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The ability to suppress a prepotent response is a crucial component of cognition that begins to develop during infancy and peeks during preschool. As part of understanding how one develops inhibitory control, learning about what conditions may help or hurt task performance is of great interest. The purpose of this project was to study the effects of familiarity and novelty on inhibitory control. Thirty-five preschoolers between two and five years of age were tested in four different versions of the Dimensional Change Card Sort (DCCS). Performance was no different among standard, 2D-familiar, and 3D-familiar conditions. When comparing novel with the standard condition, children performed worse (37% and 68% respectively). Findings support the attentional inertia hypothesis. An exploratory analysis on temperament was also investigated. Children who scored higher in effortful control performed better in the 2D-familiar condition. / Master of Science

The purpose of the project was to examine the relationship between the social development of preschool children and parenting styles. Preschool social development was accessed by the use of sociometry. Parenting styles of mothers and fathers were determined by a questionnaire. The parenting styles and the sociometric status of the children were analyzed to determine a relationship using the chi-square analysis. The analysis indicated that there was no significant relationship between parenting styles and the sociometric status of preschool children. It is recommended that more research be done in the fields of parenting styles and sociometry.

Much of the current discourse surrounding the practice of early reading has emerged from policies that dictate the definition and means by which reading is taught and by which reading success is measured. Although this discourse directly influences the work of preschool teachers, little is known about what preschool teachers think about early reading and how they develop these understandings or constructions. Research concerning preschool teachers’ constructions is useful because of the potential influence on teachers' decisions and classroom behaviors. The purpose of this study is to better understand preschool teachers’ constructions concerning early reading and the process of learning to read. Six preschool teachers, with a variety of personal, educational, and professional experiences, from four diverse early childhood programs in the North Texas area were interviewed over a nine-month period during which each participant was interviewed for approximately three hours. Through systematic, inductive analysis, three themes were identified under an overarching theme of the interdependent and relational nature of early reading influences: out-of-school interactions, in-school interactions, and interactions with text. Without exception, these teachers referred to their life experiences as influencing their approach to teaching in general and to teaching reading in particular. The goals these preschool teachers had for their students and their instructional decisions were indications of their unique and evolving constructions of early reading and are absolutely grounded in their practice – in their life experiences and in their daily interactions with children. This study suggests that stakeholders should remember that these practical experiences are a primary influence on how preschool teachers think about early reading and the process of learning to read.

<p>Undersökningen som grundar sig på intervjuer med nio pedagoger i sex flerkulturella förskolor utgår både från styrdokumentens förespråkade sociokulturella tänk liksom ett socialisationsteoretiskt perspektiv. Studien synliggör att såväl språkliga – som kulturella dilemman dagligen uppstår såväl mellan hemmet och förskolan, som mellan vuxna med olika religionstilllhörighet. Studien tydliggör att ett interkulturellt perspektiv inte föreligger i möten mellan olika kulturer, vilka därmed sker utifrån pedagogernas individuella reflektioner kring egna – och andra kulturer. Invänjningen av barn med annat modersmål och annan etnisk tillhörighet får bäst förutsättningar att lyckas om parterna möts vilket inte är självklart. Studien visar med detta dels att socialiseringsprocessen in i samhället sker genom kontakten till pedagogerna – vars åsikter och förhållningssätt representerar den ”allmänna uppfattningen”. Dels framkommer det att många familjer med annan härkomst har mycket svag insikt om svensk förskola, att det faktiskt inte är en läsa - räkna - skriva – skola utan en arena där barn mycket tidigt får möjlighet att utvecklas till självständiga individer. Framförallt framkommer det att stora kulturella skillnader i synen på barns behov av – och i förskolan försvårar invänjningen avsevärt.</p>

