teacher; further more, to comprehend the transition of the social structure from reviewing the history in which the story happened. This research adopts biographic study under the qualitative methodology, and collects the data with “narrative interview” developing by Fritz Schűtze, a Germany sociologist. After interviewing a kindergarten principal, Sin-feng, who has been working for twenty-nine years in the early childhood education field, researcher followed Schűtze’s theory construction and analysis to analyze and shape the structure description and abstract concepts. After the process of data analysis, “either growing or eliminating” shows up to be Principal Sin-feng’s belief. The text shows that in one’s life process, self-completion is a motivation that can break through constrains of environment and head to a better situation. Therefore, we can see that although the uncertainty of environment and oneself can be constrains, it can also bring the unlimited possibility. At the end, researcher raised the topic of “kindergarten teachers’ subsistence in the growth and decline of public and private kindergartens” for discussion. Researcher revised and constructed a similar system from the creativity systematic viewpoint raised by Csikszentmihalyi, to explain the possible reasons, from personal, subject, and field aspects, that make the research object stay in the same career for such a long time.

Since 2011, the state of Oregon has embarked on a comprehensive educational policy change to create a unified birth to twenty educational system. As part of the birth to age five early childhood and family investment strategy, mandated participation in Oregon professional development system is required for all early childhood educators working in Office of Child Care licensed programs. To date, research on early childhood educators' experience in professional development systems has focused primarily on experiences with regulatory systems. This hermeneutic phenomenological study explored how four early childhood educators made meaning of their experiences of professional engagement in Oregon's state professional development system. As a researcher-participant, I conducted a two-part interview with these early childhood educators. First, we revisited the experience of the professional development journey in collage, followed by narrative semi-structured interviews. The researcher employed Dahlberg's (2006) concept of "bridling the experience" (p. 16) as a way to develop an understanding of early childhood educators' professional practice and the intersection between practice and professional engagement in Oregon's professional development system for childhood care and education. The collage and narrative dialogues illuminated the essence of each individual's experience. Experiences such as the intersection of personal professional self, acts of professional engagement, and the emotional nature of participants' work all emerged from the collage and interview process. Three essential themes emerged from the data interpretation and discussion, namely, (a)Personal and Professional Self: Intertwining Personal Experience and Professional Identity, (b)Curves Ahead: Maneuvering Rivers, Roads, and Paths, and (c)The Journey and the System are Asynchronous: "You Guys Figure that Out, Good Luck." Through the emergence of essential themes, participants demonstrated that their experiences while unique also shared common characteristics of what it means to be an early childhood educator in Oregon living with policy in the classroom. It is now the turn of policy makers and program managers of Oregon's professional development system to recognize the strength and wisdom of the voices in the early childhood classroom.

Kindergarten teachers can effectively and sensitively integrate the microcomputer into a curriculum which strives to meet the needs of the total child. This study indicates, through a review of professional journals and current books on the microcomputer in education, the need for technological skills. It demonstrates the presence of microcomputers in today's schools, even in the early years. Uses of the microcomputer in the kindergarten classroom are presented for consideration. Recommendations are included which call for informed and caring teachers to use the microcomputer to meet the social, emotional, and cognitive needs of the individual child.