Early Childhood Education Commons^™

A Case For The Inclusion Of Graphic Novels In The Classroom, Brittany Rosenberg

Graduate Student Independent Studies

This paper will explore the use of graphic novels in the context of the classroom, ultimately arguing that graphic novels not only deserve a place in elementary through high school classrooms, but are an effective and successful learning tool. The paper is divided into four central arguments utilizing a review of relevant literature to support each section’s argument. It will begin with an examination of the motivation for the paper’s creation, detailing the circumstance unto which the author of this paper decided to write it. The paper will then move into the four central parts. Part one will examine research …

Pizza Bagel Sundays, Kate D'Auria

Graduate Student Independent Studies

Kate D’Auria worked on an independent study where she created her own children’s book. The book is called Pizza Bagel Sundays and was illustrated by Yan Gabriella Peropat. Pizza Bagel Sundays is a memoir about her childhood and how she grew up in a single parent household. Though single parenting is one of the focuses of the book, it does have other themes such as family, love and how we spend time together. Research was done to see what other types of children’s literature is out there and see where the book fit in. Look at the literature that was …

Childhood Anxiety, Julia Post

Graduate Student Independent Studies

The following paper closely examines anxiety in school-aged children, especially those predisposed through environmental and biological factors. While there are many typical worries and fears in children, atypical signs that point to an anxiety disorder include severity and high frequency of worry and avoidance behavior. Anxiety disorders affect roughly a third of children ages six through eleven, and early intervention and cognitive strategies are extremely effective in giving children coping skills for their separation, social, or generalized anxiety. Some of the treatment plans examined in this paper include Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT) and Narrative Therapy and …

The Impact Of Mindfulness Practices On Classroom Climate And Perceived Teacher Stress, Erin Kathryn Hebert

LSU Master's Theses

BACKGROUND: Teaching has been identified as the most stressful profession in the human service industry (Greenberg, Brown, & Abenavoli, 2016). Elevated teacher stress can affect teacher well-being and burnout, as well as, classroom climate and student outcomes. OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this research study was to assess whether mindfulness practices can increase positive classroom climate and decrease perceived stress in early childhood teachers. METHOD: Participating teachers were selected based on results of the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS; Cohen, Kamarck, & Mermelstein, 1983). Data were collected on the positive and negative climate objectives from the Classroom Assessment Scoring System …

Teaching Kids Is Not Child’S Play, Singapore Management University

Perspectives@SMU

Staff retention, a brand culture, and governmental commitment is crucial to success in early childhood education

Fiona Walker appears to have it all. Happily married with two teenage children, Scottish by parentage but Singapore-born Walker is a leader in her chosen field, as the Group Managing Director of the Singapore-based early childhood education chain Julia Gabriel Education. An industry veteran with 27 years of experience, she also oversees the Chiltern House Preschools and Chengzhu (成竹) Mandarin Centre and Kindergarten and enjoys what she does but admits that very often it involves a fine balancing act.

Stem Storytelling: Using Picture Books To Integrate Mathematics - "Dare To Tinker", Lindsey Herlehy, Karen Togliatti

Publications & Research

This series of activities invites students to engage in a design challenge that elicits mathematical and scientific thinking. In the first activity, the picture book The Most Magnificent Thing by Ashley Spires will be used as a catalyst to discuss the engineering design process as experienced by the protagonist, a little girl. Suggested questioning techniques and inferential reasoning strategies will focus on the trials and tribulations, frustrations, and successes achieved by the little girl. Additionally, discussion prompts are included to provide students an opportunity to reflect on the little girl as a mathematician and scientist as she takes action and …

What Factors Drive Individual Misperceptions Of The Returns To Schooling In Tanzania? Some Lessons For Education Policy, Plamen Nikolov, Nursat Jimi

Economics Faculty Scholarship

Evidence on educational returns and the factors that determine the demand for schooling in developing countries is extremely scarce. Building on previous studies that show individuals underestimating the returns to schooling, we use two surveys from Tanzania to estimate both the actual and perceived schooling returns and subsequently examine what factors drive individual misperceptions regarding actual returns. Using ordinary least squares and instrumental variable methods, we find that each additional year of schooling in Tanzania increases earnings, on average, by 9 to 11 percent. We find that on average individuals underestimate returns to schooling by 74 to 79 percent and …

