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 and posttest. Students in the experimental group completed five selected kinesthetic movements from the Brain Gym® program five minutes at the beginning of each Monday through Friday school day. The intervention lasted 30 days and a total of 150 minutes. Data were analyzed using a 2 x 2 mixed between-within subjects analysis of variance. Findings revealed that performing the five kinesthetic movements from the Brain Gym® program did not increase students' reading achievement scores. Only the variable of time between pretest and posttest affected students' reading scores. The results from this study did not support the findings of other studies of the effectiveness of kinesthetic movements.

The problem of this study was to describe, analyze, and compare the effects of learning centers and curricular themes upon the writing production of four children within a kindergarten classroom which followed the whole language approach. This study was conducted in a public school. Four subjects were identified from the administration of the Book Handling Knowledge Task. Using the qualitative research method of case studies, the teacher-researcher kept observational notes concerning the writing behavior of the subjects. The written compositions of the subjects were collected daily throughout the school year and were assigned a context, learning center and curricular theme. The compositions were then coded as to writing frequency, function, and form. The following findings resulted from the study: writing occurred most frequently in the art center followed by dramatic play, language, sand, science, social studies, "other," eyes and hands, mathematics, and library-listening; writing occurred most frequently during the curricular theme of Christmas followed by self-concept, shapes and colors, farm animals, Thanksgiving, Winter, transportation, nursery rhymes, patriotic, Valentine, food and nutrition, Halloween, Spring, wild animals, community helpers, gingerbread man, Summer, Easter, and pets; all five functions of language were used in the art center, four in the language, dramatic play, …

This study examined differences in literacy development between five students attending whole language pre-first-grade classes and five students eligible for pre-first-grade classes but attending modified traditional first-grade classes. Differences between whole language pre-first-grade classes and modified traditional first-grade classes in use of literacy materials, teaching procedures, and amount of time spent on literacy were also examined. The procedures involved testing the subjects on reading and writing skills, observations of the pre-first-grade and first-grade classes, and analysis of subjects' writing samples.

Not all children begin their educational journey on equal footing. The purpose of this study is to investigate how universal prekindergarten (UPK) can serve as a key to remedying issues surrounding educational inequity. In order to understand educational inequity, I dive into the history of neighborhood racial segregation in the United States, and how it led to our currently unjust system. Racial segregation, specifically city zoning laws, created racially separate neighborhoods that are still relatively homogenous to this day. In order to ascertain how UPK could combat these issues stemming from historic racial segregation, I evaluate programs in three states to highlight the approach to UPK that each has implemented: New York, Georgia, and Oklahoma. Program features in Oklahoma have produced high-quality standards and the program has reached a larger percentage of 4-year-olds. I discuss multiple dimensions of proposed education reform, particularly for students of color, including the culturally-situated nature of high-stakes testing and its inability to fully capture student and school progress. I propose a culturally empowering approach to UPK, situated within the Dallas community, as a solution to current educational inequity.

This study investigated the changes in attitudes of Japanese first and second grade children who were exposed to microcomputers in school. Eight hundred and three first-and second-grade children were selected from six Japanese public schools. Approximately half of the subjects were selected from urban, suburban, and rural schools using computers, while the remaining subjects were from schools not using computers. The Young Children's Computer Inventory was the instrument used for this study. It was derived from a questionnaire originally developed at the Tokyo Institute of Technology, and contained four subscales: Attitudes Toward Computers, Motivation to Study, Empathy, and Creativity. A Japanese language version of the questionnaire was mailed to the principal of each school, where teachers distributed the questionnaires.for the subjects to complete with their parents at home. Ninety-one percent of the students returned completed questionnaires. Demographic information was also collected for each classroom.

The Thai government has strongly advocated for the learner-centered education for the past decade. Success For Life Thailand (SFLT), a brain-research-based early childhood education program blended with the theories of the developmentally appropriate practices and child-centered philosophies, has been implemented in Thailand for over 8 years. The purposes of the present study were to: (a) describe the current statuses of the Thai early childhood educators' learner-centered beliefs and practices, (b) identify if the SFLT training workshop affects teachers' learner-centered beliefs and practices, and (c) examine if other variables, along with familiarity with the SFLT program, predict teachers' learner-centered beliefs and practices. Ninety-three preschool and kindergarten teachers participated in the study. Among them, 17 were SFLT trainees in 1999 and 2000 (i.e., the previously trained group), 43 were trained in Year 2006 (the currently trained group), and the others were comparable to the currently trained group by matching the key personal and school variables. The Teachers Beliefs and Practices Survey: 3-5 Year Olds (Burts et al., 2000) and the Learner-Centered Education: the Assessment of Learner- Centered (ALCP) for K-3 (McCombs, 2001) were used to collect data on the various domains of the learner-centered beliefs and practices. Findings reveal that: (a) Thai …

