Thesis (Ed. D.)--University of North Texas, Aug., 2007. / Title from title page display. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2007. / 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 December 26, 2007) Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 2005. / Title from first page of PDF file. Document formatted into pages; contains xi, 296 p.; also includes graphics (some col.). Includes bibliographical references (p. 266-287). Available online via OhioLINK's ETD Center

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 2006. / Title from first page of PDF file. Includes bibliographical references (p. 153-161).

abstract: ABSTRACT Early childhood education (ECE) teacher professional development refers to the various modalities of providing new and or additional content knowledge to the teachers who work with children birth to five. The purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness of an Arizona United Way-administered intervention project designed to provide focused professional development activities to 15 ECE teachers at seven high-need, center-based early care and education settings. Specifically, this study determined if these interventions influenced the teachers to undertake formative career path changes such as college coursework. In addition, the study also sought to understand the views, beliefs, and attitudes of these ECE teachers and if/how their perspectives influenced their educational career paths. Data were gathered through the triangulated use of participants' responses to a survey, face-to-face interviews, and a focus group. Findings demonstrate that the teachers understand that professional development, such as college coursework, can increase a person's knowledge on a given topic or field of study, but that they feel qualified to be a teacher for children birth to five even though 12 of the 15 teachers do not hold an AA/AAS or BA/BS degree in any area of study. Further, the teachers suggested that if they were to earn a degree it would most likely be in another field of study beside education. These responses provide another reason professional development efforts to encourage ECE teachers to seek degrees in the field of education may be failing. If ECE teachers wanted to invest time, energy and funds they would acquire a degree, which provided more financial reward and professional respect.  / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. Curriculum and Instruction 2011

abstract: This dissertation examines Japanese preschool teachers' cultural practices and beliefs about the pedagogy of social-emotional development. The study is an interview-based, ethnographic study, which is based on the video-cued mutivocal ethnographic method. This study focuses on the emic terms that Japanese preschool teachers use to explain their practices, such as amae (dependency), omoiyari (empathy), sabishii (loneliness), mimamoru (watching and waiting) and garari (peripheral participation). My analysis suggests that sabishii, amae, and omoiyari form a triad of emotional exchange that has a particular cultural patterning and salience in Japan and in the Japanese approach to the socialization of emotions in early childhood. Japanese teachers think about the development of the class as a community, which is different from individual-centric Western pedagogical perspective that gives more attention to each child's development. Mimamoru is a pedagogical philosophy and practice in Japanese early childhood education. A key component of Japanese teachers' cultural practices and beliefs about the pedagogy of social-emotional development is that the process requires the development not only of children as individuals, but also of children in a preschool class as a community. In addition, the study suggests that at a deeper level these emic concepts reflect more general Japanese cultural notions of time, space, sight, and body. This dissertation concludes with the argument that teachers' implicit cultural practices and beliefs is "A cultural art of teaching." Teachers' implicit cultural practices and beliefs are harmonized in the teachers' mind and body, making connections between them, and used depending on the nuances of a situation, as informed by teachers' conscious and unconscious thoughts. The study has also shown evidence of similar practices and logic vertically distributed within Japanese early childhood education, from the way teachers act with children, to the way directors act with teachers, to the way government ministries act with directors, to the way deaf and hearing educators act with their deaf and hearing students. Because these practices are forms of bodily habitus and implicit Japanese culture, it makes sense that they are found across fields of action. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. Curriculum and Instruction 2011

This dissertation was initiated to investigate the preprimary teacher's role in identifying and assisting learning disabled preprimars. The literature section consists of a study of the normal process of child development and the phenomenon of learning disability and its manifestation in preprimars. The philosophy of inclusion and a number of existing programmes for learners with learning disabilities were examined. The empirical research assessed the responses of preprimary teachers from the Eastern Cape to a questionnaire, their experiences in dealing with preprimars with learning disabilities in a typical preprimary group were analyzed and a summary of the findings was made. Recommendations have been given to teachers regarding the identification of learning disabilities in preprimars, the assistance and support needed to enable the teacher to assist the learning disabled preprimar and the need for additional training to equip her to do so. / Educational Studies / M. Ed. (Orthopedagogics)

