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Early Childhood Education Commons

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Full-Text Articles in Early Childhood Education

Nature-Based Education For Elementary Students With Attention Deficit-Hyperactivity Disorder, Kayleigh Morrison May 2022

Nature-Based Education For Elementary Students With Attention Deficit-Hyperactivity Disorder, Kayleigh Morrison

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

There are several advantages to including a nature-based curriculum and outdoor learning into state standards, and the consequences of students who do not have access to outside learning and activities can be severe. The term “Attention Restoration Theory” (ART) was coined by psychology professors Rachel and Stephen Kaplan in 1989 and claims that exposure to nature can improve mental fatigue and concentration. This senior capstone examines Kaplan’s Attention Restoration Theory and academic studies rooted in its philosophy as it applies to nature-based curriculum and outdoor learning. There are certain advantages for students who are exposed to a nature-based curriculum and …


The Effects Of Covid-19 On Early Childhood Mental Health Development, Taylor Ybanez May 2022

The Effects Of Covid-19 On Early Childhood Mental Health Development, Taylor Ybanez

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

A child’s development is of the highest importance to any person that has the opportunity to teach them. Due to the impact of COVID-19, many people, especially developing children have struggled with their mental health development. With the lack of resources and outreach opportunities, some of them had to be left alone for a good portion of their time during their stay-at-home orders due to not being allowed to attend school. This senior capstone is to bring awareness of the toll COVID-19 has taken on children’s development in terms of their emotional, physiological, and physical well-being. The findings offer some …


Increasing Social Awareness Skills In Kindergarten Students, Chloe Dennis May 2022

Increasing Social Awareness Skills In Kindergarten Students, Chloe Dennis

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

Social awareness is a key component of social-emotional learning and is often underrepresented in kindergarten curriculum. Students who struggle with social awareness are at a greater risk for antisocial behaviors, low academic performance, diminished self-efficacy, low motivation, and low adaptability. Jean Piagets’ cognitive-developmental theory places kindergarten-age students in the preoperational stage of development. At this stage, children are egocentric, exhibit centrated thought, and struggle to use perspective and empathic skills. Kindness, problem-solving, and maintaining positive relationships are all rooted in social awareness and require students to move away from egocentric thinking. I designed a three-part lesson on acts of kindness …


Increasing The Awareness Of Emotional Regulation In Young Children, Duran Andrea May 2022

Increasing The Awareness Of Emotional Regulation In Young Children, Duran Andrea

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

Many children have not yet developed effective strategies to cope with their emotions in a healthy manner. Lack of emotional regulation in children may result in behavioral and social issues such as mental health issues and poor temperament. When children are able to understand how to positively cope with their emotions, they will be able to properly regulate their emotions throughout their life using healthy mechanisms. In order to improve children’s ability to regulate their emotions, I formulated a two-part curriculum to demonstrate positive coping strategies and tools to regulate emotions for 1st grade students at Robert H. Down Elementary …


Teaching Latino Parents About Early Intervention And Asd, Maricela Lopez Jul 2021

Teaching Latino Parents About Early Intervention And Asd, Maricela Lopez

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is one of the most prevalent neurodevelopmental disorders, identified by persistent impairment in reciprocal communication and social interactions and restricted, repetitive behaviors, interests, or activities(Campisi et al., 2018). The lack of awareness of early intervention has a significant setback on their children’s developmental domains. Many Latino families are unaware of resources that can help young children with autism. Latinos endured many challenges, especially being underdiagnosed compared to white non-Hispanics They face challenges such as language barriers, cultural awareness, and denial Latinos families need to learn more about ASD to support their children's development. Research confirms that …


¿Cómo Le Va A Mi Estudiante En Clase?: Increasing Parent Involvement For Latinx Elementary Students, Lisset Ochoa May 2021

¿Cómo Le Va A Mi Estudiante En Clase?: Increasing Parent Involvement For Latinx Elementary Students, Lisset Ochoa

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

Parental involvement in the education of Latinx elementary students is truly essential. If a student does not receive the guidance or commitment from their parents while they are young, they may struggle in their education. Early parental involvement, it is claimed, will increase children's motivation to learn while also encouraging cognitive and emotional competencies. It is necessary to incorporate resources that increase parental involvement so that Latinx parents are aware of the help their students need. Two teachers, the vice principal, and two parents were interviewed in order to learn more about the resources that would be useful to both …


Science In Early Childhood Education, Olivia Kocina Dec 2020

Science In Early Childhood Education, Olivia Kocina

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

Science is often limited or absent in an early education classroom. It is important to give children an outlet to experience science in the classroom or through lesson plans. Having science at an early age can provide children the opportunities to build up their reasoning, to question things about the world, and later in life to feel more confident in other STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art, and math) activities or areas. To address this need, I created a 3-day program for 3 to 5 year-olds at Little Learners of Aptos School in Aptos, California.


