Early Childhood Education Commons^™

Promoting More Play In Kindergarten, Sarah Hofland

Master's Theses & Capstone Projects

Kindergarten has changed immensely over the years. It is currently driven by academic standards. Kindergarten teachers use much of the day to implement direct instruction and seat work to meet the higher demands in reading and math. The problem is that this type of learning is not developmentally appropriate for kindergarteners. Research shows that play is the central way in which children at the kindergarten age learn. To be developmentally appropriate, this school improvement plan aims at initiating more time spent playing during the kindergarten day.

Estimating The Impacts Of Legislation To Expand Affordable Quality Child Care And Early Education In Massachusetts: Initial Findings On Utilization, Employment, And Financial Assistance. Research Brief #1, Randy Albelda, Alan Clayton-Matthews, Anne Douglass, Christa Kelleher, Songtian Zeng, Laurie Nsiah-Jefferson

Publications from the Center for Women in Politics and Public Policy

The UMass Boston Early Education CUSP is led by a multidisciplinary team that designed the simulator and uses it to produce current, relevant, accurate, and responsive estimates about the key impacts of proposed legislation to expand access to affordable, quality child care and early education. One of the simulator’s valuable features is that it can produce estimates for a range of policy parameters and provisions. The team will release additional briefs in the coming months to offer a more detailed look at the impacts outlined in this initial publication. Other planned briefs will examine key topics, such as impacts related …

The Impact Of Small-Group Multisensory Instructional Techniques On Kindergarteners’ Letter Sound Knowledge, Karly Walker

Master's Theses & Capstone Projects

This action research was driven by the researcher’s interest in multisensory instructional techniques and the effect it can have on kindergarten students’ letter sound knowledge to aid in strengthening pre-reading skills. The researcher compared results of a control (traditional learning) group versus a treatment (multisensory learning) group of eight at-risk students while monitoring progress weekly using FastBridge earlyReading letter sound subtest. The research was conducted to analyze the effectiveness of multisensory instruction within small group learning. The researcher used a four-way factorial design test to analyze the control and the treatment group’s pre- and post-test scores in letter sound fluency. …

Reflection On “The Autobiography Of An Amaryllis”, Juana Reyes

Education Department Faculty Articles

No abstract provided.

The Developing Independence Of Toddlers, Maggie Harbaugh

Master's Theses & Capstone Projects

This action research project was driven by the researcher’s interest in whether three-year-old children exhibited more negative behaviors then two-year-old children. The researcher used two different types of surveys for mothers and teachers to answer. This survey took 5-10 minutes to complete, and they had two weeks to complete it. The research was conducted to see which age of children displayed worse behaviors. The researcher is an assistant director in her 10th year of teaching early childhood students. The findings showed that two-year-olds have more behavior problems then three-year-olds have.

Implementation Of Star To Support Students With Disabilities, Lexis Barkema

Master's Theses & Capstone Projects

This paper examines the use of a comprehensive autism program in a school district, looking specifically at an elementary school in North Central Iowa. The school does a great job of providing support and interventions for students with autism, disabilities, and specific learning needs with the resources they currently have available to them. This school improvement plan provides a detailed outline of using a comprehensive autism program to better serve and meet the needs of students in their specific need areas. The plan will provide professional development, support, and resources for teachers and paraprofessionals who are implementing the program.

Evaluating Children's Menus In Theme Park Restaurants, Maria Fusté Forné

Journal of Sustainability and Resilience

Children who travel with their families eat in restaurants that usually offer special kid’s menus. The quality of those menus is often questioned and in the present context where children’s obesity and overweight are increasing, it is relevant to pay attention to the different environments where children eat. The present paper wants to analyse if specific restaurants menus in one of the most relevant theme park are healthy or unhealthy. Using a validated instrument to evaluate kids’ menu, restaurants in Disney Village (Disneyland Paris) are analysed. Results show that half of them are unhealthy and none of them are completely …

Exploring Science And Engineering Practices In Children’S Picture Books, Derrick A. Nero, Kathleen Everts Danielson

Michigan Reading Journal

This article features an annotated bibliography of children’s books that illustrate engineering concepts tied to the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) Science and Engineering Practices for K-2 students (National Science Teaching Association -NSTA, n.d., see Appendix A) and NGSS K-2 Engineering Design performance expectations (NSTA, n.d., see Appendix B). The selected children’s books encourage discussion and model the process of inquiry and problem solving that may inspire young children to explore STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) questions of their own.

