Education Commons^™

Improving Parental Engagement For Kindergarten Readiness: An Improvement Science Study, Sarah Johnson

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Every child deserves the opportunity to come to school ready to learn with the skills needed to take on the content in kindergarten. Students, who are not ready for kindergarten, have a higher chance of needing additional support services with academics and behavior (Fitzpatrick et al., 2020). In Kentucky, less than 50% of the kindergarten students were considered kindergarten ready based on the 2022 Kindergarten Readiness data (Kentucky Department of Education, 2023). In the district where this study took place, 43% of students were determined to be kindergarten ready (Kentucky Department of Education, 2023). Knowing the implications and long term …

Development Of S.T.E.A.M. Daises In Formal And Informal Environments For Educating Primary I Learners, Frances Neville

Masters Theses

The federal government has made education a competition among ourselves. Learning is not a rivalry to be imposed on our physical and cognitive development as humans. Escalating beliefs recognize education is more encompassing than CCSS, assessments and the grade level time frames in which standards are to be taught. On the precipice of anti-intellect, low expectations, and what has been termed “The Dumbing of America” an investigation into what it would take to close the achievement gap and increase student learning is overdue.

The goal for my Michigan based project, S.T.E.A.M. Daises, was to develop a program focusing on the …

The Importance Of Teaching Social-Emotional Skills To Young Children, Stephanie Valdez

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

My capstone project enhances the social-emotional skills of preschool children, which are fundamental for relationships, emotional management, and empathy. Children lacking these skills may struggle in learning, behavior, and socializing when they progress to elementary school. Studies have shown that social-emotional competence and cognitive competence are critical predictors of academic accomplishment (Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) and Student Benefits: Implications for the Safe Schools/Healthy Students Core Elements, n.d.). Children in preschool who lack these skills may experience difficulties in learning, behavior, and socializing as they progress to elementary school (Amy Morin, 2019). A significant issue arises when children encounter obstacles …

Early Childhood Teachers' Experiences In Collaboration Practices Related To Developing Professionally: A Qualitative Case Study, Linda Alston-Morgan

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this qualitative case study was to examine early childhood teachers’ experiences in collaboration practices to support teacher professional development in three early childhood schools in Central New Jersey. The theory guiding this study was social cognitive theory by Bandura (1986), which focuses on learning through observations and social interactions. Bandura’s theory aligned with the study and revealed how collaborative opportunities are utilized as an approach to help teachers learn from each other and develop professionally. However, specific activities underlying the professional development of teachers during the collaborative sessions need more exploration. The research included data regarding early …

Universal Design For Learning (Udl) In Inclusive Preschool Science Classrooms, Marla J. Lohmann, Katrina A. Hovey, Ariane N. Gauvreau

Journal of Science Education for Students with Disabilities

Science instruction is a critical aspect of early learning. Teachers can support young children’s learning about scientific concepts through the use of the Universal Design for Learning (UDL) framework, which is a proactive approach to instructional planning that helps ensure success for all learners. This teaching techniques article offers preschool teachers practical solutions for implementing in the UDL framework for science instruction in their classrooms.

Increasing Science Curriculum In Preschool, Sandra Rogel

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

Early preschool curriculum often needs more attention to science. When the science curriculum is missing from the preschool curriculum, children may not recognize early science concepts, develop little interest in scientific concepts, and lack sufficient skills for kindergarten readiness. When preschool children are exposed to a science curriculum, they begin to apply scientific concepts, acquire scientific language, and develop scientific thinking. Therefore, to address the insufficiency of science in the preschool curriculum, I developed a three-day lesson for 3 to 5-year-olds at MCOE Early Learning Program at Creekside in Salinas, California.

