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open access

Effects of a Brain Improvement Program on Students' Reading Achievement

Description: How to close the reading achievement gap among K-12 students is an ongoing emphasis for educators in the 21st century. The purpose of the study was to determine if using kinesthetic movements from the Brain Gym® program improved the reading achievement of Grade 3 Hispanic and African American students. Students from four elementary schools participated in the study. The students in the control and experimental groups completed a 2004 release TAKS third grade reading assessment for the pretest a… more
Date: May 2013
Creator: Sánchez, Edelmira
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Pre-Service Teacher Perspectives of Self-Efficacy, Philosophy, and Epistemology after an Introductory Early Childhood Education Course

Description: Today's early childhood programs are required to have high-quality inclusive classrooms that serve preschool children with disabilities and diverse needs employed by highly-qualified early childhood teachers. The problem of this study was to describe the current status of pre-service teachers' perspectives of their own teacher self-efficacy, philosophical beliefs, and epistemological beliefs for inclusive practices in an early childhood classroom at the conclusion of an introductory early child… more
Date: August 2019
Creator: Taylor, Darla Sue
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

The Efficacy of the Chickasaw Nation Early Care and Education Programs

Description: The purposes of this research were to explore the effectiveness of the Chickasaw Nation early care and education program in promoting school readiness while infusing tribally relevant values in children from birth through age five; engaging parents in all aspects of their children’s learning; and supporting children and families through the transitioning to kindergarten. The study used qualitative methods to examine the experiences and perceptions of ten parents, ten teachers, and five adminis… more
Date: May 2014
Creator: Blackmon, Lisa
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

The Disney Influence on Kindergarten Girls' Body Image

Description: Media is now a part of the early childhood world. In many countries, including industrialized and developing countries, children spend more time consuming various kinds of media. The impact of media on children's perception of their body images has been and continues to be a concern of parents and early childhood professionals. This research examined the influence of Disney movies on Thai kindergarten girls' body images and self-esteem. Thai kindergarten girls completed three measures of body s… more
Date: May 2013
Creator: Asawarachan, Tanawan
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Do Re Mi? Yes! Using Music and Visual Arts to Promote Thai Children's English Vocabulary Development

Description: This research examines the efficacy, if any, of the Music and Visual Arts (MVA) program in improving the English vocabulary development of first grade Thai students. The researcher developed the Vocabulary Recognition Assessment (VRA) as a measure of English vocabulary development. It employs the accuracy and rapidity method of word recognition as a measurement of English language development in Thai children. Forty first grade Thai students in a Bangkok elementary school participated in the… more
Date: May 2016
Creator: Mathayomchan, Somsuda
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Social and Emotional Learning and Preservice Teacher Education: Assessing Preservice Teachers' Knowledge, Beliefs, and Attitudes

Description: In response to the main federal K-12 law, the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) and the teacher education program standards, teacher education programs have tried to address social and emotional learning (SEL) content in their curricula. Adding information on SEL alone may not be enough to overcome the shortenings of many existing early childhood programs. The current study attempted to address these shortenings through the inclusion of specialized SEL strategies and sample activities in additi… more
Date: August 2017
Creator: Dolzhenko, Inna Nickole
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Preschool Teachers’ Knowledge of Children’s Mathematical Development and Beliefs About Teaching Mathematics

Description: Early childhood education emphasizes the need of providing high quality early childhood mathematics programs for preschool children. However, there is little research that examines the importance of preschool children’s mathematical knowledge development and teachers’ beliefs about how to teach mathematics to young children. The purposes of this study were to investigate pre-service and in-service preschool teachers’ knowledge of children’s mathematical development and their beliefs about teach… more
Date: December 2013
Creator: Kim, In Hong
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Funds of Knowledge in a Hispanic Household: a Case Study of Family Experiences, Values, and Connections to Education

Description: Traditionally, the field of education has often adopted a negative perspective in their views of minority families’ contributions to the educational progress of their children. However, research embodying the theoretical framework of ‘funds of knowledge’ attempts to counter that model through its assertion that all families possess extensive bodies of knowledge that have developed through social, historical, and cultural contexts. Teachers carry out studies of familial funds of knowledge in o… more
Date: December 2013
Creator: Feild, Kelly A.
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Preschool Mathematics: An Examination of One Program's Alignment with Recommendations from NAEYC and NCTM

Description: The purpose of this study was to determine the extent to which a preschool program followed the recommendations outlined by the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) and the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) in their joint position statement "Early Childhood Mathematics: Promoting Good Beginnings." Six teachers were randomly selected from three of the preschool program's six locations that are situated in an urban city in North Texas. Two parts of thi… more
Date: December 2010
Creator: Johnston, Elisabeth
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Perceptions about Student Diversity and Equity in Early Childhood Science Education: A Teacher Preparation Study

Description: Using a mixed-methods approach, the current study examined the relationship between early childhood preservice teachers' cultural awareness and their self-efficacy in equitable science education. It further aimed to determine if the relationship between these two constructs was moderated by their race/ethnicity or the number of languages they speak. Finally, it sought to identify preservice teachers' understanding of equity in science education, as well as how they planned to incorporate the eq… more
Date: May 2018
Creator: Lee, Eun Young
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Funds of Knowledge and Early Literacy: A Case Study