Informally Shaping A Child's Mind Around Genocide Within Rwandan Families, Cameron Voss

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

While policy and education are subject to change from research oriented projects, my research rather drives to understand and record how caregivers portrayed their own, others, and their country’s past to the next generation. The informal aspects of family structures, while highly influential, are difficult to navigate and track, and this research endeavors to unveil some of the hidden trends that are throughout Rwandan families with children born after the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi. The generation that has matured in the aftermath of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsis in Rwanda have faced many challenges that few outside of …

Nebline, April 2018

NEBLINE Newsletter Archive from Nebraska Extension in Lancaster County

Feature: Can You Pass This Food Safety Quiz?

Food & Health

Farm & Acreage

Pests & Wildlife

Horticulture

Early Childhood

4-H & Youth

and other extension news and events

Special Pullout Section: Weed Awareness

Parent Implemented Adapted Dialogic Reading With Preschoolers With Autism, Mckenzie Ward

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

The current study examined the role of a novel, adapted dialogic reading curriculum and its impact on preschoolers with autism and their interactions with their parents during shared book reading. The aim of this study was to determine the impact of the curriculum on the effects of child social reciprocity and parents’ feelings of competence and confidence when trained on implementation strategies. Pre- and post-test measures were conducted for four parent-child dyads to measure the impact of adapted dialogic reading on child social reciprocity and parents’ feelings of competence and confidence. Although the sample size was small, clear trends were …

The Effect Of Classroom Context On Head Start Teacher Feedback, Jasmine Renee Ernst

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

The Classroom Assessment Scoring System (CLASS, LaParo, Pianta, & Stuhlman, 2004) assesses quality of teacher social and instructional interactions with children, and classroom management and productivity. Prior research indicated low quality of feedback scores in programs serving low-income children (Early et al., 2005). The purpose of this study was to compare the quantity and quality of managing interaction utterances (i.e. a type of feedback) provided by Head Start teachers (N = 8) in two classroom contexts. Video-recorded book-reading and 20-minute center-time sessions in the fall and spring of a school year were used to assess managing interaction utterances in structured …

Learning To Teach: Observing And Reflecting, Nancy Nager

All Faculty and Staff Papers and Presentations

This video series, “Learning to Teach,” provides a platform for professional development in early childhood education. It introduces viewers to compelling early childhood classroom footage accompanied by facilitated discussions about observations and teaching practices. You will get a hands-on look at how beginning teachers learn to closely observe children and engage in reflective conversations about children, materials, the classroom environment and themselves.

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. …

Application Of Response-To-Intervention In A Pre-Kindergarten Special Education Classroom, Justin J. Daigle

Dissertations

Lovaas (1987) applied behavior analysis to the treatment of autism and demonstrated a 47% “recovery” rate. He also reported that around 10% of the population that received his services made little-to-no improvement. The present study used a response-to-intervention framework to systematically identify and treat students in an early childhood, special-education classroom who were in danger of falling within that 10%. This study set out to identify, classify, and differentiate the treatment based on the student’s response to the standard classroom intervention. Improvements in multiple students’ rates of acquisition based on this system were recorded. This indicated a possibility of improved …

Linguistic Interactions Of Spanish Speaking Mexican American Families, Adelfio J. Garcia

Dissertations

This study explored the bilingual linguistic interactions in Mexican families and their impact on children’s language and literacy development. This qualitative study gathered data using different methods, namely, interviews, direct observations, participant observation, and physical artifacts to examine parents’ perceptions of their own educational path in comparison to their children’s educational path in an American school system, together with their daily linguistic interactions in various social contexts, and the features, themes and roles of linguistic interactions participants. Study results assisted in gaining deeper understanding of daily conversations happening in different social contexts and their impact on the language and literacy …

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, …

Pre-K Effectiveness At A Large Scale, Timothy J. Bartik, Brad J. Hershbein

Employment Research Newsletter

No abstract provided.