To What Extent Are At-Risk Preschoolers Effectively Prepared For Kindergarten?, Eliza Santos Lopez

Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to determine to what extent Kinder Hearts School’s at-risk preschoolers are effectively prepared with readiness skills for kindergarten academic success. Based on schoolwide assessments, program mandates, and policy changes, an evaluation of this specific program in a Midwest school could determine whether the instructional model used was indeed effective. This study consisted of analyzing data from three student categories: children who attended private preschool programming, children who attended the school’s at-risk program, and children who had no schooling. The data collected was used to determine professional development needed, grant funding allocation, and program delivery …

Ready Or Not For K5: A Study On Early Childhood Interventions Within Special Education And General Education Setting, Paulette Mizzell

Theses and Dissertations

This action research study describes how using the Enhanced Alphabet Knowledge model affects preschool students' readiness for Kindergarten. The theoretical framework that supported this study was based on Cindy Jones', Sarah Clark's, and D. Ray Reutzel's Enhanced Alphabet Knowledge Method (2013). This study used quantitative data to further indicate the impact and importance of early intervention classrooms. The participants of this study included eight students from one preschool intervention class. Data collection instruments included pre-and post- phonological awareness literacy screening scores and a teacher questionnaire. Results of this study indicated that the majority of student participants experienced an increase in …

A Comparison Between Preschool Teachers’ Read-Aloud Techniques With Fictional And Informational Picture Books In Small Groups, Ariel Robinson

Reading Horizons: A Journal of Literacy and Language Arts

Relatively little is known about preschool teachers’ read-aloud techniques with informational picture books. The purpose of this investigation was to identify similarities and differences between preschool teachers’ read-aloud techniques with fictional stories, which are commonly read in preschool, and informational texts. Instrumental case study and purposive sampling were employed to investigate the reading techniques of two White female teachers in one preschool classroom as they read in small groups with children two-and-a-half to five years old. In terms of similarities across genres, teachers made personal connections, prompted children to interpret pictures, used multimodal instruction, and differentiated instruction. In terms of …

Perceptions Of The Reggio Emilia Approach To Early Childhood Education, Brandon Harris Gantt

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Preschools provide a method of early intervention to prepare children for school. Reggio Emilia (RE) curricular approach widely used for early childhood education that has not consistently shown a positive influence on cognitive, social, and emotional development of young children. It is also unknown whether those who participate in the RE curricular approach perceive it to foster cognitive, social, and emotional development in early childhood. The purpose of this qualitative, exploratory case study was to investigate participant-perceived benefits of RE as a curricular approach. The conceptual grounding of the study was social constructivism because the RE curricular approach emphasizes the …

Exploring How Preschoolers Use Ipads To Develop Phonemic Awareness: A Case Study, Patricia Pounds Scalf

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this qualitative case study was to describe how iPads may be used to develop phonemic awareness as part of emergent literacy skills acquisition for six preschool students at Little Lambs Christian Preschool (pseudonym) in central Tennessee. The theories guiding this study were the social constructivist theory, as it related to the use of play for the development of new skills, and the emergent literacy theory, which provided a framework for identifying and defining the skills children need to develop before learning to read. The following was the proposed central research question: How does the use of iPads …

Immigrant Parents’ Understanding Of Play-Based Learning, Tajmeen Sandhu

Honours Bachelor of Early Childhood Leadership (HBECL) Capstone Research Posters

It is widely known within the field of Early Childhood Education that play lays a foundation for life-long learning in a child’s life. Furthermore, the partnerships between a parent and educator are crucial for the holistic development of a child. This study explored immigrant parents’ perceptions of play-based learning and analyzed their relationships with their child’s educators. This qualitative study used a narrative design approach and collected data through semi-structured face-to-face interviews which took place with immigrant parents. The data revealed that the participants do not understand the full benefits of play-based learning. Four major themes emerged from the findings; …

Fostering Creative Thinking Skills In Young Children Using Design Thinking Challenges, Tom R. Gannon

Creativity and Change Leadership Graduate Student Master's Projects

For this master’s project I developed a set of resources (guidebook, videos, and presentation deck) which provide child development professionals with a framework and set of skills to facilitate design thinking challenges (open-ended problem-solving activities based on design thinking’s phases of: creating empathy, problem identification, ideation, prototyping, and idea testing) with preschool age children. The centerpiece of the project is the guide book titled Save the Gingerbread Man: Understanding & Supporting Creative Thinking Skills in Preschoolers. The videos are interviews with preschool age children in a series called From the Experts. The presentation deck incorporates can include the …

