Students who are emergent readers and writers are often difficult to assess, as they are unable to communicate understanding in writing. From my observations, these students communicate ideas best through concrete forms of expression, rather than the abstract formation of letters and writing that is unfamiliar to them. Drawing provides an alternate form of expression from writing. Based on information found in literature review and personal experiences from working with students who are emergent readers and writers, pictures and drawings are a bridge to communicate ideas with these students. This form of expression and communication may be a useful assessment tool for students at this developmental stage. The purpose of this research study is to test the hypothesis that retelling using visual art representations of the story will yield positive results.

Parental involvement is legally mandated requirement in schools across the United States, and prevalent in special education legislation. However, methods for increasing and promoting parent involvement of minority subgroups in low socioeconomic areas are scarce. The purpose of this study was to develop, implement, and describe Haitian parents’ perceptions of their involvement in a structured parent intervention program and to describe the perceptions of their children’s teachers concerning the parents’ involvement in the program. In this study, the researcher used a descriptive qualitative case study methodology. All participants in the 5-month program implementation were interviewed at three points throughout the program. (pre, mid, and post). Findings of the present study revealed that these parents’ feelings towards parent involvement evolved throughout their participation in the program. Participants went from reported feelings of separation between home and school, to understanding the important role they can play in education. Additionally, as reported by the students’ teachers, the parents’ increased involvement and presence in the school/classroom had a positive impact on their children’s social and academic development. Through their participation in the program, as evidenced through interview responses, parents’ confidence increased as well as their ability to overcome initially identified barriers to involvement including English language acquisition, lack of time, an unclear understanding of special education services, and feeling un-wanted. This study found that parents’ perceptions of their participation were guided by two categories of motivators as identified through coding of interview responses: intrinsic motivators and extrinsic motivators. Through the program, parents who were intrinsically motivated to be involved in their child’s education embraced the whole program. Those who were extrinsically motivated also became more involved, however, their motivation was more dependent on society and perceived success of their child and their parenting. Perceptions of parent participants concerning their involvement in the program was found to be defined by the American culture in which their children are growing up, but equally in part by their Haitian roots and remaining ties to the island. Through their participation in the program, the parents were able to identify and explore opportunities for involvement, develop relationships with their children’s teachers, better understand the purpose of an IEP, and better themselves as individuals to in turn better the lives of their children.

The impact of high quality early learning experiences on a child's development is profound. Teacher quality has been deemed an important predictor of classroom quality, but currently teachers in Voluntary Prekindergarten (VPK) in the state of Florida are required to meet minimal training requirements. The purpose of this study was to examine an intervention including in-class coaching as a means of professional development to better prepare preschool teachers. The present study included and examination of the changes in environmental quality, child outcomes, and teacher perceptions after the intervention. Scores obtained were compared before and after the intervention. A two-tailed t-test revealed that the post-test was significantly higher than the pre-test. In particular, two sub-scales were statistically significant, including Space and Furnishings and Activities. The other sub-scales, including a measure of teacher-child interactions and language-reasoning were not significantly changed. An ANOVA indicated no significant differences in kindergarten school readiness scores between centers that received coaching for varying amounts of time. Teachers were interviewed to discover their perception of in-class coaching. After examining in-class coaching from the varying angles, conclusions were drawn: In-class coaching may significantly affect the quality of classrooms, as related to environmental aspects of quality but may not be improving child outcomes. In-class coaching may increase teachers’ validation, inspiration and may contribute to the teachers’ understanding of developmental appropriateness. Conclusions suggest that teachers with a native language other than English may receive additional benefits from an in-class coaching and that effective coaches must have many skills in order to create change in the classrooms in which they work. The final conclusion was that despite its merits, coaching may not be a long-term solution to classroom and teacher quality in the context of low educational requirements, minimal pay, high turnover, and low job satisfaction. Recommendations for future practice and research are suggested.

