Early Childhood Education Commons^™

We Didn't Know It Was That Bad: Unearthing Parent Perspectives On Universal Pre-K Policy, Maria S. Mavrides Calderon

Publications and Research

Families are the ultimate recipients of the effects of policy, but seldom get a seat at the policymaking table. This study investigated how parents perceive the impacts of unequal teacher compensation policies on New York City’s (NYC) Universal Pre-K (UPK) expansion. Utilizing Bronfenbrenner's (1979) ecological systems theory and Schneider and Ingram’s (1993) theory of social construction and policy design to create a rich conceptual framework, this qualitative study analyzed parents' voices through document and social media discourse analysis expanding from 2014 to 2021, and semi-structured interviews (n=15). Participants reflected the demographic diversity found in NYC, the largest school system in …

The Reasons Of Cyberbullying On Children In Kuwait: A Comparative Study Between Parents' Perspectives, Laila S. Alkhayat Ph.D., Sara S. Alnufaishan Ph.D.

International Journal for Research in Education

This study aimed to identify the reasons and the suggested solutions for cyberbullying in children in the Kuwaiti society. The study compared the Kuwaiti fathers’ and mothers’ points of view, using the descriptive analytical approach. 377 surveys were randomly distributed among parents in Kuwait. The study identified some reasons for cyberbullying in children as follows: (1) reasons related to the media, such as imitating social media celebrities and watching violent movies and series; (2) reasons related to the family, such as domestic violence, not allowing the child to express their feelings, and the lack of house rules that ban cyberbullying; …

Application Of Multicultural Literature In The Early Childhood Classroom, Deborah Wheeler, Jennifer Hill

Journal of English Learner Education

Culture equates to identity; therefore, the implementation of multicultural literature in the early childhood curriculum is an essential method for securing children’s concept of self and cultural identity. This qualitative study explored the implementation of multicultural literature in early childhood classrooms, and the research included questions pertaining to multicultural literature training, instructional methods, and barriers encountered. The purpose of the study was to answer questions regarding teachers use of multicultural literature in the classroom, how often teachers read multicultural literature and how teachers integrated multicultural literature into instruction. An additional question inquired about what multicultural books titles were teachers reading …

Problem Behavior In Early Childhood Special Education, Morgan N. Giola

Culminating Experience Projects

Research has revealed an increasing number of instances of problem behavior exhibited by students with special needs in early childhood classrooms. This project explores the problem of increased problem behavior in early childhood special education (ECSE) classrooms and how to decrease the prevalence of this challenge. Through an extensive literature review, this project concludes that providing ECSE educators with professional development and resources on research-based approaches and strategies to addressing problem behavior is the key to tackling this problem. The professional development included in this project informs the importance of solving this problem, including short- and long-term implications of students …

Aligning Classroom Management Strategies With A Social Emotional Learning Curriculum In Early Childhood, Jessica Kemp, Sara Whitcomb

Perspectives on Early Childhood Psychology and Education

Traditionally, school-based preventative frameworks have been implemented in isolation with little consideration of alignment and integration of practices throughout the school day. The present study aims to address this gap by increasing school psychologists’ preventative involvement with consultation in early childhood school settings. Using an integrated approach through a multiple baseline design, four Head Start educators were trained in classroom management practices, to increase opportunities throughout the day for teaching, prompting, and reinforcing key skills taught through the Second Step Early Learning (SSEL) social emotional learning curriculum. Findings suggest that a brief professional development session (1-hour) followed by weekly performance …

A Study Of Behavior Issues In The Early Childhood Classroom After The Pandemic, Mari Elena Sremba

Culminating Experience Projects

Research has shown that children entering the classroom environment after the COVID-19 pandemic are struggling with behavioral issues. Due to a lack of social-emotional skills and heightened anxiety and depression, schools are seeing children act out more violently and emotionally than ever before. With a strict focus on the findings of the importance of school readiness and play-based learning skills, this project is aimed to minimize these outbursts of negative behavior by teaching parents on how to get involved in the home and teach these necessary skills for school success. Parental involvement has shown high correlations with success for children …

Limiting Play-Based Learning In Early Childhood Classrooms: The Impact On Student Engagement, Ashley M. Lesniak

Culminating Experience Projects

Research has revealed the developmental benefits and school readiness skills students gain from play-based child centered learning, yet most early childhood classrooms beyond preschool are seeing less and less play-based learning and more direct instruction of academic skills due to increased accountability put in place by reforms such as No Child Left Behind. The purpose of this project is to inform and remind teachers and administration of the benefits of play-based learning but also to create some curriculum that will integrate more play-based learning into classrooms. Currently, many classrooms do not implement play -based learning due to time, academics, and …

