Nowadays, preschool education plays a key role in all aspects of people’s lives. Preschool education teacher training programs need to reform accommodate the requirements of society and parents. This research studies the effectiveness of a new pre-school education teacher training program in Shanghai, using the Art Education Department (AED) of East China Normal University as a case study. The study involves AED graduates, AED lecturers and kindergarten principals, and assesses the effectiveness of the new program based on its course content and balance, its graduates’ work performance, and employers’ evaluations. This research was conducted through questionnaires, interviews and document analysis. A better understanding of the different opinions obtained can further our understanding of the effectiveness of the new pre-school education teacher training program. / published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education

The goal of this study is to investigate the association between different types of play area design and level of physical activity of 3-5 year old children. Rationale 1. The majority of USA children are in some type of childcare provision. 2. The childcare centre is the highest predictor of preschool physical activity. 3. Being outdoors is the strongest correlate of physical activity. Three childcare centres in North Carolina, USA, were selected to carry out the study (n=90). A variety of methods were used to establish sample comparability: Early Childhood Attention Deficit Disorder Scale EC-ADDES, body mass index (BMI), the Test of Gross Motor Development TGMD-2 and children demographic information. Accelerometry was used to measure children’s activity. To link the amount of physical activity to play settings and environmental features two methods were used: 1. Behaviour mapping (processed with GIS), and 2. Video tracking of selected children (analysed using The Observer, Noldus). Setting diversity was measured using a 1-4 point scale developed by the researcher. Findings The study strongly suggests that: • The amount of physical activity afforded by preschool play areas can be intentionally improved by design. • Diverse play areas containing pathways and natural elements, and combining a range of setting sizes are expected to be the most active. • The most effective setting for motivating physical activity in this study is predicted to be a wide, curvy, wheeled toy pathway. • Compact play areas, where greater numbers of children play together, are likely to support more physical activity. • Educational programs that foster outdoor learning are likely to secure greater amounts of sustained physical activity. As a research contribution to the emerging field of design for active living, a key purpose of the study is to influence childcare policy and accreditation. Appropriate design and childcare licensing policies are viable vehicles to produce environmental and behaviour change in early childhood institutions.

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Style conventions are specialized ways of performing a given activity (e.g., dressing, eating, etc.) that have minimal practical significance, but play a crucial role in signaling ones membership or status within a particular social community. The primary goal of this study was to examine whether preschool-aged children would adhere to a novel style convention simply given information that the style was shared by others. A secondary goal was to investigate whether the way that the information about the style convention was framed would affect their adhering to that convention. Forty-eight five-year-olds and 48 three-year-olds were shown a novel apparatus and given a basket of yellow and orange balls. The simple game consisted of putting the balls into the apparatus, which made the apparatus light up. In a fully between-subjects design, half of the participants participated in the focal “convention” condition, in which they were then told that using one colour of balls was the norm. Half of the children in the convention condition received this information in inclusionary terms (ie. everybody uses orange), and half in exclusionary terms (ie. nobody uses yellow). Children’s performance in these focal conditions was compared with that of children who participated in control conditions in which the experimenter’s ball choice was explained by statement of her preferences (i.e. I like to use only orange/I don’t like to use yellow). The main finding was that when playing the game themselves, 3-year-olds were significantly more likely to systematically select target-coloured balls in the convention than in the preference control condition, whereas 5-year-olds did not show systematic performance in either. There was also a significant condition x frame interaction, whereby children were more likely to systematically select target balls in the preference exclusion frame than in the preference inclusion frame. These results show that explicit information about a shared style is sufficient to promote adherence to style conventions in 3-year-old children, though, perhaps not 5-year-olds. These findings are discussed with respect to the mechanisms that guide children’s acquisition of conventional forms across domains. / Thesis (Master, Psychology) -- Queen's University, 2008-09-14 10:48:10.178

