Education Commons^™

Can A Three-Day Training Focusing On The Nature Of Science And Science Practices As They Relate To Mind In The Making Make A Difference In Preschool Teachers' Self-Efficacy Engaging In Science Education?, Colleen Meacham

Dissertations and Theses

As technology and our world understanding develop, we will need citizens who are able to ask and answer questions that have not been thought of yet. Currently, high school and college graduates entering the workforce demonstrate a gap in their ability to develop unique solutions and fill the current technology-driven jobs. To address this gap, science needs to be prioritized early in children's lives. The focus of this research was to analyze a science training program that would help pre-school teachers better understand Mind in the Making life skills, the nature of science, science practices, and improve their self-efficacy integrating …

Leader-Parent Relationships In The Early Childhood Education Context: An Exploration Of Testimonial And Epistemic Justice, Shirley Eileen Adams

Educational Foundations & Leadership Theses & Dissertations

In this qualitative study, I examined epistemic justice and testimonial injustice experienced by parents of children enrolled in preschool programs. I used a triadic model arising from the synthesis of Fricker’s (2003) markers of epistemic justice, Hoy and Tschannen Moran’s (1999) Five Facets of Trust and Lea’s (2006) markers of collaboration, and employed modified grounded theory (Charmaz, 2008). Public preschool programs often promise that they can ameliorate cognitive and experiential gaps experienced by children who at risk and allow them to enter kindergarten on an equal footing with their more privileged peers (Hulme, Goetz, Gooch, Adams & Snowling, 2007; Camilli …

A Playful Context Enhances Bilingual And Monolingual Preschoolers’ Mastery Motivation And Private Speech, Jeremy Sawyer

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Children’s private speech (audible self-talk) has been studied primarily as a cognitive tool for thinking, planning and self-regulation. This study investigated whether private speech may also function as a tool for motivation. Vygotskian and self-determination theory suggest that children can develop to become agentic and inspired, or conversely disengaged and alienated, based largely on their social conditions of development. Thus, it is important to investigate children’s motivational processes in social and educational contexts that are central to child development. U.S. preschool enrollment is expanding, accompanied by a decline in play-based pedagogy and growth of didactic, teacher-centered approaches. To illuminate the …

Facing Diversity In Early Childhood Education: Teachers’ Perceptions, Beliefs, And Teaching Practices Of Anti-Bias Education In Korea, Yerim Hong

MSU Graduate Theses

The changing composition of early childhood classrooms challenges teachers to be more responsive to the diverse needs of all children. This study explores the challenges and successes early childhood teachers experience with facing diversity in their classrooms. The purpose of this qualitative interview study was to investigate kindergarten teachers’ perceptions, beliefs, and teaching practices concerning anti-bias education in Seoul, South Korea. There were two groups of in-service kindergarten teachers, four teachers in each group, who participated in one-on-one interviews with structured and open-ended questions. The teachers in one group had more experience with teaching in diverse classroom settings than the …

Creating A Curriculum For Preschool Educators In Asia: How To Teach Kindergarteners Speaking And Listening Skills In English Through Games, Yue Kuang

Master's Projects and Capstones

There is a rapid development of science and technology, and international information exchanges have become increasingly frequent as well in 21^st century. English learning is becoming a requirement of career success, especially in Asia (Graddol, 2006). So people are beginning to pay more attention to English education, especially early childhood English education. However, most Asian kindergarten teachers prefer to pay more attention to teaching English reading and writing skills, while ignoring the teaching and practices of English listening and speaking (Wang, 2016). Most 3-6 age children do not have the attention span of adults (Garba, Yusuf, & Busthami, 2015), …

Play As A Social Justice Issue In Early Childhood Education, Britt Kroll

Graduate Student Independent Studies

Play is a vital part of the early childhood experience to develop in cognitive and social-emotional realms. Schools are taking away an important tool for children to process new information and build skills needed for lifelong problem-solving by allowing less time for play in early childhood classrooms. This research combines data gathered to show the unique benefits of play in both cognitive and social-emotional areas, as well as qualitative data collected in a play-based and a non-play-based classroom.