Effects Of Yoga On Student Attention In Pre-K, Amanda Paulson

Dissertations, Theses, and Projects

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects Yoga Calm (Gillen & Gillen, 2009) had on student attention in Pre-Kindergarten students. Nine pre-kindergarten students receiving special education services at an elementary school participated in 5-10 minutes of yoga practice each day in a small group environment before returning to a large group setting for shared reading. The yoga time consisted of teaching of different sequences along with breathing techniques that could also be used independently. Observations were conducted on a weekly basis during shared reading. The observations focused on whole body listening (eyes, ears, mouth, hands, arms, legs, …

Effects Of A Spanish Phonological Awareness Intervention On Latino Preschoolers' Dual Language Emergent Literacy Skills, Xigrid T. Soto

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Young children’s emergent literacy skills, particularly phonological awareness (PA) and alphabet knowledge (AK), are two of the strongest predictors of future reading skill. There is limited research evaluating the effectiveness of emergent literacy interventions on the dual language PA and AK skills of at-risk Latino preschoolers who are Dual Language Learners (DLLs). The bulk of existing interventions are conducted only in English. There is preliminary evidence supporting that DLL Latino children benefit from Spanish PA and AK instruction; however, few studies include preschool-aged children.

This study applied a multiple probe design across units of instruction to evaluate the effects of …

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

Tess Breen

Critique Of The Owl Curriculum, Judi Guisti, Kathryn Hinkle, Gretchen Oldenburg, Heidi Paul, Jessica Vlasie, Beth Lincoln, Cindy Moulton

University of Montana Journal of Early Childhood Scholarship and Innovative Practice

No abstract provided.

Critique Of The Creative Curriculum For Preschool, Hannah Gullickson, Raelynn Cameron, Lucy Marose, Irene Tiefenthaler, Tasha Van Nice

University of Montana Journal of Early Childhood Scholarship and Innovative Practice

No abstract provided.

An Evaluation Of The Efficacy Of Preschool Participation Upon Kindergarten Readiness, Simone Sellers

Doctor of Education (Ed.D)

The purpose of this quantitative study was to explore whether children who attended a full day of preschool were better prepared for kindergarten than those who attended a part-time program or no program at all. Two levels of the independent variable, preschool participation, were utilized: (a) full-time participation and (b) part-time or no participation. Readiness rates among children who attended a public preschool in a large school district in Florida were examined using standardized academic achievement scores as dependent variables. When looking at kindergarten readiness, males who attended preschool scored higher academic levels than males who attended no preschool. However, …

Using Teacher Prompts To Increase Leadership Skills In Preschool Children, Sarah Elizabeth West

LSU Master's Theses

The purpose of the present study was to determine if teacher prompting could increase the frequency of leadership behaviors exhibited by preschool children during play and if teachers increased their level of prompting of leadership behaviors. Parten’s original 1933 framework defined the categories both directing and following; reciprocally directing or sharing leadership with another child; or directing the group in which the preschool children’s leadership behaviors were recorded. A review of the literature revealed prompts teachers could use to promote leadership skills in young children, which included modeling, helping others, completing tasks, praise, decision-making, and problem solving. …

The Power Of More Than One, Jane King

Occasional Paper Series

Jane King reflects on her experiences as a preschool teacher eager to use methods outside of the norm. She resists activities that encourage homogeneity and strives to promote autonomy and free thinking in her students. After transitioning from teacher to parent, she still uses this philosophy to make small changes in her daughter's classroom and encourage her children to engage in acts of resistance and critical thinking both in and out of school.

Everyday Tactics And The Carnavalesque: New Lenses For Viewing Resistance In Preschool, Joseph Tobin

Occasional Paper Series

Tobin builds upon Steve Schultz's argument that young children’s resisting authority in preschool is a rehearsal or training ground for resisting authority later in life. Using this perspective, this article turns to theories of power and resistance to help us understand everyday events in preschools, and to suggest implications for the choices we make as adults who work with young children.

Building Higher Than We Are Tall: The Power Of Narrative Inquiry In The Life Of A Teacher, Stephanie Bevacqua

Occasional Paper Series

Bevacqua offers two anecdotes from her teaching career that illustrate young children testing the limits of classroom rules and exploring their autonomy and agency. She reflects on her career as a progressive teacher who works to redefine traditional power relations in the classroom by supporting the children’s investigation of community rules and codes of appropriate behavior.

