Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 2008. / Title from first page of PDF file. Includes bibliographical references (p. 242-258).

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 2009. / Title from title screen (site viewed June 26, 2009). PDF text: 233 p. : col. ill. ; 5 Mb. UMI publication number: AAT 3350449. Includes bibliographical references. Also available in microfilm and microfiche formats.

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The purpose of this qualitative research was to understand the process of co-constructing music in a Reggio-inspired preschool. Although both adults and children facilitate musical processes in co-constructed settings, in this study I focused on processes that emerged from children. One question guided this study: In this preschool, what processes do children use to make their music learning visible and audible? From September 16 to December 16, 2014, I visited Project P.L.A.Y. School--a play- and relationship-based, Reggio-inspired preschool--once weekly for one and a half hours during the children's free play time. The participants were 13 children between the ages of two and a half and five years old, as well as six adults. During my visits, I acted as a musical play partner with the children, following the children's leads. Data emerged from child and adult musickers as musical interactions, which I documented using Reggio-inspired documentation techniques--audio recording, video recording, and photographing during musical interactions as long as the interaction lasted. In addition, I kept a researcher's journal consisting of same-day reflections after each visit. The documentation resulted in five hours and 42 minutes of video and audio recordings, 115 photographs, and an 80 page researcher's journal. Because my data collection were modeled on Reggio-inspired documentation techniques, I did not run continuous video but only recorded during musical interactions as long as the interaction lasted. Thus, the audio and video recordings were in 215 separate files, ranging from four seconds to 19 minutes in duration. I interpreted the data using qualitative strategies, coding data from documentation and my journal. Codes gave rise to categories which became salient themes. I labeled those themes processes, and employed narrative tenets to present the findings, restorying experiences into vignettes and using photographs and notation to support the themes. At Project P.L.A.Y. School, children made their music learning audible and visible by engaging in seven music processes: vocal exploration, singing, instrument exploration, expressive movement, notation exploration, staging shows, and musical conversations. These processes emerged as part of larger social processes, such as discussion and social play. Some processes emerged within others, as children sang during their musical conversations and danced while they staged shows. Thus, co-constructed musicking was part of the whole experiences of the children. Musickers at Project P.L.A.Y. School made their learning audible and visible through musical processes that were fundamentally social and creative. The co-constructed musicking was social and creative, as adults and children developed musical thinking and skills through listening and responding to one another. Through the emergent social and musical process, adults were able to scaffold and extend children's musicking. Through these processes, musickers developed skills that may help them become thoughtful, independent, and intentional musicians. Due to the rich musicking that emerged in this context, I recommend that music teachers and early childhood teachers embrace the role of musical play partner; dedicate time to music exploration and play; design children's musicking spaces in a way that emphasizes agency and accessibility; and provide opportunities for musical choice in all music education settings. I conclude by recommending that future researchers consider studying co-constructed musicking in other environments, as well as musical project work, as projects are important to the emergent curriculum of the Reggio approach. / Music Education

This paper describes a curriculum designed to examine relationships between artistic fluency in middle school art classrooms, and a robust year-long paper curriculum. A sustained focus with one material, such as paper, combined with relevant artists and investigative skills activities was designed to increase artistic fluency during a time when students often experience a decline in identity and confidence. Concerns with the U-curve theory suggest that many factors affect the continuity of art during these crucial years of school. Educational standards of the Reggio Emilia Approach can be applied to secondary education, encouraging both students and educator to create dynamic compositions and innovative mark making.

The purpose of this study was to document and examine the use of technology to facilitate communication among the three protagonists of learning — parents, teachers, and children in an early childhood education classroom. Specifically, the process of the co-construction of a website, by parents and teachers and subsequent use of the website for information exchange and parent involvement was documented and examined by the researcher using ethnographic methodologies. The study provides a description of the process of co-constructing the website. Through this description, the researcher came to better understanding of developing a website, parent-teacher communication, children and their learning, and herself as a teacher-researcher. The study includes examples of the website pages as well as recommendations and implications for future use of a classroom website. / Master of Science

The purpose of this study was to gain understanding of how children learn when they are engaged in child initiated, teacher guided activities. Specifically, children's learning processes were documented and interpreted based on how they use their multiple intelligences. Multiple Intelligences refers to Howard Gardner's model of multiple intelligences and his view of how children have many cognitive strengths. Ethnographic methodologies were used to observe, document, and interpret children's behaviors and interactions in the classroom. Seven children were chosen to be focused on for this study out of 15 participants in one preschool classroom at a university Child Development Laboratory setting. The researcher has been the head teacher for these 7 children for two years, which allowed the researcher to gain a better understanding of children's different intelligences and different ways of learning. After collecting and analyzing the data, the researcher found that the children's propensities for learning remained fairly consistent over the course of two years. It became evident that the role of the teacher is very important, as the teacher must be an intimate observer and listener of the children. Teachers and educators should be in constant communication with parents and each other about the child's growth and development and tendencies for learning. By providing children with learning opportunities for the child to use their cognitive strengths, teachers are motivating children and encouraging them to learn. If children see that they can succeed, they may continuously have the motivation to learn. / Master of Science