The research defends the importance of play-based learning in early childhood and equips teachers with rationale to use play as a tool …

Exploring Factors That Predict Kuwaiti Preservice Kindergarten Teachers' Intentions To Use Web 2.0 Technologies In Their Future Kindergarten Classrooms Using The Decomposed Theory Of Planned Behavior, Laila Alazemi Alazemi

All ETDs from UAB

The purpose of this research was to explore factors influencing Kuwaiti kindergarten preservice teachers’ intentions to use Web 2.0 technologies in their future Kuwaiti kindergarten classrooms and their perceptions of using Web 2.0 technologies to enhance kindergarten student learning. This mixed methods study employed parallel collection of qualitative and quantitative data, separate analyses of the data, and then a merging of the findings. Gathered data were evaluated using the decomposed theory of planned behavior (DTPB) to predict the factors that influence Kuwaiti preservice teachers’ intentions to use Web 2.0 technologies in their future kindergarten classrooms. The central research questions of …

Educators' Practices For Promoting The Spiritual Development Of Children Aged 3 To 4 Years, In The Context Of Catholic Childcare Centres In Western Australia, Christine Robinson

Theses

The Australian early years’ mandated document, the Early Years Learning Framework (Department for Education, Employment and Workplace Relations [DEEWR], 2009), outlines the need for educators to attend to children’s spiritual capacity as part of a holistic approach to the early years (p. 9). Additionally, policy that governs the Catholic sector (such as Early Childhood Education Care Policy 2-B6 (Catholic Education Commission Western Australia [CECWA], 2013a)) reinforces this requirement for educators to attend to the holistic development of children, inclusive of their spiritual capacity alongside the cognitive, social, emotional, physical, creative and moral capacities. Consequently, educators employed in Catholic childcare are …

Mobile Learning In Early Childhood Education: A School-University Partnership Model, Serena Davie

Theses

Mobile learning (mLearning) devices are ideal for 21st century learning. mLearning devices are light and, therefore, mobile so that young children can use them anywhere. Examples of mLearning devices are tablet computers, programmable robots such as Bee-Bots and robotic Lego. The term 21st century learning is used around the world and includes the skills of collaboration, communication, new literacy, creativity, critical thinking, and problem-solving. New literacy has emerged because of new technologies and being literate in the 21st century now includes being digitally literate. However, mLearning is not widely used in early childhood education despite the fact that schools are …

Parent Beliefs, Attitudes, And Needs In Preschool Age Literacy Development In A Head Start Program, Dianna Jean Mccoy

Theses and Dissertations

The topic of this applied dissertation concerns parents from low socioeconomic status (SES) backgrounds participation in support of literacy development of their preschool aged children. Evidence from the limited research on this topic suggested that some parents rely on the school to teach literacy to their children beginning in kindergarten. Consequently, little time and effort is dedicated to preschool narrative skills, letter knowledge (other than the ABC song), print awareness, phonological awareness, print motivation, and vocabulary.

Literacy development begins before children enter kindergarten. Kindergarten teachers expect children to be able to identify letters, their sounds, print their names. Children without …

Online Facilitation Of Early Childhood Education Preservice Teacher Field Experiences, Catherine Meier Meier

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Researchers have determined that field experience is crucial in education preparation programs, yet little information is available about field experience within online early childhood education (ECE) programs. Educators who work in online ECE programs need to understand how to facilitate field experience effectively. The purpose of this qualitative interview study was to understand the processes, procedures, and experiences of instructors who facilitate preservice teachers' field experience in online ECE programs. A constructivist framework was used to examine facilitation practices. Nine instructors from online ECE programs in the United States participated in 2 semistructured interviews that lasted approximately 1 hour each. …

Elementary School Social Workers' Perspectives On The Development Of Resilience In Early Childhood, Dan Podraza

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Researchers have stressed the importance of addressing the social/emotional needs of early childhood (EC) children, including the development of resilience; however, some U.S. school personnel focus more on academics than on these needs. When young children possess these skills, they can handle social/emotional challenges later in life. The purpose of this qualitative bounded case study was to explore school social workers' (SWs) perspectives about resilience in EC settings. Research questions focused on knowledge of existing programs, participants' perceptions of the successes and challenges of working with EC students, and their recommendations to improve EC students' education. Bronfenbrenner's ecological systems theory …

Sociocultural Influences Pertaining To Language, Cognition, And Social Emotional Developmental Relationships: An Early Head Start Perspective, Kimberly Ann Sharkins

All ETDs from UAB

Early childhood poverty is a prevalent social issue, conservatively impacting one in two children worldwide and one in five in the United States. It has been well established that factors associated with poverty have been linked to diminished cognitive, linguistic, and social-emotional outcomes in children. Additionally, young children are being increasingly exposed to media, technology, and screen time (MeTS) at home and in instructional settings, and little is known about the long-term effects of MeTS in regard to children’s development. Although individual components that relate to language, cognitive, and social-emotional development in young children have been identified, additional examination of …