Introduction: Rethinking Resistance In Schools, Jonathan G. Silin

Occasional Paper Series

This issue of Occasional Papers began as a Graduate School seminar honoring Steven Schultz, a much beloved and respected faculty member whose untimely death greatly impacted the Bank Street community. In 1989, Steve’s work was on the cutting edge of attempts to see acts of individual and collective resistance in preschool classrooms as potential precursors of political resistance among adults. The essays in Rethinking Resistance reflect a broad range of experiences and perspectives that prompt us to rethink the meaning and importance of resistance.

Do Spellings Of Words And Phonemic Awareness Training Facilitate Vocabulary Learning In Preschoolers?, Robin O'Leary

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The purpose of this study was to examine the contribution of phoneme awareness training and orthography to the learning of new vocabulary words by partial alphabetic phase readers. We hypothesized that four and five year old children taught to segment words with letters would outperform those trained with shape markers and those that received no segmentation training on an invented spelling task. We also hypothesized that students seeing the spellings of new vocabulary words (names) would learn the words in fewer trials, remember the names and features better and would be able to better recognize letter labels when presented alone. …

You're Getting It!: How Preschool Teachers And Students Experience Literacy Tabletop Games In The Classroom, Katherine Sydik

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

The purpose of this qualitative instrumental case study was to examine affordances of literacy tabletop games in a preschool classroom environment as well as the experiences of young children between the ages of 3 and 6 and teachers playing the games. The following themes emerged from the research: “That’s How Games Are” relating to views about games and play, “How The Teacher Does It”, relating to developmentally appropriate educational practice for playing games with preschool children, “A Way to Keep Them More Engaged”, relating to preschool children’s motivation while playing literacy games, “Things Kids Need to Know for Kindergarten”, relating …

Alchemy In Education: Towards A Preschool Model In College Classrooms, Brad Van Alstyne

Brad Van Alstyne

Education has long been a necessary, yet standardized procedure with little difference from program to program or school to school. In this paper I argue that more of a creative approach using existing educational models such as preschool education would serve us well in the development of student skills at all levels, including college. I also contend that an alchemical metaphor would be useful in the application and acknowledgement of the value of such an approach.

Uncovering The Gifts In English Language Learners, Sheri J. Collier

Teaching and Learning Sciences: Doctoral Research Projects

This research study addresses the problem of practice of the underrepresentation of English language learners (ELL) in gifted and talented (GT) services. The literature provided several reasons for the underrepresentation of ELL students being identified as gifted. One reason cited in the literature was teachers’ lack of referrals or understanding the characteristics of ELL students who may be gifted (Barkan & Bernal, 1991; de Wet & Gubbins, 2011; Esquierdo & Arreguín-Anderson, 2012; Ford & Grantham, 2003; Harris, Rapp, Martínez, & Plucker, 2007). The literature also stated assessment play a major role in identification practices (Anguiano, 2003; Barkan & Bernal, 1991; …

The Giving Tree Academy, David A. Hurdle

CMC Senior Theses

A proposal for a new preschool based in Pomona, California, targeted towards children from low-income backgrounds. Includes extensive research on preschool nationwide, the state of California, and in Pomona. Within the paper a new preschool curriculum and specific teacher practices are discussed. Intended as a model for a new school. or to be adapted for use in educational policy.

Water Play, Jane E. Cline, Brandy A. Smith

Journal of STEM Arts, Crafts, and Constructions

The inclusion of activities to develop sensory awareness, spatial thinking, and physical dexterity, operationalized through hands-on science lessons such as water play, have long been part of early childhood education. This practical article addresses Next Generation Science Standards K-2 ETS1-3 and K-2 ETS1-2 by having four-year-old prekindergarten students direct the path of water on a vertical pegboard water table with strategically-placed, attached plastic cups with holes drilled into them that leak streams of water into each other. Students enhanced their retelling of the story of the Billy Goats Gruff by placing student-made watercolor artwork along the path of the water, …