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Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massey University, Palmerston North, 2007. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 286-317).

Thesis (M.A.)--Marshall University, 2004. / Title from document title page. Document formatted into pages; contains viii, 88 p. Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (p. 80-85).

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<p> The purpose of this action research study was to evaluate the effectiveness of a year-long implementation of the Reggio Emilia approach on transitional kindergarten (TK) programs of a large public school district in southern California. Teachers in 3 TK classrooms had received training from the trainer (researcher for this study) on Reggio approach prior to the onset of the school year and the beginning of this research study. The study used a multi-site case study design involving three teachers, three principals, and three parents drawn from three schools. Data was collected through interviews, an observational checklist, field notes, and reflective journal entries in three phases of the study: before, during, and after the school year. </p><p> Relevant documents were also collected during each phase. Results of the year-long research documented some improvements in teaching strategies and classrooms managements as well as factors that pose challenges to implementing the Reggio approach in TK programs: (a) teachers&rsquo; lack of in-depth knowledge of the Reggio approach, (b) high teacher-child ratio of TK classrooms, and (c) utilization of a hybrid curriculum that unsuccessfully attempted to merge California preschool learning foundation and the kindergarten common core standards. Other important challenges included lack of family involvement, high demand on academics that ignored inquiry-based learning, focus on imagination, and the whole child approach, which were the hallmarks of the Reggio philosophy. Children&rsquo;s formal assessment based on school district&rsquo;s benchmarks and mandates also contradicted Reggio&rsquo;s emphasis on authentic assessment through documentation.</p>

This study addresses the potential of preschool educational television programs to contribute to the literacy development of young children. Unlike the vast majority of television-related research undertaken in the United States, this examination is not limited to nationally-produced programming, but looks to other English-speaking countries for an international perspective on the problems and possibilities of literacy series developed for young children. Ten preschool educational television programs from Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States are examined via a videotape content analysis to determine the literacy potential of these program "texts." The literacy potential of children's broadcast texts has been determined within a broad framework of holistic language and learning theories developed by such researchers as Cambourne, Dewey, Eisner, Goodman, Harste, Holdaway, Rosenblatt, Smith, Vygotsky, and others. By composing a narrative of each sample episode; analyzing each program's use of visual, formic, and linguistic codes; constructing an argument for the applicability of holistic theories to television texts; and ultimately examining each sample episode through a holistic lens, a view of literacy-directed programming as it presently exists in four English-speaking countries is developed. The findings suggest that holistic learning principles applied to television texts hold great potential in providing valuable literacy-focused television events to children. Elements in the sample programs such as thematic integrity, explorations of ideas and concepts through sign systems, emphasis on child participation, language and ethnic diversity, regular inclusion of print on the screen from a variety of quality children's literature, and frequent inclusion of literacy events with children and adults demonstrated holistic principles in the sample episodes and contributed to the literacy potential of preschool programming. Characteristics of the episodes such as randomness, isolation of language subsystems from language wholes, failure to present literacy demonstrations, and exclusion of children from the visual text suggested ineffective television texts from which children had little opportunity to construct meaning. Concluding remarks explore the development of a prototypical holistic television program for preschoolers and suggest the benefits of such broadcast programs for children, their parents, media researchers/producers, and educators.

This autoethnographic exploration of pedagogy or the craft of teaching was undertaken while I worked as a reception class teacher in a large English primary school. Naturally occurring data that developed out of the process of teaching and learning were used to construct multiple case studies (Stake, 2006). An iterative process of analysis using inductive and deductive methods enabled me to explore the nuances of pedagogical practice, including those that had been tacitly or intuitively known. The work of Hart, Dixon, Drummond and McIntyre (2004) Learning without Limits, and the metaphor of craft were used as a theoretical framework to support this exploration of how and why pedagogical choices and decisions were made and justified. Analysis revealed how pedagogical thinking was embedded within the complex process of life within the community. Commitment to the core idea of learners’ transformability and the principles coagency, everybody and trust (Hart et al., op. cit.) were found to be necessary but not sufficient to explain pedagogical thinking. A principled belief in possibility was added to articulate how I could be determined for children’s learning without determining what would be achieved. Analysis of how these principles functioned was articulated as a practical cycle of choice, reflection and collaboration. This cycle ensured that the principles were shared within the community. The notion of attentiveness to imagination was developed to articulate how I worked to create and sustain an inclusive environment for learning. Attentiveness was used to reflect the necessary constancy of the process of teaching and learning. Imagination was used to articulate how the process of recognising children’s individuality was achieved by connecting their past, present and future lives, acknowledging how possibilities for learning were created by building on, but not being constrained by what had come before.