Social Networks And Violence Victimization And Perpetration Among Youth: A Longitudinal Analysis, Natira Mullet, Emily A. Waterman, Katie M. Edwards, Victoria Banyard, Thomas W. Valente

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

Interpersonal violence (IV) is a serious concern for adolescents in the United States that has devastating impacts for individuals and communities. Given the increased importance placed on friendships during adolescence, the purpose of the current study was to examine the extent to which IV experiences cluster within youths' friendship networks. Participants were students (N = 1303) in grades 7th to 10th who completed surveys at the beginning and end of an academic year. Results showed that friends' average perpetration (i.e., the percentage of the friends they nominated who perpetrated IV) was strongly associated with likelihood of individual perpetration at …

Children’S Imagining And Understanding Of Time: A Montessori Perspective

The International Journal of Ecopsychology (IJE)

The scientific understanding of natural processes is underscored by ideas of relative temporality, timing, abstracted time, and inferred time. Gruber’s, Block’s, and Montemayor’s (2022 and in this issue) distinction, explication, and final synthesis between the veridical and an illusory nature of time is pertinent to philosophical and cognitive distinctions between objective and subjective time. These distinctions, when understood and applied to curriculum development, make the difference between effective and extemporaneous, off-the-cuff approaches where in the latter little thought is given to the importance of children’s understanding of time—how it develops. Verily, nervous systems exhibit intrinsic temporality. Irrevocably, time engulfs us, …

Dot Card Number Talks: Illustrating Counting Strategies With Preservice Elementary Teachers, Robert Knurek

Colorado Mathematics Teacher

A dot card number talk was implemented in a mathematics content course with preservice elementary teachers (PsETs) to highlight counting strategies that are commonly seen in elementary school mathematics. PsETs' sketches on the dot cards showcase many different strategies, such as counting-all, counting-on, matching, and subitizing. While their illustrations demonstrated these different strategies, their answers were ultimately the same. The dot card number talk sparked meaningful conversations and helped PsETs distinguish between the counting strategies.

From Stimulus To Sustainability: Reckoning With Community Prosperity Post-Arpa, Kathleen Bolter, Timothy J. Bartik, Brad J. Hershbein, Michelle Miller-Adams, Bridget Timmeney, Kyle Huisman, Alfonso Hernandez

Reports

No abstract provided.

Understanding Early Cognitive Development: Using Pat Early Years To Support Student Learning, Sandra Knowles

2021-2030 ACER Research Conferences

The correlation between early cognitive and psychosocial development is well established. For this reason, some measurement tools, such as UNICEF’s Early Childhood Development Index (ECDI2030), provide a single score as an overall indicator of a child’s development because performing poorly in one area is likely to mean inadequate development across all areas. While these broad indicators can be useful at a system level, understanding children’s development in discrete domain areas is essential for meaningful intervention. This presentation will explore how measurement tools, such as ACER’s Progressive Achievement Tests (PAT) for the Early Years, can be used to support targeted intervention …

The Contribution Of Learning Trajectories To Enacting The Early Years Learning Framework V2.0, Caroline Cohrssen

2021-2030 ACER Research Conferences

The Early Years Learning Framework for Australia v2.0 (EYLF) guides pedagogy and practice with children aged from birth to 5 years and states that ‘over time, children engage with increasingly complex ideas’. With 5 learning outcomes and 8 principles of practice, this requires educators to be highly skilled in facilitating children’s engagement with increasingly complex ideas. It also assumes that all educators recognise children’s demonstrations of understanding, and know what knowledge (or capabilities) likely preceded this understanding, and what comes next. As a framework, this specific information is missing from the EYLF. Learning trajectories may assist educators to recognise demonstrations …

