Employing a quasi-experimental design, this pilot study on teacher practices with toddlers during social conflicts was conducted in the southeastern USA. Four child-care classrooms, teachers (n = 8) and children (n = 51) were assessed with the Classroom Assessment Scoring System – Toddler [CLASS-Toddler; La Paro, K., Hamre, B. K., & Pianta, R. C. (2011). Classroom Assessment Scoring System – Toddler (CLASS). Baltimore, MD: Brookes], an author-developed problem-solving measure, a measure of child temperament and teacher interviews. Teachers in intervention classrooms were provided professional development in three areas: (a) teacher self-regulation and stress management, (b) child self-regulation of emotions and behaviours, and (c) social problem solving. For intervention classrooms, results showed growth in several CLASS dimensions including positive climate, teacher sensitivity, and classroom guidance, while the problem-solving measure revealed an unanticipated increase in problems. Additional research is needed on toddler social problem-solving skills and supportive teacher practices. Further refinement of the problem-solving measure and delineation of specific professional development intervention components that indicate positive classroom change is needed.

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Book Summary: Children and Their Development, 6e demonstrates how research translates into practice.

Traditional use of formal assessment techniques in early childhood education is not congruent with the knowledge and philosophies that have begun to guide curriculum and practice. The discontent with current assessment approaches has created a need to develop alternate assessment methods. The practice of portfolio assessment is posed as a developmentally appropriate alternative in this thesis. Current literature on portfolio assessment related to kindergarten/first grade setting supports portfolio assessment in both theory and practice in early childhood education.

Thesis (MPA.) -- University of Limpopo, 2013 / The present study is about stakeholder participation in Early Childhood Development in Polokwane Circuit, Limpopo Province. The main aim of the study was to investigate poor stakeholder participation in ECD programme. The objectives were to evaluate the extent of stakeholders participation in ECD programmers, to assess the attitude of stakeholders towards ECD programmes, and to determine the impact of lack of resources on ECD projects and to suggest probable solutions to problems facing ECD programmes. Structured interview questionnaires and literature were used to collect data. The study concluded that some stakeholders namely parents and educators fully participate in ECD programmes while officials in the Department of Education are not fully participative.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2006. / 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 title screen of research.pdf file viewed on (March 5, 2007) Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

The purpose of this research was to examine the ways in which Korean families of English Language Learners (ELLs) and teachers supported literacy in young children, as well as the kinds of interactions between families and teachers that supported ELL children's literacy development. The sample for this study consisted of four Korean ELL students attending public early childhood programs in Texas, their teachers and families. A constructivist grounded theory-based approach to data generation was employed, utilizing a wide variety of data collection methods such as questionnaires, interviews, observations, photography, field notes, and video recording. Grounded analysis, content analysis, and narrative analysis were then used in order to analyze the data. The case analysis showed that the parents and teachers did their best using their own resources within their own contexts. However, their educational goals and practices were not noticed or shared by each other. The families' and teacher's challenges and limited resources resulted in the creation of invisible expectations of the other parties. However, by watching video clips about literacy practices and reading handouts about each person's literacy values, goals, experiences, and photo projects, the families and teachers recognized each other's literacy resources, negotiated different expectations, and mediated communication channels to facilitate ELL children's literacy development. In the cross-case analysis, one major theme emerged: the search for understanding two different social and cultural contexts to find an overlapping resource to support ELL children's literacy learning. In detail, the more sophisticated emergent description of literacy support of the Korean family participants was provided through the lenses of the sociocultural approach, bidirectionality, and intergenerational trajectories. With regard to the construction of literacy by the teacher participants, I found that behind their support is their own perception of a bilingual child: monolingual viewpoint vs. bilingual viewpoint. Furthermore, the teachers' bilingualism was related to parental involvement in the school curriculum. The analysis then found an overlapping resource to use to enhance ELL students' learning: the practice of classroom book reading. Finally, recommendations for future applications of the Intergenerational Literacy Connection (ILC) model and some future directions for research are also discussed.

The primary purpose of this study was to implement and evaluate two instructional programs designed to enhance early literacy skills of pre-kindergarten 4-year-olds enrolled in Head Start. A second goal was to compare literacy task assessment measures of three instructional groups, (1) explicit literacy instruction (ELI; N= 26), (2) shared book reading (SBR; N = 25), and (c) no specialized treatment (NST; N = 29), prior to the onset of treatment and again 15 weeks later. Pre-treatment group differences on measures of early literacy and receptive vocabulary were not significant. Intervention for the ELI group focused on providing explicit, systematic, developmentally appropriate instruction to enhance phonological awareness skills and increase alphabet knowledge. The SBR intervention, which focused on enhancing oral language, involved scaffolding strategies. Children in the two intervention groups received instruction two times per week for 15 weeks. Post-treatment outcome measures obtained for these two groups were compared with each other and also with scores of children in the NST group who received Head Start standard curriculum instruction only. ANOVA results indicated that post-treatment scores for the ELI group were significantly better than those of the other two groups on overall primary literacy measures and for the phonological awareness component, but not for alphabet knowledge. Differences between the SBR and NST groups were not significant for any measures. These results indicate that explicit, systematic early literacy instruction can improve Head Start children's literacy scores. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Wichita State University, College of Health Professions, Dept. of Communication Sciences and Disorders. / "December 2006." / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 79-90)

Process writing research began with adult writers, eventually expanding to include school age children and more recently, emergent writers. Research at the early childhood level has often been directed at specific aspects of writing development rather than an examination of process writing development. This study used pre-existing writing samples to examine writing development in kindergarten and first grade over the course of the school year following the district-wide implementation of a writing process based intervention. The intervention utilized a writing workshop approach to teach the writing process with the addition of two elements: picture plans were used to support emergent writers’ prewriting plans, and teachers focused on a single teaching point to target writing instruction. Beginning and end of year samples from 138 kindergarten and 106 first-grade students from three elementary schools in a medium-sized, public school district in the southwestern United States were used for this study, yielding a total of 488 samples. The samples were scored to investigate the change over time on four outcome measures: quantity of words produced, attributes of prewriting picture plan, evelopmental level, and handwriting. In addition, the impact of fidelity to the intervention features was explored in relation to the four outcome measures. Fidelity to implementation was scored on each of the 10 separate aspects of the intervention: student choice for topics, reading-writing connections, prewriting, peer conferencing, teacher conferences, minilessons, revision, editing, publishing, and modeling. Overall, the study found that the greatest change over time in kindergarten and first grade was in the developmental level. There were also large effects for quantity of words produced and handwriting. A regression analysis was conducted to determine which aspects of the intervention feature were most critical to early writing development. Student choice had a significant positive association with all four dependent measures. Minilessons had a significant association with developmental level and handwriting; other significant positive associations included revision with quantity of words produced, and editing with planning. The findings suggest these features of writing workshops should be included in interventions designed to foster early writing development.

Thesis (M.Ed.)--Memorial University of Newfoundland, 2000. / Bibliography: leaves 123-134.