<p> According to the National Center for Child Poverty, in 2011 nearly half of the 72 million children in the U.S. were living in low-income families. Through this study, the author examined the effect that student poverty has on teachers&rsquo; beliefs about student print knowledge including school readiness and print literacy. Teachers&rsquo; beliefs were explored using a social justice framework that surrounds an explanatory sequential design. This mixed methods research helped me to identify whether or not teachers&rsquo; beliefs about students differ based on family socio-economic status (SES). The author of this study worked with a large urban school district located in the California Central Valley. The school district administers a Head Start preschool program and a California State preschool program. A total of 89 preschool teachers from these preschool programs participated in a Likert-style questionnaire. Participants were asked to share their beliefs about student print knowledge, school readiness, and parental involvement based on their 2016-2017 students. After collecting all questionnaires, 10 participants were interviewed to further investigate the effect of poverty on teacher&rsquo;s beliefs about students and families. The overall findings of this study showed that poverty level thresholds between the two preschool programs did not appear to have an effect on participant&rsquo;s beliefs regarding student print literacy, school readiness, and parental involvement. Participants were consistent in beliefs across both programs. Overall, participants were more positive in the areas of school readiness and parent involvement. Participants in both preschool programs were less positive in regards to student print literacy. </p>

High-quality school based learning practices are believed to have lasting effects on young children’s achievement. These practices include early mathematics instruction that now extend to promoting geometric and spatial sense in young children. The key contributors to these quality experiences are the early childhood teachers, whose developmentally appropriate practices are noted to shape future success of young learners. Therefore, the present study explored prekindergarten teachers’ instructional practices used to promote geometric and spatial sense in their classrooms. Additionally, this research examined the perceptions, understandings, and experiences that informed the VPK teachers’ geometric and spatial instruction. Participating in the study was a sample of five VPK teachers from three child development centers in a mid-sized county in Northern Florida. The data sources examined in the study consisted of classroom observations, video-stimulated recall interviews, and document analysis. The findings indicated that Voluntary prekindergarten teachers’ (VPK) emphasis on Developmentally Appropriate Practices (DAP) emerged as a major theme that typically presented along with subthemes such as play, active/hands-on, and guided instruction during geometric and spatial activities. The data also suggest that VPK teachers’ instructional practices were informed by both their experiences working with mentors and their role as lead teacher. However, the data also suggest that the VPK teachers in the study had an incomplete knowledge of the VPK developmental standards and benchmarks for instruction, and demonstrated surface level understandings of geometric and spatial concepts in general. Finally, the findings from this study may be beneficial when considering professional development trainings for current VPK teachers in an effort to improve the quality of mathematics instruction. / A Dissertation submitted to the School of Teacher Education in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Summer Semester 2018. / June 27, 2018. / Includes bibliographical references. / Lindsay Dennis, Professor Directing Dissertation; Motoko Akiba, University Representative; Elizabeth Jakubowski, Committee Member; Ithel Jones, Committee Member.

The present study examined the relation between early educational experiences the year before kindergarten entry and students’ academic and social-emotional outcomes in kindergarten and first grade. Data were drawn from the nationally representative Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of 2010–2011 (ECLS-K: 2011) (N ≈13,400). Associations of different types of early care arrangements prior to kindergarten entry were examined by using propensity score matching (PSM) analyses for trajectories of reading, mathematics, science, approaches to learning, self-control skills and externalizing behavior problems. In this study, types of pre-kindergarten early education included: center-based care, state-funded center-based care, Head Start, parental care, care provided in a home by relatives or non-relatives, and care in another home by relatives or non-relatives. The associations between the variables of interest were compared for children who had attended center-based care, state-supported center-based care, or Head Start and the reference group which included parental care, care in the home, and care in another home. The results indicated that the majority of children in the U.S. had experienced different types of early education and care arrangements during the year before kindergarten entry. Results of comparisons between the groups for children who had attended three different types of pre-kindergarten and their counterparts such as parental care, care in the home, and care in another home emerged differently in terms of children’s cognitive and social-emotional outcomes measured in the fall and spring of kindergarten and in the spring of first grade. The findings revealed that, in general, there were significant differences between scores obtained by children who had attended the three types of center-based care (i.e., center-based care, state-supported center-based care, and Head Start) and their peers who had been in some type of home based care arrangement (i.e., parental care, care in home, and care in another home). Specifically, the findings showed that children’s attendance in center-based care was associated with higher cognitive outcomes in the areas of reading, mathematics and science during the kindergarten year, in comparison to their peers who had been in parental care. Yet, these differences were negligible by the time the participants were in first grade. On the other hand, Head Start participation was associated with significantly lower scores on the cognitive measures of reading, mathematics and science, during the kindergarten year, when compared to children who had been cared for in another home by relatives or non-relatives. Further when it comes to comparisons between state-supported center-based care groups and their peers who had received parental care, former state-supported center-based care attendees had higher scores on the measures of reading and mathematics at the beginning of the kindergarten year. However, this was not the case by the end of kindergarten and first grade. In terms of children’s social-emotional outcomes, all of the significant differences on the social emotional measures between the focus and reference groups were for the fall and spring kindergarten assessments. There were no significant findings for the 1st grade social-emotional measures. Further, examination of the data with regard to the interaction between race and different types of early education revealed only one significant difference between race and participation in center-based care on the first-grade measure of externalizing problem behaviors. The findings provide information that should be of interest to researchers, teachers, parents, and policy makers in their efforts to understand the potential long-term consequences of children’s participation in different types of early education and care programs. / A Dissertation submitted to the School of Teacher Education in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Summer Semester 2018. / June 7, 2018. / academic achievement, early educational experience, social-emotional outcomes / Includes bibliographical references. / Ithel Jones, Professor Directing Dissertation; Yanyun Yang, University Representative; Diana Rice, Committee Member; Lindsay Dennis, Committee Member.