Conceptual Development: How Do Early Educators And Teachers Support Children's Early Thinking In Stem?, Marilyn Fleer

2021-2030 ACER Research Conferences

As national and state-based reforms in early education roll-out across Australia, concern for building a well-qualified workforce to meet growing demand has intensified. In parallel with the reforms, teachers and educators are reminded by the recently released 2022 Early Years Learning Framework to design programs that support intentionality in play-based learning. However, the literature shows that despite the concept of intentional teaching being around since 2009, difficulties with how to do this remains. This presentation takes up this challenge, by 1) sharing the collective findings of 6 Australian Research Council-funded research projects into play and learning in STEM; and 2) …

The Journey To Becoming A Reader: Relationships Between Home Activities, Attitudes And Reading, Kylie Hillman

2021-2030 ACER Research Conferences

The Progress in International Reading Study – PIRLS for short – has been running since 2001, with Australia joining in 2011. Along with a well-researched measure of students’ reading comprehension, PIRLS includes a number of questionnaires for students, teachers, principals and parents/guardians that provide background and context for students’ performance in the reading assessment. This presentation will provide educators with an introduction to PIRLS and discuss what PIRLS can tell us about various home, attitudinal and behavioural factors that relate to Year 4 students’ performance in the PIRLS reading comprehension assessments.

We will discuss relationships between reading scores and factors …

Bringing Learning Progressions Down To 2-Year-Olds In Reading And Mathematics, Prue Anderson

2021-2030 ACER Research Conferences

ACER’s learning progressions in reading and mathematics describe growth that is mainly focused on skills students demonstrate at and beyond school. These progressions have recently been extended down to describe earlier levels of growth so we now have seamless progressions from skills and understandings toddlers might demonstrate up to highly sophisticated skills and concepts. This presentation briefly outlines ACER’s work and identifies key implications for educators. The pathways that support early reading development were described in progressions for listening comprehension and sounds and letters. Along with an early mathematics progression, these were conceptualised as embedded in an oral language progression. …

Mathematical Mindsets: Fostering Student Engagement And Positive Mindsets Through The Use Of Challenging Tasks, Alison Hall

2021-2030 ACER Research Conferences

This paper explores the planned use of challenging mathematical tasks. These tasks provide the opportunity for students to improve mathematical thinking by working on problems that they do not yet know how to answer. This research involved a heterogeneous class of year 3 students from a Catholic parish primary school in the northern suburbs of Melbourne. A rubric was also developed to use in conjunction with these tasks, to support discussions with students, broaden their strategies in finding solutions and thereby improve their conceptual understanding. These pedagogical approaches were found to support the improvement of both students’ conceptual understanding in …

Does Play Belong In The Primary School Classroom?, Bo Stjerne Thomsen, Rachel Parker

2021-2030 ACER Research Conferences

Learning through play has emerged as an important strategy to promote student engagement, inclusion, and holistic skills development beyond the preschool years. If we want to build an education system preparing children for lifelong learning, we can use these strategies and achieve a balance of academic growth, holistic skills and a joy of learning. This presentation addresses the disconnect between policy, research, and practice, by summarising 5 key findings from international studies and 4 challenges to connect policy and practice. The evidence that play supports learning is considerable, and a new framework can create continuity between the early years learning …

Comparing Time Allocation For Teaching Science As Inquiry In Two Educator Preparation Science Methods Courses, Lori A. Dira

Faculty Journal Articles

How much time an institution allocates to content can indicate its overall importance and intended value to the educator preparation program. For decades there have been calls to integrate more authentic science inquiry experiences into not only undergraduate elementary science courses, but into all elementary educator preparation courses. Many elementary educators do not receive training on effective methods for teaching science, they will not feel comfortable and will likely have low self-efficacy. This study investigated the amount of time allocated to teaching science as inquiry and the knowledge participants had prior to and after taking an elementary teaching science methods …