The purpose of this study was to examine how teachers describe instructional coaching. Instructional coaching has become a leading form of professional development in educational settings, yet there is a lack of empirical evidence that explains and clarifies it. One aspect of instructional coaching that is not known is how teachers perceive it. In order to gain understanding about instructional coaching, the perspectives of the teachers could provide valuable insight to benefit those involved in the practice. Instructional coaching and the schools where coaching takes place are complex in nature. Through the use of one-on-one interviews, an in-depth look at teachers’ perspectives provided insight into some of these complexities. Fifteen teachers in six child care centers participated in this study. Two qualitative strategies—inductive analysis (Hatch, 2002) and educational criticism (Eisner, 1998)—were used to analyze interview data from which three themes were formed: (a) instructional coaching is a means of building instructional capacity, (b) instructional coaching requires a supportive environment, and (c) instructional coaching increases children’s learning opportunities. The themes are perspectives from which to view and understand instructional coaching in preschool classrooms. One conclusion in this study was that all three themes were substantially supported by extant literature and empirical research. The implication for policy and practice is that instructional coaching is contingent upon change and change is difficult due to resistance by teachers and systemic issues. Five recommendations are highlighted in this study: (a) instructional coaches should demonstrate a high level of proficiency in educational knowledge and practice, (b) coaches should be involved in on-going professional development that includes communication training, (c) teacher supervisors should be involved in instructional coaching as instructional leaders, (d) instructional coaching should be intentional, and (e) instructional coaching should have child learning as its primary focus. Further research is needed to better understand the perspective of teachers in the field of early childhood education; the perspectives of instructional coaches in the field of early childhood education; and how to effectively involve teacher supervisors in the coaching process to develop teacher leaders and support them to assume the duties and responsibilities of highly effective instructional leaders who influence deep, sustained learning facilitated by problem-solving- and creativity-focused instruction

This quasi-experimental Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) study explored whether the vocabulary and reading comprehension mean scores of Hispanic Kindergarten ELs whose teachers were trained to utilize Dialogic Reading (DR) discourse were higher than the mean scores of Hispanic ELs in kindergarten whose teachers were not trained to utilize DR discourse strategies. Sixty-three self-identified Hispanic, English Language Kindergarten students and four teachers participated in the study. The teachers were randomly assigned to either the experimental group (DR trained) or control group by drawing names from a hat. Student assignment to experimental versus comparison group was based on the teacher’s assignment to either the experimental or comparison group. Thirty-one were assigned to the control group and 32 to the experimental group. The teachers were instructed to read the story to a group of six students (maximum) at a time, utilizing the DR discourse strategies they had been trained to implement. Subjects were read a story each week during the 8-week duration of the study. Teachers in the experimental group collaboratively selected 10 words each week from the Read Together Talk Together (RTTT) instructional stories that were utilized for vocabulary instruction. A test of homogeneity was conducted to evaluate whether the variance among the dependent variables was the same across the groups. An Analyses of Covariance (ANCOVA) was applied to analyze students’ vocabulary and comprehension mean scores in the experimental group and the comparison group. The results of the study demonstrated a significant increase in the vocabulary and reading comprehension mean scores for the students whose teachers had been trained in DR discourse strategies. When comparing the two groups, the results revealed a statistically significant difference (p < 0.05). In conclusion, this study was conducted to explore how DR discourse may be an effective technique to teach literacy skills. The findings of this study showed that vocabulary knowledge and reading comprehension of Hispanic ELs were positively affected by the teachers’ inclusion of dialogue during storybook reading. Its outcomes accentuated the need for teachers to provide assistance to ELs as they develop vocabulary knowledge and reading comprehension skills.

With the incidence of prenatal drug exposure increasing, it is important that preschool teachers are prepared and confident in serving the needs of children affected by this exposure. Teachers need more training and education to prepare them for working with children with prenatal drug exposure. The purpose of this sequential mixed-methods study was to explore the perceptions, training, and shared experiences of preschool teachers when working with 4- and 5-year-old preschool children who have experienced prenatal drug exposure. The researcher invited 77 preschool teachers in northeast Tennessee working in either Head Start or Tennessee Voluntary Pre-K Initiative programs to complete an initial quantitative survey – of which 53 participated. Of the survey participants, 34 reported they might have worked with a child with prenatal drug exposure. Six of those teachers who said they had experience with children with prenatal drug exposure participated in a follow up semi-structured interview with the researcher. The findings revealed that preschool teachers were favorable toward children with prenatal drug exposure regarding the children’s ability to learn. Preschool teachers were already using many effective interventions (e.g., working one-on-one with the child, offering flexible seating options, repetition of information) that they may have used with other children with special needs, but they were eager for more information about the best way to work with these children. School leaders and those in teacher preparation programs would be excellent advocates in spreading knowledge and translating medical knowledge into resources more applicable to the teaching and childcare profession. It is important that the information become more accessible to all teachers and stakeholders in education.