Ipads In Preschools: A Collective Case Study About Tablet Technology In Subsidized Preschool Programs, Dean Tagawa

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Preschool children today will not remember a time when there were no smartphones, laptops, or iPads. The purpose of this qualitative collective case study was to develop an in-depth understanding of the challenges and benefits of implementing tablet technology for early education teachers that work in subsidized preschool programs. Tablet utilization in preschool classrooms was generally defined as how teachers from five different classrooms utilize tablet technology to enhance the instructional programs for children in subsidized preschool programs. The setting for this study was five early education centers in a large urban school district. Data were collected through semistructured interviews, …

Understanding Video-Reflective Practices Of Veteran Teachers: A Collective Case Study, Kasey Hutchinson

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this collective case study was to understand cameras in the classroom and reflective practices of veteran teachers in Julianna School District (pseudonym). Utilizing the General Self Efficacy Scale (GSE), demographics data questionnaire, three self-reflective protocol questionnaires and interviews with nine teachers, three administrators, and three instructional coaches, this study investigated how teachers’ perceived video-reflective practices influence teaching practices, professional learning, and instructional preparation. Three elementary schools were chosen to participate in this study and from each, I selected five participants. Three learning theories guided this study. Bandura’s (1977) social cognitive theory provided understanding of personal thought processes …

Sidewalk Math: An Innovative Approach For Engaging All Children In Mathematical Learning, Martha Barry Mckenna, Siobhan Dennis, Maureen Loony, Merideth Ekwall

Lesley University Community of Scholars Day

In kindergarten classrooms in six schools across Massachusetts young children are developing numbersense by walking, hopping, jumping, and skipping through colorful mathematical designs on carpets and sidewalks. The patterns and accompanying counting activities provide teachers with tools to engage young children in learning mathematics through movement and observation activities on colorful floor designs.

Lesley University’s Creativity Commons partnered with 20 kindergarten teachers and their 6 principals to form the Early Childhood Math Collaborative Inquiry Project in Fall 2017 to study the impact of the use of Sidewalk Math carpet patterns on children’s development of numbersense. Teachers from 3 urban schools …

Immigrants And Educational Institutions: Family And Student Perspectives Toward School And Education, Paul Naso, Kimberly Joyce-Bernard, Marcelo Juica, Frank Rothwell

Lesley University Community of Scholars Day

The purpose of this session is to bring together insights from three research studies (one completed and two ongoing) concerned with documenting the experiences of immigrant populations as they interact with U.S. educational institutions. The session is an opportunity to consider the common and distinct aspects of three qualitative research studies: an inquiry into native Spanish-speaking parents’ experiences regarding their children education; a narrative analysis of Francophone African-born adult family members’ accounts of their children’s language and literacy development at home and in early childhood programs; and a study to identify the obstacles and challenges of undocumented students enrolled in …

Privileged Leadership: Teaching English Learners With Fixed Mindsets, Alexandra Lituchy

Lesley University Community of Scholars Day

Research was conducted over a hundred hours at a nearby public school to observe the growth or fixed mindset language of English learners as compared to native English speakers in the second grade. Observations were also made of the English learner’s teacher’s mindset language. Existing research proves that any student with a fixed mindset have poorer academic performances. Yet, very little research has been done on if the same is true for English learners specifically. Based on the research conducted, English learners are more likely to use fixed mindset language than native English speakers. English learners also demonstrate a fixed …

Family Impact Seminar 2018: The Kids Are Not All Right: Policy Options To Address Youth Trauma In Massachusetts, Denise Hines, Laurie Ross Ph.D, Marianne Sarkis Ph.D

Mosakowski Institute for Public Enterprise

Family Impact Seminars are a series of annual seminars, briefing reports, and discussion sessions that provide up-to-date, solution-oriented research on current issues for state legislators and their aides. The seminars provide objective, nonpartisan research on current issues and do not lobby for particular policies. Seminar participants discuss policy options and identify common ground where it exists.

