Early Childhood Education Commons^™

Amir’S Life Story: Resilience And Other Soft Skills Development To Thrive, Despite Vulnerable Beginnings, Yatela Zainal-Abidin, Rosna Awang-Hashim, Hasniza Nordin

The Qualitative Report

This article explores the life story of Amir, a young adult from a rural village in Malaysia, who built resilience and developed soft skills to thrive in his life despite his vulnerable beginnings. Amir’s strong resilience and other soft skills that assisted him to be outstanding in his academics and career may have resulted from his caring and supportive authoritative mother, countering his strict and harsh authoritarian father, with an ecological system of protective factors and developmental assets strengthened by religiosity and spirituality. However, both his parents’ extremely different confrontive and coercive methods appeared to have worked together towards the …

Reggio Emilia And The Arts Approach: Two Exceptional Examples Of Multimodal Learning In Early Years, Fadumo Aden, Evgenia Theodotou

Journal of Global Education and Research

The Reggio Emilia approach offers children a unique experience of self-exploration embedded in the arts. This has strong links with multimodal teaching and learning. This is based on the argument that they both offer children the opportunity to communicate in multimodal ways such as drawing, drama play, gestures, music and speaking whilst placing children at the centre of their learning. This paper focuses on the concept of multimodal learning and discusses the Reggio Emilia approach and the arts approach in an effort to create links with the contents of multimodal learning. Furthermore, it compares and contrasts both approaches and identifies …

Preservice Teachers Knowledge Of Adolescent Suicide, Annette N. Johnson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Teacher preparation programs have a responsibility to prepare future teachers to teach

and mentor students through their academic years. With the rise of suicide in school age children, responsibility has fallen to teachers to better recognize and understand students who may be suicidal. This study sought to answer the question: to what degree does teaching certification, teaching experience, and suicide awareness embedded coursework predict preservice teachers’ knowledge of suicide awareness and prevention? Data from the Adolescent Suicide Behavior Questionnaire and a demographic survey which asked about participants’ preservice training was sent to universities and colleges in Texas with an undergraduate …

Teachers’ Perceptions Of Reading Wonders: Is It Really A Wonder? A Program Evaluation, Myra A. Richardson

Dissertations

Reading programs are essential tools for leaders to use while building literacy. The transfer from instructional delivery to student knowledge should be easily recognizable in the end-of-year assessment data. As the principal analyzing the end-of-year data, I discovered a problem when I struggled to see this transfer in my data. The purpose of this program evaluation was to determine whether teachers perceived Reading Wonders to be an effective reading program for the school district as well as whether the assessment data aligned with teachers’ perceptions. A survey was used to collect responses from the participants and an Excel spreadsheet was …

Denis Diderot: A Secular Hero, Ben Scott-Brandt

Honors Projects

My Honors Senior Project is a biography of Denis Diderot in the form of a children's song. MY understanding of Diderot's life is based on Andrew Curran's book, Diderot and the Art of Thinking Freely.

Songs help us memorize and retain information about the world, and singing songs together strengthens cultural and religious connections. Secular (nonreligious) people need songs, too. Diderot was a philosopher who didn't believe in God. He was an editor of L'Encyclopédie, one of the first encyclopedias, and he snuck in articles that challenged how people think. This was an important moment -- knowledge about the world …

Socio-Dramatic Work Systems For Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder, Jorey Prange

Theses/Capstones/Creative Projects

This capstone project assessed the integration of socio-dramatic work systems for two children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) in an inclusive preschool classroom. It provides details about Teaching Strategies GOLD assessment tool and Structured Treatment and Education of Autistic and Communication related handicapped Children (TEACCH) Work Systems. My experience working with two children with ASD shows that creating and implementing dramatic play work systems helped these two students improve their dramatic play skill progression as rated with the Teaching Strategies GOLD assessment tool.

Relaunching The Five-State Study Group, Juana Reyes

Education Department Faculty Articles

No abstract provided.

Teacher Competencies Related To Family Engagement: The Impact On Families, Melissa Kay Williamson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Although there is a large body of research that addresses the essential elements of family engagement, little information was available on the impact that a family engagement program had on teacher evaluation and familial self-efficacy. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to assess teacher competencies and family self-efficacy in a large urban district in West Texas. The research was conducted by gathering baseline data using questionnaires derived from the Measure of School, Family, and Community Partnerships survey and the 2015 Equitable Parent-School Collaboration Research Project University of Washington. In-depth interviews followed with both teachers and parents. Findings indicated …

A Longitudinal Examination Of Bedtime Routines And Sleep In Toddlers, Amanda Prokasky

College of Education and Human Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Ample research has examined the impacts of sufficient and high-quality sleep on children’s health, development, and well-being (Chen, Beydoun, & Wang, 2008; Gregory & Sadeh, 2012; Touchette et al., 2009), yet less research has focused on the factors that contribute to sufficient and high-quality sleep in early childhood. The bedtime routine is one environmental influence on children’s sleep that has received little attention in the literature base and therefore is the focus of the current study.

