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Preschool

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Development And Evaluation Of The Preschool Family Attitudes And Beliefs Towards Science Measure, Elica Bahar Sharifnia Aug 2019

Development And Evaluation Of The Preschool Family Attitudes And Beliefs Towards Science Measure, Elica Bahar Sharifnia

Open Access Theses

Although children are naturally curious about their world starting at birth, there are already science achievement gaps present as early as kindergarten and are larger for children who come from economically disadvantaged and diverse backgrounds. To date, much effort has focused on better promoting and effectively supporting science in early childhood classrooms. However, policy reports stress the powerful position that parents have in building on their children’s natural interest in science and the need to better understand parental perceptions of science in early childhood. Few studies have examined parents’ attitudes and beliefs towards science for their children, especially within low-income …


Recoges Lo Que Siembras: Examining The Relationship Between Family Engagement And School Readiness Skills For Latino Head Start Children, Johayra Bouza Apr 2016

Recoges Lo Que Siembras: Examining The Relationship Between Family Engagement And School Readiness Skills For Latino Head Start Children, Johayra Bouza

Open Access Theses

Family engagement has been found to be a protective factor for low-income children’s school readiness. However, few studies have examined the relationship between family engagement as a multidimensional construct and school readiness skills for Latino preschool children from low-income families. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between three dimensions of family engagement, children’s language skills assessed in both Spanish and English and teacher-reported approaches to learning skills. Participants included 301 Latino children from low-income families enrolled in the Miami-Dade County Head Start program. Family engagement was assessed using the Spanish form of the Family Involvement Questionnaire …


Preschool Teachers' Pedagogical Content Knowledge For Science, Alexandra D. Alexander Mar 2016

Preschool Teachers' Pedagogical Content Knowledge For Science, Alexandra D. Alexander

Open Access Theses

Preschool teachers and their interactions with children are the most important aspect of classroom quality (Gunn, et al., 2013). Therefore, it is important to understand what factors contribute to successful early educators. Pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) is a prime construct of interest that relates positively with child outcomes (Ball, 1988; Kanter & Konstantinopolous, 2010; McCray & Chen, 2012; Munck, 2007). Over the past decade, leaders in early educational research have identified science to be an “ideal domain for early childhood education” (Bowman, Donovan, & Burns, 2001, p. 209). However, there is currently no research examining the PCK for early science. …


The Home Literacy And Numeracy Environment In Preschool: Cross-Domain Relations Of Parent Practices And Child Outcomes, Amy Rose Napoli Jan 2015

The Home Literacy And Numeracy Environment In Preschool: Cross-Domain Relations Of Parent Practices And Child Outcomes, Amy Rose Napoli

Open Access Theses

There is ample evidence indicating that early literacy and numeracy skills are important to later academic achievement, and that these early skills develop together. There is also evidence that parent-child literacy and numeracy practices are predictive of children’s literacy and numeracy skills within their respective domains. However, there is limited research on the relations between the home literacy environment (HLE) and numeracy outcomes, and the home numeracy environment (HNE) and literacy outcomes. Thus, the purpose of the present study was to investigate the relations of the HLE and HNE to children’s literacy and numeracy practices, both within and across domains. …


An Empirical Examination Of The Deca Behavioral Concerns Subscale: Establishing Measurement Invariance Between Language Forms, Veronica A. Fernandez Dec 2014

An Empirical Examination Of The Deca Behavioral Concerns Subscale: Establishing Measurement Invariance Between Language Forms, Veronica A. Fernandez

Open Access Theses

Appropriate assessment instruments are necessary to accurately identify children’s behavior problems and to develop interventions within the classroom. Due to increases in the cultural and linguistic diversity among the early childhood professionals, especially Spanish-speaking teachers, measures are needed in teachers’ dominant language. In response to such a need, the publishers of the Devereux Early Childhood Assessment (DECA; LeBuffe & Naglieri, 1999), a widely-used measure of children’s classroom behavior, have developed a Spanish-language form of the measure (DECA-Spanish; LeBuffe & Naglieri, 2001). In the present study, the measurement properties of the Behavioral Concerns subscale of the DECA were examined to confirm …


The Relationship Between Bilingualism And Executive Functioning In Spanish- And English-Speaking Head Start Preschoolers, Lisa J. White Oct 2014

The Relationship Between Bilingualism And Executive Functioning In Spanish- And English-Speaking Head Start Preschoolers, Lisa J. White

Open Access Theses

Executive functions (EF) are an important aspect of school readiness that have been shown to predict higher achievement in language, math, and science starting in the early years (Blair & Razza, 2007; Bull, Espy, & Wiebe, 2008; Nayfeld, Fuccillo, & Greenfield, 2013; Ponitz, McClelland, Matthews, & Morrison, 2009). Children who are bilingual have been shown to have enhanced EF skills when compared to their monolingual peers (Bialystok & Viswanathan, 2009; Carlson & Meltzoff, 2008; Poulin-Dubois, Blaye, Coutya, & Bialystok, 2011; Riggs, Shin, Unber, Spruijt-Metz, Pentz, 2013). While this association has been found among children of different ages, languages, and socioeconomic …


Motivation Orientation And School Readiness In Children Served By Head Start, Andres S. Bustamante Apr 2014

Motivation Orientation And School Readiness In Children Served By Head Start, Andres S. Bustamante

Open Access Theses

Embracing challenges and coping with setbacks broadly characterize a set of skills known as motivation orientation. Smiley and Dweck (1994) define two types of motivational orientations (MO): mastery motivated orientation (MMO) and performance motivated orientation (PMO). The former is characterized by viewing failure as an opportunity for growth while the latter views failure as a confirmation of negative self-attributions. How and when these MO’s develop and can be fostered as well as how they operate in preschool and low-income contexts, however, remains unknown. This project extends the literature by examining the relationships between MO and school readiness outcomes in preschoolers …