The Kids are NOT All Right: Policy Options to Address Youth Trauma in Massachusetts is the ninth Massachusetts Family Impact Seminar. Today’s seminar is designed to emphasize a family perspective in policymaking on issues related to early intervention in childhood trauma, sex trafficking and …

Investigation Of Preschool Teachers Perceptions, Understandings, And Practices Related To Resilience Pedagogy: A Qualitative Single Case Study, Nancy Fern Ziobro

Theses and Dissertations

The purposes of this qualitative single case study were to (a) understand the meaning of resilience through the lens of preschool teachers working in an elementary school in a small urban district and (b) to explore the impact of engaging preschool teachers in professional discourse with their colleagues regarding pedagogical practices that foster resilient behaviors in their students. Using focus groups, semi-structured interviews, and graphic elicitations this study discovered the meaning of resilience through descriptions of preschool teachers' understandings, perceptions, and teaching practices. Key findings indicate teachers viewed resilience in terms of the ability to persevere and recover in times …

A Review Of Survey Data Collected On The Use Of Applied Behavior Analytic (Aba) Based Instructional Strategies By Educators In Pennsylvania Schools, Eric J. Bieniek, Mike Monfore, Matthew Erickson, Ashlea Rineer-Hershey, Richael Barger-Anderson

National Youth Advocacy & Resilience Conference

This survey was initiated to explore the perceptions and daily practices of Applied behavior Analytic ABA) by educators supporting exceptional learners in public and private school settings in Pennsylvania. This survey explores the degree to which educators are trained, feel confident in and actually carry out a range evidenced based practices following an ABA approach. Results are also presented in regards to barriers that educators feel limit the delivery of ABA based approaches and undermine the fidelity of interventions once introduced in their professional settings.

Engaging Data-Based Problem-Solving To Address Chronic Absenteeism Among Prek-12 Students, Amber Brundage

National Youth Advocacy & Resilience Conference

Each year approximately, 5-7.5 million students are chronically absent. Data necessary to assist educators in problem-solving chronic absenteeism are not widely available. This session focuses on the use of two instruments designed to inform problem-solving for PreK-12 students. A description of instrument administration, data analysis and real-life examples of designing and implementing interventions based on needs identified through the surveys will be provided.

Setting The Stage For Success: Empowering At-Risk Students, Sarah C. Mayberry

National Youth Advocacy & Resilience Conference

Teachers and school leaders will gain an understanding of how students in an inner city, Title I elementary school have used goal setting, data tracking, and leadership habits to empower their learning and set the stage for student success. Participants will also learn how these practices have enabled students to participate in student led parent conferences to share their personal learning and growth.

Nebline, March 2018

NEBLINE Newsletter Archive from Nebraska Extension in Lancaster County

Feature: Early Spring Care for Fruit Trees

Food & Health

Farm & Acreage

Pests & Wildlife

Horticulture

Early Childhood

4-H & Youth

and other extension news and events

A Phenomenological Study: How College Students With Adhd Are Affected By Fragmentation And Disassociation, Melissa Hood

CUP Ed.D. Dissertations

Students with Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder (ADHD) struggle with more learning challenges than any other group of students; these individuals may experience spiritual fragmentation that impacts the effectiveness of academic program structure and learning outcomes. The purpose of this hermeneutic, phenomenological study was to explore college students with ADHD are affected by disassociation and fragmentation. The conceptual framework for this study was based on the constructionist theories of Maslow, Vygotsky, and Erikson. Purposeful sampling included 39 participants using a Qualtircs survey as the instrument. In addition, five of these parcipants were also interviewed. Data were analyzed through open, axial, and …

Identifying And Addressing The Educational Needs Of Primary Elementary Latino Males, Sandra Vilas

Dissertations

Purpose: The purpose of this qualitative study is to understand and describe the strategies and practices that exemplary teachers use to address the educational needs of Latino male students from kindergarten through third grade.

Methodology: The researcher selected a qualitative research design to describe and understand the instructional strategies and practices used by district Teachers of the Year from 2011 - 2016 in three counties in Southern California. Through in-depth semi-structured open-ended interviews, the researcher provided a detailed examination of the instructional practices and strategies exemplary primary teachers use to address the educational needs of primary Latino males. The district …