Early Childhood Education Commons^™

Developing Social And Emotional Skills In Early Childhood Instruction: A Delphi Study, Tess Breen

Dissertations

Purpose: The purpose of this Delphi study was to explore social and emotional learning in early childhood instruction with an emphasis on identifying the methods expert early childhood teachers use to support and promote the development of empathy and emotion regulation, to have the teachers rate the impact of these methods, and to identify the specific activities used to implement the six most highly rated methods.

Methodology: This study utilized the Delphi method which is an iterative process used to collect and distill the judgments of experts using a series of questionnaires interspersed with feedback. Fourteen participants recommended strategies to …

The Interplay Between Early Childhood Education And Mental Health: How Students In An In-Service Early Childhood Teacher Education Program Experience Children With Mental Health And Behavioral Challenges In The Classroom, Katie Statman-Weil

Dissertations and Theses

All early childhood educators who work with children between birth and six years of age are likely to encounter young children who experience behavioral and mental health challenges throughout their careers. Research demonstrates that educators can play a vital role in children's mental health and behavioral development. However, often early childhood educators do not believe they have the knowledge or tools to accurately identify and successfully handle the unique challenges that arise when working with children with behavioral and mental health issues.

Using an Anti-Oppressive Framework, this research study explores, through a qualitative case study design, how students in an …

Grant Will Improve Asl Mentorship In Utah, Jolynne Lyon

Blog Posts

Blog post is about a grant that will improve the ASL mentorship program.

The Effect Of Social Stories On The Positive Play Behaviors And Social Interactions Of Preschool Students With Developmental Disabilities, Lauren Lee Divittorio

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this single subject design study was to determine the effectiveness of social stories on the positive play behaviors and social interactions of preschool students with developmental disabilities. The satisfaction of staff members with the implementation of social stories in the classroom was also examined. Preschool students in the study showed an increase in positive social interactions including turn-taking, using verbal and non-verbal communication to express their feelings during play, and overall positive play behaviors after implementation of social stories. Staff members reported positive social validity of the intervention. Implications for using social stories with preschool students with …

Early Childhood Teacher Turnover In Nebraska, Amy M. Roberts, Kathleen C. Gallagher, Susan Sarver, Alexandra Daro

Buffet Early Childhood Institute Reports and Publications

Teacher turnover is a serious challenge across early childhood settings. Turnover can be expensive for early childhood programs, burdensome to staff, and harmful to children throughout the nation. Nebraska is no exception. This research brief describes teacher turnover in the state’s early care and education settings, including licensed child care, state-funded PreK, and Kindergarten through Grade 3.

Research Questions The following research questions were asked across early childhood programs (licensed child care, state-funded PreK, and K-3): 1. What was the average rate of annual teacher turnover? 2. According to administrators, what was the most common reason teachers left their employment? …

Increasing Family Involvement With The Use Of Technology, Briana Riddle

Master's Theses & Capstone Projects

The purpose of this action research project was to determine if the use of an online application could increase parental involvement, more specifically communication, in a prekindergarten setting. Data was collected through quantitative means using a tally system for each occurrence of communication and which method was used. The classroom setting consist of two groups of students, an AM and a PM group. One class had the application made available to them, along with the other forms of communication, while the other class only had the basic forms of communication (e-mail, face-to-face, or phone calls) available. Analysis of the data …

Does Daily Exposure Through The Use Of Nursery Rhymes Better Support Students’ Phonological Awareness Skill Development?, Jordan Redig

Master's Theses & Capstone Projects

The purpose of this study is to determine the best way to help students develop phonological awareness skills. It seeks to answer these questions: Can the use of nursery rhymes help to develop phonological awareness skills in preschool? Will the use of nursery rhymes help students learn to listen and hear the play with words, and therefore understand the concepts of phonological awareness with ease? If there is phonological awareness practice that is routinely embedded daily into the classroom schedule, will student notice the key skills quicker and develop the concept deeper than students’ develop in the past who have …

Father Engagement, Marisa Morales

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

The Monterey County Office of Education Head Start & Early Head Start Family & Community Engagement service has identified the need for father involvement in early childhood education. With a very meaningful purpose “Padres Bien Padres, Very Cool Dads”, was started. Four workshops were given to male role models to support parenting engagement with their children. In addition, professional development training was provided to head start Policy Council to raise awareness of the “Padres Bien Padres, Very Cool Dad’s” program and share different ideas and activities to improve and encourage fathers to participate in head start. The Policy Council members …

Life Through Different Lenses, Teresa Morales

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

For this capstone project, my partner and I were able to explore the lack of affordable housing for low-income families and the demonstrable effect on students academic achievement. Children whose families have a difficult time finding adequate housing, live in poor conditions that limits them to acquire their learning skills and abilities to succeed. The community partner we worked with was a local Family Resource Center that provides housing assistance and other social determinants. The purpose of this research was understand how low-income families deal with inadequate living conditions and the impacts of student academic success. Based on an analysis …

Opportunities To Respond In An Inclusive Early Childhood Classroom, Courtney Schauf

Master's Theses & Capstone Projects

The purpose of this study was to determine if providing students with opportunities to respond resulted in positive student behavior. The researcher conducted the study in an inclusive preschool classroom including students on Individualized Education Plan’s (IEP) and English Language Learners (ELL). The intent of the study was to reduce the amount of negative behaviors in order to provide students with more instructional time and less time addressing unwanted behaviors.