Description: When teachers are charged with educating students that are racially, culturally, or economically different from them, they may have little information on the culture and type of family involvement of their students. This lack of information contributes to perceptions of working-class families as socially disorganized and intellectually deficient. However, research embodying the theoretical framework funds of knowledge (FoK) attempts to counter deficient models through its assertion that all fam… more
Date: May 2015
Creator: Butler, Ami R.
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Effects of Child Development Associate Credential System 2.0 on Candidate Success Rates

Description: The purpose of this research was to identify the impact of process changes that have been made to the Child Development Associate (CDA) credential, which is a beginning early childhood teacher credential that focuses on competency based standards widely seen as necessary for early childhood teachers to possess. The process in which early childhood teachers receive their credential changed in 2013 with the implementation of CDA credential 2.0. Changes included taking a computerized exam and th… more
Date: December 2015
Creator: Davis, Travis J.
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Home Literacy Practices in Diverse Families: Parental Involvement in Kindergarten Children's Literacy Development

Description: Although prior research has shown that parental involvement positively affects a child's literacy development, attention should also be directed to the factors that keep parents from being involved in their children's education. The study reported in this dissertation examined five factors: socioeconomic status, level of education, employment, culture, and language that may be influential in parental assistance of their children's literacy development in the home. The data sources for this inve… more
Date: May 2013
Creator: Gonzalez, Lauren
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Children with Autism in Taiwan and the United States: Parental Stress, Parent-child Relationships, and the Reliability of a Child Development Inventory

Description: Autism is one of the fastest growing childhood disorders in the world, and the families that have children with autism experience frustration and stress due to many practical problems. with the increase in the prevalence of autism, it is urgent to raise awareness of autism and to provide services and support for children with autism and their parents to improve the parent-child relationship and moderate the parental stress. with regard to families with children diagnosed as autistic, the purpos… more
Date: May 2012
Creator: Ma, Phoenix S.
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Accreditation Facilitation Projects: Supporting High Quality Early Childhood Education and Care

Description: High-quality early childhood education and care (ECEC) are linked to positive developmental outcomes for children. Systems have been created to define, measure and promote high-quality ECEC. National accreditation status is deemed the gold standard of a high-quality program, yet many centers are unable to achieve this without assistance. With the help of Accreditation Facilitation Projects (AFPs), many low-income centers are able to achieve accreditation. Centers collaborating with an AFP r… more
Date: May 2013
Creator: Reinke, Stephanie L.
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Preschool Teachers’ Constructions of Early Reading

Description: Much of the current discourse surrounding the practice of early reading has emerged from policies that dictate the definition and means by which reading is taught and by which reading success is measured. Although this discourse directly influences the work of preschool teachers, little is known about what preschool teachers think about early reading and how they develop these understandings or constructions. Research concerning preschool teachers’ constructions is useful because of the potenti… more
Date: May 2014
Creator: Walker, Karen Elledge
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Mothers' and Fathers' Parenting Characteristics in Relation to Family Earner Status and Self-perceived Interpersonal Competence

Description: With an increasing number of married mothers who participated in paid work roles, fathers with full-time employed spouses now are expected to assume the role of caregiver and have higher frequency of engagement in parenting practices. This study of 235 university students from dual-earner and single-earner families investigated their retrospective perceptions of both mothers' and fathers' frequency of engagement in overall and specific parenting behaviors. These perceptions were measured by the… more
Date: December 2012
Creator: Chang, Wen-Chuan Rita
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Parental Perceptions of Marketing to Young Children: a Feminist Poststructural Perspective

Description: This study examined parental perceptions of marketing to young children using a feminist post-structural theoretical framework to specifically examine the following questions, 1) To what extent are parents aware of the marketing tactics being directed toward young children? 2) How do power/knowledge relations and practices produce parent’s multiple subjectivities as they parent their children in regards to commercial culture? 3) How can early childhood educators adapt pedagogy and practice in … more
Date: May 2014
Creator: Wolff, Kenya E.
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Uncovering Gendered Teaching Practices in the Early Childhood Classroom

Description: For many early childhood teachers, interacting with children about issues concerning gender and sexuality is fraught with feelings of uneasiness and anxiety. For others, familiarity with research on these topics has resulted in rethinking their approaches to sex, gender, and sexuality in their early childhood classrooms. This inquiry examined the tensions associated with the researcher’s attempts to rethink gendered narratives and childhood sexuality in her own classroom. The study took plac… more
Date: August 2014
Creator: Larremore, April, 1972-
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Prek-6 Teachers' Beliefs About Inclusive Practices in the United States and South Korea: Cross Cultural Perspectives

Description: The educational practice known as inclusion, which is based on values of equal opportunity and diversity, enables students with disabilities to attend the same general education classes as typically developing peers. Inclusion is a legal requirement in the United States and South Korea, but factors facilitating inclusion likely differ across countries. The purpose of the study was to examine PreK-6 school teachers' beliefs about inclusive practices in the United States and South Korea and to p… more
Date: May 2013
Creator: Jeong, Hyunjeong
Partner: UNT Libraries
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