Thesis (M.Ed.)--Memorial University of Newfoundland, 2003. / Bibliography: leaves 95-106.

M.A. (Psychology) / Please refer to full text to view abstract

This study critically examines my classroom practice in teaching young learners aged four-and-a-half to six years old. It focuses on the following research question: How can I create a stimulating environment in my classroom to promote awareness of and a love for reading? My classroom-based action research methodology places me, the practitioner, at the centre of the investigation. The work examines closely my professional values and my strong belief in the capacity of learners to be curious, absorb and make sense of what they encounter and experience in a stimulating environment. It investigates how such an environment develops the potential of learners to love and embrace reading. The process of engaging reflectively and analytically in practitioner research has helped me to gain a better understanding of my learners’ needs and to improve the ways in which I promote reading in the reception year of formal schooling. I claim that the creating of a stimulating environment in my classroom is grounded in my ability to motivate, model and scaffold the learners to engage in reading confidently. Together, the learners and I have created a living theory of education, one that is open to further reflection and development. Ongoing interaction between theoretical discourse and practical experiences enable me to develop my professional knowledge and to synthesize my values and practice. The investigation continuously confirms the advantages of a print-rich environment and how it can be used to promote a love for reading amongst young learners. The claims and knowledge generated in this study are personal and true for me, while the living transformational process demonstrates how I have developed professionally.

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This study was conducted for the purpose of determining whether there is a significant difference in the reading and arithmetic achievement of boys and girls in the fourth, fifth, and sixth grades in the Lodi Elementary School District. To put the purpose in question form: Is there a significant difference in the reading and arithmetic achievement of boys and girls in grades four, five, and six in the Lodi Elementary Schools? In formulating plans for the study, similar studies were examined. Literature concerning reading and arithmetic differences between boys and girls was read.

This study investigated the developmental acquisition of cognitive structures, which influence the encoding and retrieval of story information. Examined were the between and within group differences among young children in the acquisition of story schema and in the processing of story information. A series of four experimental tasks were administered individually at the start of the academic year and again at the end to each of the 156 four, five, six and seven year olds in the sample. Tasks chosen were selected on the basis of research suggesting their viability as measures of schema acquisition and related processing. Specifically, they assessed: metacognitive knowledge of story structure; detection of structural deviation; recognition and retrieval of missing information; and inferring between and within episodic relationships. In a fifth task, first and second graders wrote two stories in the spring of the year based on picture stimuli. In addition, the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test was administered to each subject in the fall of the year. The first two hypotheses predicted significant between group differences at the fall administration of the tasks and significant within group gains over the course of the year. In general, findings supported these hypotheses (p <.05). The third hypothesis predicted that fall performance on tasks one through four would account for a significant amount of the variance in reading growth over the year. This hypothesis was supported for the first graders relative to tasks one, two, and three (p<.10). For these subjects, level of structural complexity present in written stories was significantly different for good versus poor readers (p<.05). For second grade subjects, performance on task four was shown to contribute a significant amount of the variance in reading growth (p<.07). In general, correlations between performance on the tasks and IQ were low. Findings from task one suggest that young children acquire the concept of a story in the same developmental manner that other concepts and knowledge structures are believed to be acquired. Children's performance on the experimental tasks two, three and four suggest age related differences in monitoring, recognition, reconstruction and retrieval operations on story information. However, improvement in the ability to deal with story information does not appear to be attributable to the developmental acquisition of schemata but rather to its increased accessibility, engagement, and efficiency as a processing and production mechanism. / Ed. D.

This study was selected to determine the relation of reading readiness to the mental, physical, personal, and social factors of a group of low first-grade pupils of the Plano Elementary School, Plano, Texas during the first five months of the school year 1949-1950. This study involves consideration of (1) mental readiness, (2) physical readiness, and (3) personal and social readiness as factors of child development.

The problem of this investigation was to determine the apparent significance of an enriched and concentrated reading-readiness program on first-grade pupils' progress in learning to read. The purpose of the study was twofold: first, to increase the evidence of the need for readiness to read; and second, to formulate and administer an enriched and concentrated program that would contribute to the development of readiness.