In a sample of 399 30-month old toddlers studied over the course of one year, three aims were investigated: the within-age consistency of the …

Integrating Mindfulness Into School Classrooms, Crystal Chesshire

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

This senior capstone research project examines how mindfulness could be integrated into the school classrooms through the use of literature review, interviews with elementary school teachers in the Monterey Bay area and surveys with several students along with one subject participant at the California State University Monterey Bay. As a result, the findings reveal that most students and teachers thought that mindfulness proved to be successful and useful when integrating it with the younger population to deal with their emotions.

Impacts Of Growing Technology On Students' Reading And Writing Skills, Jacquelyn Ogborn Corpuz

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

Technology has radically changed the ways in which students and teachers function within the classroom. The use of mobile technologies, specifically laptop computers and internet use, has transformed teacher instruction along with student expectations. Given that students have a high exposure to technology in the classroom, especially at the middle school level, this senior capstone examines the impact of growing technology on their reading and writing skills through the use of literature review, teacher interviews and survey, interviews with principals and superintendents, and online teacher survey. The result findings reveal that there are several positive impacts of technology integration on …

"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

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 …

The Convergence Of Negotiated Imaginative Play, Literacy Learning And Kindergarten Common Core English Language Arts Standards, Grace Salinas-Casper

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

The implementation of strict academic requirements is replacing play as a previously widely accepted developmentally appropriate practice in kindergarten classrooms around the United States, resulting in an imbalance in cultivating the whole child. Research focused on the importance of play in children’s cognitive, linguistic, physical, moral, creative, emotional and artistic development exists. Couched in Vygotsky’s social development theory and the Reggio Emilia principle this ethnographic case study investigates how kindergarteners demonstrate literacy learning, practice and mastery of Common Core English Language Arts Standards (CC.ELA) through imaginative play in a negotiated environment. Research outcomes suggested that negotiated play appears to provide …

Second-Grade Students’ Perceptions Of Their Classrooms’ Physical Learning Environment, Tsitsi Nyabando

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Guided by the constructivist framework, the focus of the investigation was on second-grade students and their perceptions of their classrooms’ physical learning environment.

A qualitative multiple case study approach was employed, and data were collected through interviews, participant-generated photographs, and observations. Participants in the study were 16 second-grade students in four classrooms in three school districts in Northeast Tennessee. A physical learning environment tool, Assessing the Pillars of the Physical Environment for Academic Learning (APPEAL), developed by Evanshen and Faulk (2019) was used to select classrooms to take part in the study. The tool focuses on dimensions that help observers …

Determining If Classroom Pets As Part Of An Empathy-Based Treatment Regimen Affects Public Elementary School Students’ Pro-Social Attitudes, Specifically Examining Empathy, Randa Dunlap

3 Minute Thesis Competition

No abstract provided.

Longitudinal And Geographic Trends In Family Engagement During The Pre-Kindergarten To Kindergarten Transition, Susan M. Sheridan, Natalie A. Koziol, Amanda Witte, Iheoma Iruka, Lisa Knoche

Nebraska Center for Research on Children, Youth, Families, and Schools: Faculty Publications

The transition to kindergarten is foundational for children’s future school performance and families’ relationships with the educational system. Despite its well-documented benefits, few studies have explored family engagement across the pre- Kindergarten (pre-K) to kindergarten transition nor considered the role of geographic context during this period. This study examined trajectories of family engagement across the pre-K to kindergarten transition, and identified whether engagement differs for families in rural versus urban settings. Participants were 248 parents of children who participated in publicly funded pre-K programs and transitioned 1 year later into kindergarten. Home-based involvement increased from pre-K through kindergarten. School-based involvement …

Exploring The World Around You: A Guide To Learning About The Natural World, Jordyn Kuemerle

Honors Projects

This paper discusses the research, methodology, and purpose of my Honors Project. My project is a workbook for children to complete with their parents or guardians all about exploring nature. Language and literacy development is the overall focus of my workbook, but children who complete it also learn about shapes, colors, and comparing sizes in nature. The original inspiration for this workbook came from reading Molly Bang’s 2016 book, Picture This: How Pictures Work, and I originally wanted to make a children’s book in nature. After further research I found out that many educators and education professionals agree that children …

Winter Holidays Around The World, Christopher Castro

Diverse Families Bookshelf Lesson Plans and Activities

No abstract provided.

Julian Is A Mermaid, Shannon M. Blake

Diverse Families Bookshelf Lesson Plans and Activities

No abstract provided.