Undersökningen som grundar sig på intervjuer med nio pedagoger i sex flerkulturella förskolor utgår både från styrdokumentens förespråkade sociokulturella tänk liksom ett socialisationsteoretiskt perspektiv. Studien synliggör att såväl språkliga – som kulturella dilemman dagligen uppstår såväl mellan hemmet och förskolan, som mellan vuxna med olika religionstilllhörighet. Studien tydliggör att ett interkulturellt perspektiv inte föreligger i möten mellan olika kulturer, vilka därmed sker utifrån pedagogernas individuella reflektioner kring egna – och andra kulturer. Invänjningen av barn med annat modersmål och annan etnisk tillhörighet får bäst förutsättningar att lyckas om parterna möts vilket inte är självklart. Studien visar med detta dels att socialiseringsprocessen in i samhället sker genom kontakten till pedagogerna – vars åsikter och förhållningssätt representerar den ”allmänna uppfattningen”. Dels framkommer det att många familjer med annan härkomst har mycket svag insikt om svensk förskola, att det faktiskt inte är en läsa - räkna - skriva – skola utan en arena där barn mycket tidigt får möjlighet att utvecklas till självständiga individer. Framförallt framkommer det att stora kulturella skillnader i synen på barns behov av – och i förskolan försvårar invänjningen avsevärt.

Children who speak limited English are at particular jeopardy of school failure because of multiple risk factors. In the later grades, these children have difficult y making progress towards state standards in English reading and English writing. Research with bilingual children indicates that children transfer phonological awareness and writing skills across languages. However, the research on cross-linguistic transfer of early writing is sparse when compared to the phonological awareness research base. This study is important because it aims to address the gap in the literature by exploring ELLs' pathway from Spanish (L1) to English (L2) written language and moderators of this pathway. Using a sample of 110 preschool English-language learners, the children's early writing performance was compared to national norms in 2007 and 2008 using a standardized instrument that prompts them to write letters and words from dictation. The data was analyzed using commonality regression analysis and canonical correlation to examine 1) shared and unique variance of performance on the English dictation measure accounted for by English and Spanish phonological awareness 2) shared and unique variance of performance on the Spanish dictation measure accounted for by English and Spanish phonological awareness and 3) interrelationships between early writing and phonological awareness in English and Spanish. Although it was expected that the student's performance on the English dictation task would be below average when compared to national norms, the students' performance was low average. The results from commonality regression and canonical correlation analysis indicated that the greatest unique contribution to English and Spanish dictation in 2008 was Spanish dictation in 2007. Finally, the results from the canonical correlation regression indicated that the Spanish literacy skills made a greater contribution to the phonological awareness and dictation synthetic variable than did the parallel English literacy skills.

This study aimed at investigating the challenges preschool teachers face in the curriculum implementation and whether these challenges differ in relation to teachers&rsquo / level of education, department they graduated from, the type of the school they are working in, teaching experience and level of in-service training. In addition, in this study, it was also aimed to find out the underlying reasons of most frequently stated issues of implementation from the teachers&rsquo / perspectives. In the present study, both quantitative and qualitative data were collected. The quantitative data were gathered through a questionnaire from 223 preschool teachers teaching in public and private kindergartens in Ankara. The qualitative data were gathered through interviews with a group of participants selected from the 223 teachers. One-way repeated measure of ANOVA and multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) were employed to analyze the quantitative data. For the qualitative data content analysis was conducted. The results indicated that the most frequently reported issues by the participants were the problems related to evaluation and physical facilities followed by the ones related to planning science and math activities, organizing field trips, providing parent involvement and inclusion. Results showed that the problems related to physical facilities experienced by preschool teachers working in public kindergartens were significantly differed compared to teachers working in private preschools.

The entire dissertation/thesis text is included in the research.pdf file; the official abstract appears in the short.pdf file (which also appears in the research.pdf); a non-technical general description, or public abstract, appears in the public.pdf file. Title from PDF of title page (University of Missouri--Columbia, viewed on January 5, 2010). Vita. Thesis advisor: Dr. Judith C. Goodman. Includes bibliographical references