Many preschool students enter kindergarten without the oral language and phonetic awareness skills necessary for academic success. Qualitative research is also limited about the instructional practices preschool teachers use to improve the literacy skills of their students. The purpose of this study was to explore how teachers used developmentally appropriate instructional practices to improve the literacy skills of preschool students. The conceptual framework was based on the theories of Piaget and Vygotsky in relation to language development. A multiple case study research design was used. Participants included 6 teachers from 3 different preschool programs in an urban school district in the eastern United States. Data were collected from individual interviews with preschool teachers, observations of literacy instruction in classrooms, and related program documents. For the single case analysis, coding and category construction were used to analyze the interview data, and descriptive statistics were used to analyze the observation data. A content analysis was used to analyze the documents. For the cross case analysis, data were examined across all cases for emerging themes and discrepant data. A key finding was that preschool teachers used developmentally appropriate instruction to improve oral language, phonological awareness, and written expression and supported play through learning centers; however, limited teacher--child interaction was found in relation to quality of feedback and language modeling. This study contributes to positive social change by providing educators with a deeper understanding of the need to improve the literacy skills of young children.

本研究的研究目的為：（一）瞭解越南小學師資培育課程綱要設置理念與內涵；（二）探討越南小學師資培育課程綱要的實務做法。因此採用資料分析研究法來分析越南小學師資培育課程內容，其研究結果指出越南小學師資培育課程綱要具有如下特徵： 一、課程帶有「政治思想與社會主義」的意味。 二、非常注重培養熟練教學內容知識及內容知識。 三、主張培養多元能力的小學教師。 四、缺乏完整教育方法學知識與教育基礎知識。 五、注重實習與研究活動，不過未有完整的實施配套。 六、專門教育課程安排待完整，缺乏選修科目空間。 依據研究結果，提出對小學師資培育課程、政府訂定師資培育政策與未來研究之建議。 / The purposes of this study are to (1) explore the contents and ideas of curriculum design in Vietnamese elementary teacher education (2) investigate the practice of the elementary teacher education curriculum in Vietnam. Using content analysis methodology, this study has obtained some results as follows: 1. The curriculum intends to contain political ideology and socialism. 2. Special attention is paid to pedagogical content knowledge and content knowledge. 3. The curriculum aims to foster the multiple competencies of elementary teachers. 4. The curriculum content is lack of the pedagogical methods and foundation theories of education knowledge. 5. The curriculum focuses on practical training and education study; however, it it does not contain complete supportive arrangements. 6. The professional courses in educational studies are still incomplete; the curriculum also lacks optional subjects. Based on the results, the study provides some suggestions for the design of the elementary teacher education curriculum, the government policy of teacher education, and future research.

There is compelling evidence that parental involvement positively influences children’s academic achievement. Its benefits occur across all socio-economic classes. In spite of its significance, parental involvement has received scant attention in Zimbabwe. This qualitative study sought to establish how parents in a materially poor rural district of Zimbabwe were involved in their children’s education. Barriers to their involvement were investigated with the view to overcoming or mitigating them for the benefit of the affected primary school pupils. The attribution theory was used not only to substantially explain the status of parental involvement in Zaka District, but also to generate strategies to promote parents’ participation in their children’s school education. Observation, semi-structured interviews (for school heads), focus group interviews (for parents) and the open-ended questionnaire (for teachers) were used in this qualitative study covering ten primary schools. Respondents were selected through the use of chain reference sampling and sampling by case. A total of one hundred and forty (140) participants were selected. It emerged from the research that parents, teachers and school heads/principals had very limited understanding of parental involvement. They generally thought that it was confined to activities done at school such as payment of school fees and levies, providing labour for the construction or renovation of school buildings and providing teaching/learning resources. Most teachers, school heads/principals and parents believed that parents were too poor and too lowly educated to meaningfully be involved in their children’s education. However, there were a few parents who believed that their socio-economic status did not prevent them from participating in their children’s education. They actually indicated useful ways in which they could be involved. The research also revealed that parents, school teachers and school heads/principals made wrong attributions about themselves and each other in connection with limited parental involvement in their schools. Both school staff and parents, after identifying barriers to involvement, were willing to learn about how they could overcome or mitigate the barriers. They believed that the challenges they were facing regarding parental involvement were capable of resolution. / Teacher Education / D. Ed. (Education Management)

There is compelling evidence that parental involvement positively influences children’s academic achievement. Its benefits occur across all socio-economic classes. In spite of its significance, parental involvement has received scant attention in Zimbabwe. This qualitative study sought to establish how parents in a materially poor rural district of Zimbabwe were involved in their children’s education. Barriers to their involvement were investigated with the view to overcoming or mitigating them for the benefit of the affected primary school pupils. The attribution theory was used not only to substantially explain the status of parental involvement in Zaka District, but also to generate strategies to promote parents’ participation in their children’s school education. Observation, semi-structured interviews (for school heads), focus group interviews (for parents) and the open-ended questionnaire (for teachers) were used in this qualitative study covering ten primary schools. Respondents were selected through the use of chain reference sampling and sampling by case. A total of one hundred and forty (140) participants were selected. It emerged from the research that parents, teachers and school heads/principals had very limited understanding of parental involvement. They generally thought that it was confined to activities done at school such as payment of school fees and levies, providing labour for the construction or renovation of school buildings and providing teaching/learning resources. Most teachers, school heads/principals and parents believed that parents were too poor and too lowly educated to meaningfully be involved in their children’s education. However, there were a few parents who believed that their socio-economic status did not prevent them from participating in their children’s education. They actually indicated useful ways in which they could be involved. The research also revealed that parents, school teachers and school heads/principals made wrong attributions about themselves and each other in connection with limited parental involvement in their schools. Both school staff and parents, after identifying barriers to involvement, were willing to learn about how they could overcome or mitigate the barriers. They believed that the challenges they were facing regarding parental involvement were capable of resolution. / Teacher Education / D. Ed. (Education Management)

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