The current study explores what characterizes the relationship between the pedagogical processes within a school culture of creativity in a Reggio Emilia-inspired school in the Southeastern United States. The questions which frame the study are: 1. How is a culture of creativity fostered within a Reggio Emilia-inspired school? 2. Within a culture of creativity, what characterizes the relationship between the pedagogical processes of curriculum and assessment? The research was designed as ethnography and incorporates multiple data sets which provide layers of rich and descriptive information that reveal how to foster a culture of creativity in a school for young children. These data sets were generated by the researcher and the study participants over 18 weeks of ethnographic fieldwork and participant observation. These data sets include class group observations, professional development observations, interviews, focus groups, and audio-photo vignettes of the life of the Reggio Emilia-inspired school which served as the research site for the ethnography. Through ongoing, iterative, and eclectic processes of qualitative data analysis, the researcher identified four emergent themes in the combined data generated during fieldwork. These themes represent the four findings of the study and are presented in the work in terms of answers to research questions, as well as how they support study conclusions, implications, and suggestions for future research in early childhood education. The four thematic findings that emerged in the ethnographic data generated for this study are: The Protagonists, The Daily Life, Research and Analysis, and Languages of Expression. / Includes bibliography. / Dissertation (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2013.

Pedagogical documentation inspired by the early childhood schools of Reggio Emilia, Italy is a tool for teacher inquiry, learning, and development. Teachers systematically reflect upon artifacts that make visible children’s thinking, using for instance, digital photographs, quotations of children’s verbal thoughts, and teachers’ field notes. In two Reggio-inspired childcare centres in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, early childhood educators formed two teacher learning groups to study pedagogical documentation. As participants studied these artifacts (i.e. documentation), an underlying question emerges: What happens to teacher learning when early childhood educators form teacher learning groups to study pedagogical documentation in childcare centres? From this question, participants collaborated throughout six to seven research meetings to discuss and reflect upon documentation that they created. Portraiture research as a method of qualitative inquiry (Lawrence-Lightfoot, 1983; Lawrence-Lightfoot & Davis, 1997) offered a range of data collection methods used in this study, including videotaped research meetings, participants’ documentation work, open-ended group interview, and researcher’s field notes. These methods informed the portraiture research and constructed a vivid, in-depth look at participants’ experiences in studying pedagogical documentation in teacher learning groups. The results of this study are retold through two portraits focusing on the co-construction of teacher knowledge in teacher learning groups. Participants’ experiences such as deconstructing barriers to documentation practice, developing new documentation skills, critical self-reflection upon teacher practice, and emergent curriculum planning generated two rich portraits of teacher learning and development. Essential themes, conclusions, and implications appear in the examination of the two portraits and are explored in the final chapter. The themes included: (1) Skills of documentation, (2) Teacher learning and, (3) Teacher collaboration. Overall, this research study exposed the questions and assumptions, process of inquires, and new teacher knowledges and practices developed by two groups of early childhood educators in this study.

Pedagogical documentation inspired by the early childhood schools of Reggio Emilia, Italy is a tool for teacher inquiry, learning, and development. Teachers systematically reflect upon artifacts that make visible children’s thinking, using for instance, digital photographs, quotations of children’s verbal thoughts, and teachers’ field notes. In two Reggio-inspired childcare centres in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, early childhood educators formed two teacher learning groups to study pedagogical documentation. As participants studied these artifacts (i.e. documentation), an underlying question emerges: What happens to teacher learning when early childhood educators form teacher learning groups to study pedagogical documentation in childcare centres? From this question, participants collaborated throughout six to seven research meetings to discuss and reflect upon documentation that they created. Portraiture research as a method of qualitative inquiry (Lawrence-Lightfoot, 1983; Lawrence-Lightfoot & Davis, 1997) offered a range of data collection methods used in this study, including videotaped research meetings, participants’ documentation work, open-ended group interview, and researcher’s field notes. These methods informed the portraiture research and constructed a vivid, in-depth look at participants’ experiences in studying pedagogical documentation in teacher learning groups. The results of this study are retold through two portraits focusing on the co-construction of teacher knowledge in teacher learning groups. Participants’ experiences such as deconstructing barriers to documentation practice, developing new documentation skills, critical self-reflection upon teacher practice, and emergent curriculum planning generated two rich portraits of teacher learning and development. Essential themes, conclusions, and implications appear in the examination of the two portraits and are explored in the final chapter. The themes included: (1) Skills of documentation, (2) Teacher learning and, (3) Teacher collaboration. Overall, this research study exposed the questions and assumptions, process of inquires, and new teacher knowledges and practices developed by two groups of early childhood educators in this study.