The purpose of this study was to determine the expressed beliefs and practices about developmental education from early childhood teachers in Tennessee's First Educational District. A questionnaire measuring expressed beliefs and practices was administered to teachers (kindergarten through third grade) in public schools with both multi-age and single-age classrooms. The area of teaching specialization along with the number of years taught within the organization structure are paramount in the study. Teachers' expressed beliefs concerning the amount of outside influences with planning and implementing instruction are also noted. Educators were asked to respond to 36 likert-type items regarding their beliefs about developmentally appropriate practices. Respondents were also asked to respond to 27 likert-type items related to their instructional practices based on developmental appropriateness. Data were analyzed using an oblique factor analysis. Findings include a difference between multi-age and single-age classroom teachers regarding developmental education.

This study examines how teachers at Kingsley Elementary School feel about the multiage program now as compared to when the program was first implemented. There were 28 teachers and two administrators interviewed to determine their perceptions of the positive and negative influences of the multiage program. The purpose of the study is to reveal the success or failure of the multiage program at Kingsley Elementary School and to explore the process used by the school to implement the process. The approach to this study is qualitative and uses interview data from both former and current Kingsley staff. Five research questions were formulated. The field effort concentrated on the respondents' perceptions of the developmental process of the multiage program. Results suggest that the teachers' and administrators' perceptions of the multiage program at Kingsley Elementary School are basically for traditional methods. During the analysis, suggestions emerged from the interviewees to improve the multiage program. Some of these suggestions could be used as a guide for other school systems that are beginning implementation of a multiage program.

No description available.

An initiative to coordinate early learning programs across a major city in the Midwestern United States was undertaken in 2013. The opinions of teachers regarding effects on instruction and children were not included in the development and implementation of the program. This omission is important because multiple scholars have pointed to the benefits and need of including stakeholders' perspectives in program development. The purpose of this study was to explore preschool teachers' experiences and perspectives of this initiative using a qualitative bounded instrumental case study design. Fullan's theory of educational change served as the framework of this study. Nine preschool teachers, who worked full-time in the Head Start-RTL initiative, volunteered to participate in individual semistructured interviews. Data were analyzed using open coding and thematic analysis. The findings revealed 3 themes: programs and services, initiative administration and processes, and initiative resources. Within each theme, participants identified benefits, challenges, and ideas for improvement, including increased administrative and financial support, streamlined processes, and freedom to individualize curriculum to meet the needs of a diverse student body. It is recommended that teachers' perspectives and their experiences with this initiative be used in planning and implementing changes needed to improve the current program. These endeavors by school district personnel may contribute to positive social change by reducing duplicated administration demands on preschool teachers, who, in turn, could devote more time to instruction and interaction with young children, resulting in improved quality of preschool services and positive outcomes for preschool children and their families.

Darbo aktualumas: Nuolatinė kaita, reformos kelia naujus reikalvimus žmogui ir organizacijai, tad norėdama išlikti paklausi ikimokyklinio ugdymo institucija privalo nuolat tobulėti, mokytis, tapti kokybiškai nauja organizacija. Tapimas besimokančia organizacija padės išlikti konkurencinėmis sąlygomis. Besimokančios organizacijos požymių raiškos analizė leis tobulinti ikimokyklinio ugdymo įstaigos veiklą, edukacinę erdvę. Be to, neaptikta duomenų, kad buvo tyrinėtos ikimokyklinio ugdymo institucijos, kaip besimokančios organizacijos, bei nerasta tyrimų, kokiais požymiais, bruožais jos pasižymi. Atsižvelgus į visa tai, buvo iškelta tyrimo problema: ar ikimokyklinio ugdymo įstaiga yra besimokanti organizacija? Tyrimo objektas: ikimokyklinio ugdymo įstaigos, kaip besimokančios organizacijos požymiai. Tyrimo tikslas – atskleisti ikimokyklinio ugdymo įstaigos, kaip besimokančios organizacijos požymių raišką vadovų ir pedagogų požiūrio aspektu. Tyrimo metodika. Respondentų apklausai buvo panaudota anketinė apklausa. Anketa sudaryta remiantis A. Juodaitytės, N. Kudokienės (2005, p. 38) straipsnio „Mokyklos, kaip besimokančios organizacijos, formavimosi tendencijos“ idėjomis bei teorine medžiaga (Targamadzė,1999; Simonaitienė, 2003; Stoll, Fink, 1998; Senge, 1990 ir kt.). Tyrimo imtis. Tyrime dalyvavo penkiolikos Šiaulių mieste esančių ikimokyklinio ugdymo įstaigų vadovų ir pedagogų. Buvo apklausti 199 respondentai, iš jų 19 vadovų (direktorei ir pavaduotojai ugdymui) ir 180... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / Relevance: Constant change and reform has created new requirements for a person and organization, so in order to remain attractive preschool educational institution it has to grow, learn constantly and become a qualitative new organization. It will help for a learning organization to survive in competitive conditions. The analysis of the expression of the features of learning organization will improve preschool activity and educational space. In addition, there are not any data which could show the investigated preschool education institutions as learning organizations, and there has not been found any research in what ways, they are distinguished. All the things conceded the research problem was raised: whether pre-primary school is a learning organization? The research object: The features of preschool education institution as learning organization. The purpose of the survey - to reveal preschool education institution as learning organization, the expression of their features: teachers’ and heads’ aspect of attitude. The methods of research - Questionnaire survey has been used to investigate the respondents. The questionnaire is based on the article „Formation tendencies of the School as a learning organization“by A. Juodaitytė, N. Kudokienė (2005, p. 38), and other ideas and theoretical material (Targamadzė, 1999; Simonaitienė, 2003, Stoll, Fink, 1998; Senge, 1990, etc.). The sample of the survey - The study included teachers and heads from fifteen pre-school institutions... [to full text]