Early Childhood Nutrition Education Implementation Evaluation And Planning: Learn, Grow, Eat & Go!, Alyssa L. Wessling

Capstone Experience

The obesity rate among American children aged two to five years old is 12.7% (Centers for Disease Control, 2022), indicating a need for health interventions at this critical life stage. Nebraska Extension’s Nutrition Education Program has identified a need for direct education materials to reach Nebraskans in early childhood. Learn, Grow, Eat & Go! Early Childhood was identified as an appropriate curriculum to be tested in an early childhood intervention pilot. Learn, Grow, Eat & Go! Early Childhood is a newly developed program built upon the foundation of teaching children about healthful foods and physical activity through gardening. An early …

The Influence Of Social Stories On Early Learners, Kate Whiting

Masters of Arts in Education Action Research Papers

This action research study was conducted in a two or three-day-a-week preschool class within a suburban area in the Midwest. This study collected observable student behavior over four weeks. The study aimed to decrease anxiety and undesirable behaviors among preschool-aged students within a classroom setting. Undesirable behaviors include prolonged anxiety when transitioning from the first learning environment, home, to the second, school. In addition, behaviors such as trouble following routine expectations and transitioning within a preschool classroom. The student participants in this research were given Social Stories to help ease anxiety within the preschool classroom during routines and separation from …

Leaving Kindergarten Well: First-Grade Readiness In Outdoor Waldorf Kindergartens, Garry H. Oak

Leadership for Sustainability Education Comprehensive Papers

This article proposes an intervention to address the complex needs of children in outdoor Waldorf kindergartens. The intervention suggests integrating cultural responsiveness practices, remedial education, and outdoor teacher training competency into existing teacher training programs. By adopting this comprehensive approach, new teachers can acquire the necessary tools to meet the diverse needs of their students and adapt to the challenges of modern education. Ongoing professional development programs are also recommended to enable teachers to continuously enhance their skills throughout their careers. This multi-pronged solution aims to establish a more equitable and effective educational system that considers various dimensions of children's …

Technical Report: Listening To Teachers Study, Mark K. Nagasawa

Straus Center for Young Children & Families

This is the summary report for the second year of the Listening to Teachers Study which asks how early childhood educators in New York City (NYC) have been faring through the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The study’s purpose has been to seek deeper understandings of what NYC’s early care and education (ECE) workforce has experienced during the Pandemic to inform decision-making about the city's future ECE systems by raising issues for reflection and action-oriented discussion.

The study has followed a multistage, exploratory-mixed methods design, incorporating: 1) ongoing consultation with ECE stakeholders to incorporate questions of interest to them – and their …

Who's There For The Directors?, Mark K. Nagasawa

Straus Center for Young Children & Families

This third report from the Listening to Teachers study’s second year focuses on a subsample of early childhood program leaders (n=113) in NYC. Among the key findings in this report:

• Support from supervisors lowered the odds of survey participants reporting potential burnout.
• However, the odds of program leaders reporting potential burnout were 1.7 times higher than for other respondents.
• The odds of Black, Indigenous, and other People of Color (BIPOC) respondents being in leadership roles were significantly less than their white colleagues.

While this study's self-selected sample makes these findings ungeneralizable, they do raise the critically important question, What is …

Exploration Of Young Children And Families Use Of Technology In A Rural School District, Kim Dickert-Wallace

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation explores the use of mobile technology with young children ages 2 to 5 in a small rural school district in southwestern Pennsylvania. Grounded in an understanding that family-child relationships are central to children’s development and school readiness, this study seeks to understand the ways families engage with children around technology use, how young children use technology, and how these habits compare to national data. The data also led to ways the school district might support families and young children using mobile technology in developmentally appropriate ways. Thirteen families that live in the Mountain Valley School district completed the …

Dismantling The Dichotomy: Latinx Identity And Assimilation In Early Childhood Education, Rocio J. Olvera

College of Education Theses and Dissertations

An increasing number of children in early childhood education (ECE) are Latinx. Drawing on ethnic identity, culture, and language, this thesis describes the dichotomy between adherences to one’s ethnic identity and assimilation into the dominant societal culture. This paper describes how assimilation harms students and provokes negative implications such as identity loss, confusion, and loss of cultural ties. Dismantling the dichotomy is possible through the power of language, culture, and strengthening teacher-parent relationships.