Play In Early Childhood, Keri Griswold

Master's Theses & Capstone Projects

This literature review looks at play in early childhood education and why play is important for early learners. The review looks at the history of play and the benefits that play has on brain development, as well as defining play. Adults play an important role in play, as does the early childhood learning environment. Early learners develop their critical thinking skills and their social and emotional skills through play. The curriculum that is offered to early learners should revolve around play but should ensure that they are being provided the opportunity to learn about the outdoors, math, reading, and all …

Early-Childhood Computer-Based Testing: Effects Of A Digital Literacy Intervention On Student Confidence And Performance, Benjamin-David Christopher Legrand

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Early-childhood digital students grow up in a fast-evolving age of technology requiring them to use and create with technologies and demonstrate core content knowledge. Although third grade students are mandated to master a new language of standardized testing, a large percentage must also learn a language of technology to complete new computer-based tests to measure content mastery. Krashen (1982) defines high affective filter as negative emotional/motivational factors interfering with understanding and cognition. This high affective filter reduces confidence and negatively impacts measuring content mastery on new computerbased tests. Two third grade classrooms at a high-poverty metropolitan school participated in a …

Children's Play, Early Literacy, And Educational (In)Equities., Jane E. Andris

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study is about the inclusion of play in early childhood school settings, the contested nature of curricula that are not strictly quantifiable, and the ways that institutional inequity influences children’s access to school-based play. It is situated in a public elementary school kindergarten that centered play in the curriculum with varying degrees of support from a range of stakeholders. This ethnographic phenomenological case study depended on data collection methods of observational field notes and participant interviews, and grounded theory methods were employed for analysis. Findings were that teachers and administrators need clearer understandings of play and its integral connection …

Access To Children's Books Featuring Characters With Disabilities, Jacquelyn Thompson

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Shared reading and access to print have been linked to improved outcomes for young children and linked to socio-economic status (e.g Neuman, 1999; Zucker, Cabell, Justice, Pentimonti & Kaderavek, 2013). As a community, we know very little about the access to books that the diverse population of preschool age children from Northwest Arkansas have. Moreover, we know very little about the type of books available to them. This study seeks to understand how many children’s books are in select preschools of varying socioeconomic status within Northwest Arkansas that service those with and without disabilities. More pointedly, within the children’s book …

The Effectiveness Of Using Video Modeling Techniques To Improve Motor Skills For Preschool Children With Autism Spectrum Disorders, Atya Abdullah Hadadi

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Beside the main syndromes of socialization and communication for individuals with autism spectrum disorders, they also have impairments in motor skills, such as ball skills (catching and throwing) and postural stability (standing and walking balance). The main objective of this dissertation is to improve motor skills for preschooler children with ASD through use of video-modeling techniques. A secondary objective of this research was to find a correlation between the development and improvement of ball skills and balance tasks. Twenty-six children with ASD were divided into two groups. Twenty-six children with ASD from 3-5 years old participated in two groups: one …

The Power Of Intentional Planning, Brittany Busch

Master's Theses & Capstone Projects

The purpose of this action research is to give teachers meaning and action to the word intentional. Interventions were used to support early childhood educators in improving the intentionality of their lesson planning and instruction. The interventions included a systematic planning tool, a resource binder, and a model through professional development. Qualitative and quantitative data was collected through an electronic survey of teachers both before and after the intervention. Quantitative data was collected through a rubric rating lesson plans on specific characteristics before, during, and after the intervention. Analysis of the data collected revealed when intentionality is well-defined and trained, …

Kagan Strategies In The Preschool Classroom And Their Effectiveness With Engagement And Academic Response, Megan Smith

Master's Theses & Capstone Projects

The purpose of this action research was to determine the impact of Kagan cooperative learning practices on academic growth in a preschool classroom. Participants were four and five year olds in a half-day preschool program in an urban setting. Students were a mix of household incomes as well as students who are English language learners. Quantitative data was collected using the Get Set for School assessment. Data was collected after ten small group sessions for 50 sessions. For each group of sessions, a different Kagan engagement strategy was utilized and the Get Set for School assessment was given to track …

Metacognitive Reading Strategy And Emerging Reading Comprehension In Students With Intellectual Disabilities, Natasha Cox-Magno, Peter Ross, Kathleen Dimino, Andrea Wilson

Journal of Educational Research and Practice

This article ventures to address the gap in special education practices by providing a metacognitive reading strategy to support the emerging reading comprehension skills of kindergarten students with intellectual disabilities. Historically, students with intellectual disabilities have low reading comprehension skills that can impede their overall academic success. There is a gap in practice regarding the identification and effective use of evidence-based reading comprehension instructional strategies for students with intellectual disabilities. Guided by Piaget’s and Vygotsky’s constructivist theories, the purpose of this study was to test the effectiveness of a metacognitive reading strategy on the emerging reading comprehension (ERC) skills of …

Developing Identity Among Third Culture Kids, Amy Carol Rustine

Honors College Theses

The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore experiences that influence the identity development among Third Culture Kids (TCKs). TCKs in this study are individuals that spend part of their developmental years in a county other than the parents’ home country requiring travel overseas. Participants in the research were adults ranging in age from 19-22 attending college in the United States. Data was collected through individual interviews. Themes emerged after developing codes and analyzing the transcripts with codes. Emerging themes reveal TCK’s tremendous struggle within awareness of difference, struggle to fit in and struggle to belong. Teachers and peers …

Positive Behavior Interventions And Supports In Transitional Kindergarten Through Second Grade Classrooms: Year Three And Beyond, Anne Driscoll-Mink

Dissertations

Purpose: The purpose of this mixed-methods study was to examine the effects of Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports (PBIS) on students in transitional kindergarten (TK) through second grade before implementation and after implementation of PBIS at platinum level elementary schools.

Methodology: A mixed-methods study will be used to examine the effects of PBIS on students in TK through second grade before implementation and after implementation of PBIS at platinum level elementary schools in southern California. The quantitative method was used to gather archival data on pre PBIS implementation and post PBIS implementation to determine if there was a difference in …