The purpose of the study was to determine if differences exist in scores on reading achievement subtests and ratings on social development subscales for children exposed to four reported patterns of child care practice.The sample consisted of 143 children that experienced different patterns of child care practices between ages of three to five and who were presently enrolled in grade two in four elementary schools in Muncie, Indiana.Three assessment instruments including a parent questionnaire, subtests from the, Iowa Test of Basic Skills, and social development subscales adapted from Preschool Attainment Record (PAR) were employed in this study.A two way (2x4) multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) was conducted for testing the equality of vectors for the mean scores on reading achievement subtests and mean ratings on social development subscales. The two independent factors considered were patterns of child care practice and sex of the child. For purposes of the analysis, a testing sequence of effects was conducted since unequal cell sizes obtained produced a nonorthogonal design. The interaction effect between the two factors was obtained following the tests of the two main effects within the sequence. Preliminary to testing the hypotheses it was necessary to first test for a significant interaction between the factors of patterns of child care practice and sex. Although no hypothesis was specified for sex factor, this factor was used to eliminate any possible unexplained variance from the within variability.No significant differences were found between vectors of mean scores on the basis of patterns of child care practice. Consequently, the first null hypothesis that there is no difference among vectors of mean scores on reading achievement subtests could not be rejected. The second null hypothesis that there is no difference among the vectors of mean ratings on social development subscales, too, could not be rejected. There seems to be little influence exerted by pattern of child care practice on reading achievement and social development of children in this sample.

The purpose of the study was to investigate the relationship between the cognitive levels of play and the child selected play activities of younger and older preschool children. Hypotheses were formulated to examine this relationship, and the age and sex differences in the cognitive levels of play and the child-selected play activities.The Play Activity Observation Instrument (PAOI) was developed by the researcher. From Smilansky's cognitive levels of play, the PAOI assessed functional, constructive, and dramatic play. Modifying Rubin' s list of the most frequently observed preschool play activities, the PAOI assessed family-work, art, block, wheel toy, table, sand-water, and climbing play.The subjects, twenty-two males and twenty-two females, were enrolled in two preschool programs at a midwestern university. The younger group had a mean age of 41.8 months and the older group had a mean age of 54.0 months.Agreement among the seven trained observers, using was .7564. Data were collected three days a week for six weeks during thirty-minute observation periods.A multivariate analysis of variance used the sex and age of the subjects as the classification variables, and the cognitive levels of play exhibited in the child-selected play activities as the dependent variables. Post hoc analysis, using univariate techniques, was conducted to further interpret the results.Statistical analysis of the mean frequencies of cognitive levels of play exhibited in the child-selected play activities revealed the following results:Significant age differences were found for the cognitive levels of play (p<.0450): older children engaged in more dramatic play. No significant age differences were found for functional or constructive play.No significant age differences were found for the child-selected play activities (p .1214).No significant sex differences were found for the cognitive levels of play (p<.0889).Significant sex differences were found for the child selected play activities (p .0001), and for the child selected play activities by cognitive levels of play interaction (p<.0001).Sex differences could be interpreted only when examining specific child-selected play activities: (A) no sex differences were observed for family-work play; however, both sexes exhibited higher levels of dramatic family-work play and lower levels of functional and constructive family-work play; (B) females exhibited higher levels of constructive art play; (C) males exhibited higher levels of constructive and dramatic block play; (D) males exhibited higher levels of dramatic wheel toy play; (E) no sex differences wore found for table play or sand-water play; (F) males engaged in more dramatic climbing play.Significant differences were found for the overall child-selected play activities by cognitive levels of play interaction (p<.0001). Post hoc analysis indicated that there was more dramatic family-work play than functional or constructive family-work play, more constructive table play than functional or dramatic table play, and more constructive sand-water play than functional or dramatic sand-water play.Several educational implications were presented, including the following:Dramatic play has been linked to later symbolic functioning in creativity, problem solving and reading. This study indicated that the greatest potential for dramatic play occurred in family-work play.Since art, block, wheel toy, and climbing play evoked sex differences in the cognitive levels of play, teachers should encourage cross-sex play behaviors in these activities.