Parent Perspectives On Early Childhood Education Integration, Maria S. Mavrides Calderon, Gregory Brender

Publications and Research

Former Mayor De Blasio made the expansion of 3-K for All and Pre-K for All a top priority of his administration. In its re-procurement of contracts for community-based early childhood education providers, the De Blasio administration’s Department of Education made it a priority for programs to “foster socio-economic integration at the classroom level.” Mayor Eric L. Adams has spoken of his own experience being educated in segregated schools and has called for students to be exposed to more diverse environments (Shapiro, 2021). It is up to his administration to implement the changes that will foster desegregation in New York City’s …

The Mitigation Of In-Group And Outgroup Biases: Understanding The Perceptions Of Educators On The Contact Approach Theory, Brigitte Blazys

Dissertations

The contact approach theory was introduced in the 1950s, by Allport, as a method to mitigate biases. Since then, many DEI practitioners in the United States have formed alliances to create a social justice movement to combat racism, prejudice, and biases in our society. Nevertheless, little research has been conducted in the contact approach theory as these biases, initially observed as in-group and outgroup biases, originate in the early years of life. To begin to fill this gap in the literature, the purpose of this study was to better understand and identify to what extent, if any, prekindergarten through third …

Playing With Math And Science In The Early Childhood Classroom, Cassandra Armstrong, Lindsey Herlehy

Publications & Research

Young students are equipped with the curiosity and creativity to be successful scientists and mathematicians. In today’s classrooms, strong foundational skills in STEM promote success for years to come. Through play, young students can subitize, sort, draw, recognize patterns, and explore loose parts. Participants will actively take part in several activities highlighting each of these skills.

How Do Parents Of Typically Developing Children Perceive And Interact With Children With Exceptionalities?, Zurisaday N. Decker

Theses and Dissertations--Early Childhood, Special Education, and Counselor Education

The purpose of this study was to examine how parents with children displaying typical development, perceive and interact with children who have exceptionalities or disabilities and explore parents’ openness to having discussions about exceptional children in inclusive classrooms. Given that parents function as foundational sources of knowledge to children in their early childhood years, understanding parents’ perceptions of and interactions with children with disabilities may help to understand how these parents’ children will, in-turn, perceive and interact with classroom peers with disabilities. This line of inquiry is supported by Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems theory, which views microsystems such as the family, …

Teaching The Picture Exchange Communication System Phases I-Ii To Preschool Students With Disabilities, Olivia Kelly

Theses and Dissertations--Early Childhood, Special Education, and Counselor Education

The purpose of the study was to evaluate the effectiveness of teaching the PECS protocol to preschool students with disabilities using the PECS Phases I-II. A multiple probe across participants design was used to conduct the study and evaluate the effectiveness of the training on the PECS Phases I-II. The results of the study demonstrated that teaching the PECS protocol using picture cards of preferred items was effective in the preschool setting to teach preschool students with moderate to severe disabilities to independently travel to a PECS book and exchange a picture request with the investigator.

The Effects Of System Of Least Prompts On Preschool Children’S Play Skills, Hailey D. Helton

Theses and Dissertations--Early Childhood, Special Education, and Counselor Education

This research study utilized a multiple probe design to teach pretend play skills while embedding the system of least prompts teaching strategy during pretend play. Four preschool-aged children with and without disabilities participated in the study. When the system of least prompts was embedded within pretend play, play skills increased.

Effects Of A Parent-Implemented Intervention On Preschool Children’S Engagement In Constructive Play In Home Settings, Michelle Lynn Boulanger Thompson

Theses and Dissertations

Constructive play is a creative process-oriented activity that promotes engaged learning through building and designing with materials. This study explores a parent-implemented intervention to promote active engagement in constructive play for preschool-aged children who are at risk for developmental delay and answers the research question: Do parent-implemented environmental support strategies improve the child’s active engagement in constructive play in the home? The research methodology utilized is a single-subject multiple baseline across-participants design with four participants. Visual analysis of the data supports a functional relation between the temporal, physical, and social-emotional environmental supports provided by the parents and the children’s active …

An Examination Of Positive Behavioral Interventions And Supports (Pbis) And Conscious Discipline As An Intervention To Challenging Behaviors In The Preschool Classroom, Jennifer Nelson

Graduate Teacher Education

In the field of early childhood education, there has been a growing concern over the number of challenging behaviors being displayed. To decrease the display of challenging behaviors, educators have been looking for positive strategies and supports to help manage the display of challenging behaviors such as Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS) (Carter, Van Norman, & Tredwell, 2011), and Conscious Discipline (Bailey, 2014). When managing the display of challenging behaviors, a shift has occurred from using negative discipline practices to implementing positive guidance approaches in early childhood (EC) classrooms (Carter et al., 2011). When educators teach the children what …

Mindfulness In Early Childhood Education, Madalyn L. Coss

Honors Projects

The following work identifies the need for mindfulness in early childhood education. It explains what mindfulness is, what the benefits of it are, and how it can be used in early childhood classrooms. A podcast episode is included with the intent of it being used to inform educators on the subject.