Since 1960s, preschools have been important parts both of Swedish welfare and of labour market policies. The preschool thus constitutes a very important site for rearing and educating young children. Reforms of the Swedish preschool in the 1990s concerning both accessibility and quality were introduced at a time when the economy of the municipalities dramatically deteriorated because of reductions in State subsidies. The strained economy of the State and the municipalities, has resulted, among other things, in a growing number of children in preschool groups and pressure to change organization and pedagogical content. These changes took place in a time of decentralization where the responsibility for organization of preschools was given to the municipalities. Changes in economy, organization and curriculum form the background for this study. The purpose of the study is to examine and understand how preschool working teams shape and realize the pedagogical practice and how working conditions affect this process. The approach of the study is interpretative, where the interpretative perspective is mainly represented by activity theory and theories of cultural reproduction. Three aspects of the actions are observed: the object of the actions, the instruments mediating the actions and the content of mediating actions. Bernstein’s concepts classification and framing are used as tools in analysing the empirical data. The interpretative, empirical study is based on qualitative data collected mainly by observations and interviews. Three preschools are chosen for the study. The preschools in the study are located in two municipalities in the north of Sweden, representing three different environments. All preschools receive children one to five years old. The personnel consist of preschool teachers and childminders working in teams. Eleven of them where interviewed. The study shows that daily routines both shape and restrict practices in preschools. The work is mainly focused on care giving, where the children are supposed to adapt to and subordinate themselves to the norms and to the existing routines. The children’s influence varies between organized activities, where they have little influence, and play time, where they can choose what to do. It also varies between the preschools, where the preschool with children from more affluent families have more freedom than children from the multicultural, lower-income environment do. The work is collectively oriented toward training adaptation, but also, to a certain extent, training for autonomy and responsibility taking. Organization of learning activities often takes the form of transmitting information. The informants regard themselves as caregivers with the main purpose to mediate security and create conditions for the children to develop socially. The changes in conditions emanating from political decisions have brought new working tasks to the preschools and have reduced the level of resources at the same time as the demands made are experienced as being harder. This creates frustration and tends to result in lower levels of ambition.

Mémoire (M.Ed.)-- Université du Québec à Chicoutimi, 1992. / Bibliogr.: f. [127]-130. Document électronique également accessible en format PDF. CaQCU

Thesis (M.Ed. (Education)) - Rhodes University, 2009. / Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Education (Environmental Education)

The diploma thesis is divided into the theoretical and research part. In the theoretical part, we explain the concepts of pre-school age and its development. We are dealing with the division of pre-school institutions into state, non-state and private. We describe the possibilities of alternative education. Definition of legislative documentation of pre-school education. The research section focuses on non-state and private preschool institutions. What these devices differ from state kindergarten and what they offer in pre-school education.