This study is about preschool teachers and children perceptions about hand hygiene in preschool. It also focusses on preschool teachers’ way of working when it comes to hand hygiene against children. The purpose with this study was to illuminate preschool teachers’ attitudes and working methods with hand hygiene in the preschool and how children reason about hand hygiene. Seven preschool teachers and twelve children from two different preschool participated in the study. The children were interviewed in pairs and the preschool teachers were interviewed individually. It can be read in the results that the preschool teachers think that the children know why they wash their hands and the children agree about that. All seven preschool teachers also indicate that they talk with children about hand hygiene and why it is important. The children do not think that the preschool teachers talk to them about hand hygiene. However, the children do show knowledge about why they should wash their hands and also explains what would happen if they did not do it. Maybe the preschool teachers and the children have different point of view of what ”talking” is in this context when their answers doesn’t match. The preschool teachers and children have a similar perception when it comes to what hand hygiene routines they have and what they use when they wash their hands. / Denna studie handlar om pedagoger och barns uppfattningar om handhygien i förskolan. Det fokuserar även på pedagogers arbetssätt angående handhygien i förskolan gentemot barnen. Detta område valdes på grund av egna erfarenheter då upplevelsen har varit att pedagoger i verksamheten ofta säger till barnen att de ska gå och tvätta sina händer utan att förklara innebörden med det. Syftet med denna studie var att synliggöra pedagogers syn och arbetssätt med handhygien i verksamheten och hur barn resonera om handhygien. Sju pedagoger och 12 barn ifrån två olika förskolor deltog. Barnen intervjuades i grupp om två och två, medans pedagogerna intervjuades var för sig. I resultatet går det att utläsa att pedagogerna tror att barn vet om varför de tvättar sina händer och de bekräftar barnen att de gör. Samtliga sju pedagoger anser även att de pratar med barnen om handhygien och dess betydelse vilket barnen inte tycker att det gör. Barnen visar däremot på en kunskap om varför de ska tvätta sina händer och förklarar vad som händer om de inte gör det. Det kanske är så att pedagoger och barn har olika syn på vad ”prata” är i detta sammanhang eftersom deras svar inte stämmer överens. Pedagoger och barn har liknande syn på vilka rutiner och vilka resurser som används när handtvättning sker.

abstract: The overall goal of this dissertation was to examine teacher characteristics, teachers’ beliefs, and contextual factors that may motivate teachers’ decisions to engage in high quality teacher-child interactions. I use two complementary studies to meet this goal. These two studies provide insight into several aspects of early childhood teachers’ and children’s interactions including the complexity of the conversations and teachers’ supportive practices. Findings from both studies reveal that teachers are selective in how they distribute their time and attention across various types of high-quality interactions with children. Study 1suggests that teachers’ perception of how often children interact with one another motivates their decisions to engage in high quality teacher-child interactions (i.e., facilitate children’s peer interactions). Study 2 suggests that teacher well-being, specifically teacher depression, limits the extent to which teachers engage in high quality interactions (i.e., complex conversations with children). Importantly, this dissertation also showed that teachers’ motivation for engaging in teacher-child interactions does not stem from their own characteristics or perceptions alone. In addition to these factors, contextual aspects of teacher-child interactions also appear to influence teachers’ motivation to engage in high-quality teacher child interactions. Study 1 revealed that the gender composition of the children involved in each teacher-child interaction was associated with the extent to which teachers use facilitative practices, as well as with the direction and magnitude of both quality and frequency effects on teachers’ facilitation. Moreover, Study 2 revealed that the relation between teacher depression and complex conversations is changed when teachers and children are engaged in academic activities (e.g., math, books, language) relative to play or routine activities. In both Study 1 and 2, I used a teacher-focused observational coding system. Use of this observational coding system contributes novel, objective information about teacher-child interactions, as prior work on teacher-child interactions has most often relied on teachers’ self-reports of how often they interact with students. Findings from this dissertation will contribute new knowledge about teacher and contextual classroom characteristics and teacher-child interactions that will inform efforts to promote positive teacher child interactions and, in turn, student and teacher well-being. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Family and Human Development 2017

The purpose of this study is to visualize similarities and differences in how preschool teachers work with environmental issues at preschools in country-sides and cities. I want to examine in what way preschool teachers experience and interest effect their environmental work. My method for this study is a web survey that was sent out to preschool teachers at different counties in Sweden and a total of 51 preschool teachers answered the survey. The results showed that there are some similarities and differences between the country-side and city. The proximity to nature area is important to how and what preschool teachers work and teach about. Preschool teachers worked in similar ways to get children to participate in environmental work and the educational tools that they used in their teaching. The study also showed that preschool teachers interest in environmental issues is of great importance to how they appreciate their knowledge and skills. Most preschool teachers in the different areas haven’t been offered or have had any education in environmental issues.