“Nadie Nos Han Preguntado…” (Nobody Has Asked Us...), Mark Nagasawa

Straus Center for Young Children & Families

This is the latest in a series of reports from the Listening to Teachers Study, which seeks understanding of how New York City's early childhood educators are faring during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The purpose of this study is to use data gathered through surveys (May 2020, n=3355; June 2021, n=663) and in-depth interviews (spring 2022) to prompt reflection and discussion about what a more equitable post-pandemic ECE system could look like.

This report focuses on describing the June 2021 sample and preliminary findings:

1. As in 2020, emotional/mental health support was the most frequently requested need, but professional …

A Guide For Preschool General Education Teachers To Identify And Support Children With Developmental Delays, Sarah Jane Snider Mrs

Dissertations, Theses, and Projects

Snider (2021) A Guide for Preschool General Education Teachers to Identify and Support Children with Developmental Delays

It is essential to identify areas of professional development that educators need in order to effectively teach children. Professional development strengthens teachers knowledge and equips them with skills that will improve teaching practice and child achievement. This study looked at preschool general educator areas of weakness. The information that was obtained was used to create a professional development guide to enhance weakness areas. The results show that preschool general education teachers needed further information on identifying and supporting children with developmental delays. In …

Covid-19 And Early Childhood Workforce Emotional Well-Being: An Exploratory Investigation, Mark Nagasawa

Straus Center for Young Children & Families

This conference paper was presented at the 2021 meeting of the American Educational Research Association. It shares findings from a mixed method, exploratory study that sought to understand how New York State's early childhood (ECE) workforce was faring early in the COVID-19 pandemic (n=3,555). This was a project of the New York City Early Childhood Research Network, a research practitioner partnership organized to create evidence-informed early childhood public policy. Among the key findings were high levels of reported stress, for instance those working remotely were approximately one-and-a-half times more likely to rate their emotional well-being negatively than those whose settings …

Teacher Interactions, Teacher Bias And Child Behavioral Health, Ellen E. Edge

Doctoral Dissertations

TEACHER INTERACTIONS, TEACHER BIAS AND CHILD BEHAVIORAL HEALTH SEPTEMBER 2020 ELLEN ELLSBERG EDGE, BFA, THE COOPER UNION SCHOOL OF ART Post BA, UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS AMHERST M.ED, UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS AMHERST Ph. D., UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS AMHERST Directed by: Professor Claire Hamilton This study utilized a mixed methods study design to gain a clearer understanding of the thoughts and feelings of Lead teachers in Head Start programs who work with children with perceived behavioral health challenges. Utilizing a semi-structured interview, 11 teachers employed in a New England Head Start program were asked about their views associated with child behavioral health, …

Increasing Math In Preschool Curriculum, Riley Burnett

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

In many preschools and early childhood educational settings, mathematical skill-building is lacking in the curriculum. With a lack of math curriculum in a preschool classroom, students may not have foundational mathematical skills, may lack problem-solving skills, and may lack self-confidence in math skills. To help children develop their math skills, I designed a virtual math activity for 3 to 4-year-old preschool children attending Monterey Peninsula College Early Childhood Lab School.

Family Engagement During Covid-19, Mark Nagasawa

Straus Center for Young Children & Families

This is an infographic summarizing findings from a survey conducted in May 2020 (n=3355) about how the COVID-19 was affecting early childhood educators in New York. Unsurprisingly, the survey responses reflected respondents' multimodal creativity and professional commitment to connecting with children's families. Responses also suggested some underlying tensions, such as school-centric notions of family engagement (i.e., more academically focused) vs. family-centric perspectives (i.e., offering emotional and material support to families). Ultimately the survey's contribution lies in shedding some light on important, difficult-to-resolve issues that must be debated as the world moves towards "post" pandemic life (e.g., services, supports, and accessibility …

Forgotten Frontline Workers: A Snapshot Of Family Child Care And Covid-19 In New York, Mark Nagasawa, Kate Tarrant

Straus Center for Young Children & Families

This the third report from the New York ECE and COVID-19 Survey, which focuses on both the unique challenges faced by the family child care (FCC) providers who participated in the survey, as well as their particular resilience. At the time of the survey (May 2020), this group of participants was the most physically open form of ECE and was significantly more affected economically than their other ECE colleagues. Interestingly, several of the survey respondents (in different geographic locations) spoke of organizing efforts for mutual support and collective action, which may be a promising development for reducing social isolation, increasing …