Submitted by Diogo Misoguti (diogo.misoguti@gmail.com) on 2016-06-20T19:05:36Z No. of bitstreams: 1 gisele-mendes-amorim.pdf: 2295357 bytes, checksum: 5b04c799deca3467fa9c41608f1ceb6e (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Diogo Misoguti (diogo.misoguti@gmail.com) on 2016-06-20T19:06:02Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 gisele-mendes-amorim.pdf: 2295357 bytes, checksum: 5b04c799deca3467fa9c41608f1ceb6e (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-06-20T19:06:02Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 gisele-mendes-amorim.pdf: 2295357 bytes, checksum: 5b04c799deca3467fa9c41608f1ceb6e (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015-12-10 / A presente pesquisa buscou evidenciar as contribuições do conceito de Atividade Orientadora de Ensino como desencadeador da mudança de prática de professores de Educação Infantil, especificamente na organização do ensino de noções matemáticas. Tomando como ponto de partida um contexto escolar no qual as professoras manifestaram dificuldades em organizar e desenvolver atividades matemáticas que superassem a questão cotidiana e utilitária dos conceitos, e ancorando-nos na psicologia Histórico-Cultural, na Teoria da Atividade e no conceito de Atividade Orientadora de Ensino (AOE), organizamos e desenvolvemos um curso de extensão universitária, tomado como experimento didático, com o objetivo de problematizar, a partir de tais pressupostos teóricos, o processo de ensino da matemática. As ações docentes voltadas a planejamento, desenvolvimento das atividades, avaliação e socialização de todo o processo de organização de ensino da matemática numa perspectiva histórico-cultural propiciaram a produção de dados que foram coletados e organizados em três isolados interdependentes, posteriormente divididos em episódios. A análise desses episódios e isolados revelou indícios do movimento de mudança da prática docente na organização do processo de ensino da matemática. No isolado “Conceitos Matemáticos em Movimento”, vimos que as aprendizagens docentes em relação aos conceitos matemáticos estabeleciam-se com base nos conceitos espontâneos ou cotidianos, situação que foi se modificando ao longo do experimento didático por meio da apropriação de elementos do conceito de AOE. O isolado “Mediação como elemento fundamental para ensinar e aprender matemática” apresentou a importância da mediação no processo de aprendizagem do professor em atividade de ensino, rumo à ressignificação e mudança de sua própria prática, em processo de mudança de sentido docente atribuído aos modos pelos quais as crianças aprendem, à potencialidade do jogo e da história virtual no processo de ensino dos conceitos matemáticos. O isolado “Organização do Ensino da matemática na educação infantil” revela o movimento de reorganização das ações docentes mediante a apropriação do conceito de número como produção humana constituída historicamente e dos meios de sua constituição, num movimento de reorganização consciente do ensino, voltado à apropriação da gênese do conceito e não mais das suas características observáveis. O resultado da análise dos dados demonstra que as professoras ressignificaram o motivo e o sentido de sua atividade, diante de uma reorganização que se mostra para elas mais eficazes do que a prática anterior pautada apenas em situações cotidianas. Desta forma, ao acompanhar o movimento de aprendizagem docente em experimento didático fundamentado na perspectiva histórico-cultural, esta pesquisa pôde constatar a potencialidade do conceito de Atividade Orientadora de Ensino como propiciador de mudança da prática docente a partir de uma nova organização do ensino da matemática na Educação Infantil. / This research aims at demonstrating the contributions of the concept of Teaching Guidance Activity (TGA) as a trigger for change in the practices of preschool/pre-kindergarden teachers, specifically concerning their organization of teaching of mathematical notions. The investigation took place in a school where teachers manifested difficulty in organizing a process to teach Maths notions that could overcome the daily, utilitarian aspect of the concepts addressed. The researcher structured and offered to those schoolteachers a shortterm course (a didactic experiment) on Cultural-Historical Psychology, the Theory of Activity and the concept of Teaching Guidance Activity, with the aim of problematizing the process of teaching Maths with recourse to those theories. The research data consists of the teachers' actions of planning and developing activities, and then evaluating and socializing their Maths teaching process in a Cultural-Historic perspective; this data was collected and organized in three units, the isolateds, later divided into episodes. The analysis of the episodes and isolateds revealed signs of change in teaching practices concerning the organization of Maths teaching. In the isolated "Maths Concepts in Movement", we established that the teachers' handling of Maths concepts was centered on spontaneous concepts; this situation changed throughout the didactic experiment as the teachers appropriated elements of the concept of TGA. The isolated "Mediation as a key element for teaching and learning Maths" showed the importance of mediation in the learning process of teachers in teaching activity, towards ressignifying and changing their practices, in a process of modifying the meaning attributed by the teachers to the ways children learn, as well as to the potential of games and virtual stories for the process of teaching Maths concepts. The isolated "Organization of Maths Teaching in Preschool Education" reveals the movement of reorganizing teaching actions impacted by the appropriation of the concept of Number as a historically constituted human production, as well as of the means of that constitution, in a movement of deliberate reorganizing of their teaching, which started pertaining to the concept's origins rather than to its observable characteristics. The results of data analysis show that the teachers involved in the course have ressignified the motive and meaning of their activity, adhering to an organization of Maths teaching that they perceive to be more effective than their previous one, which had been based on daily situations. By following the movement of the teachers' learning during a didactic experiment based on a Cultural-Historic perspective, this research verified the potential of the TGA concept as a trigger for change in teaching practices, as made evident by a new organization of their preschool Maths teaching.