The present thesis summarises information about today's kindergarten, about its important curriculum policy documents and about the main participants of its educational process - the teacher and the pre-school children. It deals with the school climate and with its influencing factors, focusing on the work climate in kindergartens, namely on human relations, communication and its risks. This thesis maps and evaluates kindergarten teachers' perception of the social and work climate and what they find prominent, how the school/class climate quality influences kindergarten teachers' work performance, what sort of factors encourage the optimal climate and what sort of factors curb it. It aims to verify the functioning of teachers' pedagogical cooperation in classroom curriculum development and the functioning of collective activities in kindergarten. KEYWORDS Kindergarten, kindergarten teacher, pre-school child, social and work climate in kindergarten, relations, communication and risks in kindergarten.

The thesis focuses on a concept of communicative competences in the curricula at the stage of pre-school education and introduces the possibilities of development of these competences in kindergarten. The theoretical part outlines issues of curriculum, key competences and communicative competences in the context of pre-primary education. The research is a presentation of qualitative-quantitative research, which aimed to analyze the concept of communicative competences in the curricula of kindergartens and based on direct observation to find out, how kindergarten teachers meet the communicative competences at this stage of education, how to diagnose them and what opportunities provides kindergarten environment to develop pre-school children communication competences. Based on the analysis of curriculum documents of selected kindergartens we found that schools include communicative competences in their conceptual materials and attach great importance to them, even if these documents have different content and formal level. From our observations and interviews with respondents, we concluded that kindergartens and their teachers usually provide good conditions for children to develop their communicative competences (positive communication climate, proper teacher speech pattern, primary prevention,...

The subject of this thesis is the use of recorders in the hands of teachers in the implementation of the entire spectrum of musical activities in kindergarten. The theoretical part outlines the history of the recorder and its types. This part contains the musical development of a child aged 3 to 6 and its musical skills and abilities in this area, according to the Framework Education Program for Preschool Education and the curriculum formerly used. It also includes information on how current secondary pedagogical schools and higher vocational school of pedagogical are engaged in the education of future kindergarten teachers as for playing the recorder. The practical part describes action research in order to create a clear description of several musical units verified in practice. The first phase of the research covers the preparation and implementation of activities already published Mgr. Milena Kmentová, Ph.D. and MgA. Eva Nevoralová with final revision. Further, I will deal with developing and testing my own lessons in practice again with final reflection.

The importance of school readiness and social-emotional development for children who live in poverty is well established. Head Start programs have championed the development of the whole child across all learning domains. The implementation of the K-12 Common Core State Standards (CCSS) focuses instructional skills on reading language arts, and math. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to explore Head Start teachers' perceptions and experiences of the CCSS implementation. The study was guided by the constructivist learning framework of Piaget and Dewey. Research questions explored the understanding and effects of the K-12 CCSS implementation from a group of 10 Head Start teachers in high poverty schools in a large urban district in Washington State. Data were collected through observations, interviews, and shared documents. Open coding was employed to look for common topics for thematic analysis. Emergent themes were related to goal setting for students, teacher training, and student development. Key findings showed early childhood teachers have 3 different sets of standards, and teachers in Head Start could not access others besides their own. Findings resulted in a document for early childhood teachers combining the CCSS; Washington State early learning standards; and goals used by Head Start teachers, in literacy, math, and social-emotional skills for children ages 4 to 6. With access to all early childhood goals, teachers can set goals for their students that precede or exceed the guidelines used at their own grade level. Implications for social change are the opportunity for teachers to meet the needs of their students, no matter their skill level, and allow students to excel beyond their classroom setting, toward greater educational opportunities.