Achieving Positive Mental Health And Academic Achievement For Students With Behavioral And Emotional Issues In Elementary School, Reynalda Fuentes May 2020

Achieving Positive Mental Health And Academic Achievement For Students With Behavioral And Emotional Issues In Elementary School, Reynalda Fuentes

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

Elementary students, their peers, and teachers today are being affected by emotional and behavioral issues that some students struggle with at school. In order to understand why it is affecting their academic achievement and mental health, this report answers the following research questions to investigate how these problems affect schools, classrooms, and teachers, as well as what appears to be contributing factors to this problem, and what are some of the solutions. In review of the literature on preventions and interventions placed at elementary schools the research shows that frameworks such as The Multi-tiered System of Supports, and the incorporation …


"Just Kidding" What Bullies Say, Christina Marie Gumbin Dec 2019

"Just Kidding" What Bullies Say, Christina Marie Gumbin

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

The focus of this Capstone Project is on how present and past staff members of MM Middle School have addressed bullying in their classrooms and what they think could be done to prevent further bullying. This is an important issue for teachers of any grade because bullying affects children at any age. An argument is made that during middle school, bullies tend to say that they are just kidding without knowing why they are bullying. Consideration of the issue, required obtaining the perspectives of the principal and both current and former teachers. Three themes emerged from an analysis of the …


No Habla Espanol: Are Monolingual Teachers Getting The Support They Need?, Cristina Benavides Dec 2019

No Habla Espanol: Are Monolingual Teachers Getting The Support They Need?, Cristina Benavides

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

For this Capstone Project, the researchers investigated how monolingual teachers view the support and resources they received to teach English Language Learners (ELL) and what they thought could be done to improve their teaching effectiveness. An evidence based argument is offered that monolingual teachers were not being provided with effective support and resources. More specifically, three themes emerged from an analysis of the data obtained from interviews of monolingual teachers and administrators. Based on the emergent themes, an action was undertaken to help monolingual teachers better address the needs of ELLs. This is an important issue for monolingual teachers because …


Benefits Of Play For The Social And Emotional Development Of Children In Kindergarten, Chelsea Andrade May 2019

Benefits Of Play For The Social And Emotional Development Of Children In Kindergarten, Chelsea Andrade

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

There is an increasing push to focus on academics at a young age and take play out of learning. Research shows that play is beneficial for the social and emotional development of children. Play helps children to learn self-control, emotion-regulation, communication, conflict resolution, and so much more. This senior capstone project explored how play is beneficial for the social and emotional development of children in kindergarten. Through a literature review and surveys conducted with fourteen kindergarten teachers in Monterey County, results showed how beneficial play is for kindergarten students. The results from surveys also revealed how teachers in Monterey County …


Applying Parental Involvement In Early Literacy, Luis Moya May 2019

Applying Parental Involvement In Early Literacy, Luis Moya

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

Early literacy for young children has been linked with academic achievement, reduced grade retention, higher graduation rates, and enhanced productivity in adult life (Monterey County First 5, 2016). Parents may not always know how to engage in literacy development strategies or how they can participate in literacy exposure. Bringing awareness about early literacy parents is a key component to enhancing young children’s development. To address this need,my project will consist of providing an informative presentation about the importance of early literacy with families who attend the Library and Read, Grow, Play program for families with children 0 to 5 at …


Academic And Social Effects Of Waldorf Education On Elementary School Students, Christian Zepeda May 2018

Academic And Social Effects Of Waldorf Education On Elementary School Students, Christian Zepeda

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

As society becomes more critical of public education, alternative education systems are becoming more popular. The Waldorf education system, based on the philosophy of Rudolf Steiner, has increased in popularity and commonality each decade. Currently, 23 Waldorf institutions exist in California. With this increase in popularity, it is important to analyze and examine the effectiveness of this education philosophy. An examination of Waldorf education, through research and interviews of Waldorf teachers and administration, will provide parents and teachers with an understanding of its strengths and weaknesses. Ultimately, Waldorf education provides a positive environment for students, yielding positive effects but this …


Slipping Through The Cracks: A Look Into Special Education Referrals, Courtney Musselman Dec 2017

Slipping Through The Cracks: A Look Into Special Education Referrals, Courtney Musselman

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

Special Education is offered in many schools today and more and more students are being referred to this type of education. For this capstone project three local special education teachers were interviewed about the referral process and what could be done to improve it. This is an important issue because many students are slipping through the cracks when it comes to be identified and others are being overly identified. The referral process is important because it provides students with an equal opportunity for education. Findings from the interviews and information from a relevant literature review were used to develop an …


Blooming Relationships: Increasing Communication Between Parents And Teachers, Jasmine Negrete Dec 2017

Blooming Relationships: Increasing Communication Between Parents And Teachers, Jasmine Negrete

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

The focus of this Capstone project is on strengthening the communication between parents and teachers by providing an alternative method of communication that will suit both parties. Both parties have expectations for one another that need to be communicated in order to benefit the students. The primary stakeholder perspectives surveyed were the parents of the children and the teachers and administrators. Three action options emerged from an analysis of the data and were explored as ways to address the issue presented. Parents were provided with access to an application called Bloomz, which is accessible by smartphones, tablets and computers.


Creating A Multiracial Lesson Plan, Clayton Davis May 2017

Creating A Multiracial Lesson Plan, Clayton Davis

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

The purpose of this project is to teach students about multiracial identity issues. Multiracial populations in the U.S. continue to grow and it’s important for educators to address the needs of these students. A 5-E multiracial literature lesson plan was created for second grade that incorporates KWL and Text-to-World teaching strategies. A second grade class were read two children’s picture books, each featuring a biracial protagonist, and were asked to discuss and evaluate the content and commonalities of these stories. Students recorded what they learned in this lesson in their KWL’s. The results reveal that some students understood the problems …