Critical examinations of cultural groups and the ways in which they are presented in schools are missing from current elementary and middle school curricula. Issues of this nature often fall under the umbrella of “multicultural education” or “cultural pedagogy,” but this rhetoric is dismissive in nature. Constructing the non-Western child as “culturally deprived,” “culturally disadvantaged,” or “at-risk” perpetuates an “us/colonizer” versus “them/colonized” mentality. The purpose of this study was to examine critically how the Middle East and its people are represented in U.S. social studies textbooks. Through the use of qualitative content analysis, 10 elementary and middle school social studies books from Florida, Texas, and Virginia were analyzed. Drawing largely from the postcolonial Orientalist work of Edward Said (1978/2003), this study unveiled the ways in which American public schools other children, specifically children of Middle Eastern or Arab descent. Othering occurs anytime an institution in power constructs a certain reality for a marginalized group of people.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the story retelling abilities of preschool children who have experienced storybook reading and storybook reenactment bilingually, in English and Spanish, and preschool children who have experienced storybook reading and storybook reenactment in English only. This is a clinical case study employing both quantitative and qualitative measures comparing four treatment groups. Three evaluation instruments were developed by the researcher and used for posttesting; a story comprehension test, a story retelling guidesheet/scoresheet, and a storybook literacy response evaluation. In addition, participant observation and teacher interviews were used to gather qualitative data regarding learning center extensions of the target text and teacher beliefs and practices about the use of storybooks. The findings from this study show that scores for children who experienced storybook reading and storybook reenactment were significantly better on both the story retelling and story comprehension measures. In addition, a larger proportion of children who experienced storybook reading and reenactment were found to perform at the second level of literacy response on the Levels of Literacy evaluation. No differences were found in relationship to the language used on any of the dependent measures. Findings fromqualitative data showed that children were involved in limited …

This study described and explored perceptions of the context and behaviors of seven 4-year-old children whose parents attended a parenting education program. The problem was to explore a group of 9 volunteer parents' perceptions of their parenting styles and perceptions of their 4-year-old children at home while the parents participated in, and completed, a minimum of 4 out of 6 Active Parenting Today parenting education classes. Volunteer parents were recruited during public school registration for prekindergarten. In addition, perceptions of 4 teachers and 4 classroom educational aides in regard to behaviors of the 4-year-old children whose parents participated in and completed the Active Parenting Today program were explored.

The purposes of this study were to determine if there are differences between the responses of abusive and nonabusive adults to potentially anger-provoking child behaviors; if there are differences between abusive and nonabusive adults; if there are differences between the children of abusive and nonabusive adults; and if there are combinations of these characteristics of the adults and characteristics of children as well as the behaviors of children which relate to child abusiveness in adults. The basic problem was to determine factors that help identify potentially child abusive adults. Certain factors, such as the limited size of the sample and the initial use of a new instrument, served as limitations to broad generalizations. However, based on the analysis of the data of this study, the following conclusions seem tenable 1. Certain behaviors of children are more upsetting to abusive adults than to nonabusive adults. 2. Characteristics of adults are not necessarily related to child abusiveness in adults. 3. The age of the child and the number of children living in the home are significantly related to child abusiveness in adults. 4. The findings indicate that a predictive model may be developed in conjunction with the Child Behavior Inventory for use …

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 self-image: the Body Figure Preference Scale, the Body Esteem Scale, and the Self-Esteem Scale. The girl participants were randomly assigned to two groups: focused on a female theme (FFT) and focused on a non-human theme (FNT). The experimental group viewed "female" Disney movie themes, while the control group viewed "animal" Disney movie themes. Girls in the experimental group expressed greater body image dissatisfaction scores after watching Disney movies, which was an expected finding. Results from the present study suggest that girls in both groups become concerned about their body esteem after video exposure. However, there was no significant difference in self-esteem between girls in FFT and FNT. In summary, the findings of this study support the belief that Disney movies influence young girls' perceptions …

Background music is often used in preschool classrooms with the belief that music makes children smarter and increases attention. The purpose of this study was to determine if background music increased children's focused attention during play activities. Focused attention occurs when children maintain attention to a task regardless of distractions. This quasiexperimental study investigated background music and play in a laboratory setting. I videotaped individual children during play with math manipulatives in a pretest-posttest research design with background music used as the treatment. Forty-three 3-, 4-, and 5-year-olds played for 15 minutes. The first 5 minutes of play had no music (pretest), the second 5-minute play episode had background music (treatment), and the final 5-minute play episode had no background music (posttest). Data were analyzed using one-way repeated measures analysis of variance. Findings revealed that the subjects paid less attention to the play task with background music than they did during the pretest, with no music. Another key finding was that children with more musical experiences at home, as reported by the Child's Home Musical Experience Survey (CHIMES), exhibited longer periods of focused attention with background music. This study confirmed previous research that 3-year-old children have shorter focused attention than …

This study investigated what constitutes a moral development program in Buddhist temple preschools in Thailand. The researcher employed three qualitative methods: structured, in-depth interviews, observations of teachers' instruction, and document analysis of curriculum guides. Four Buddhist temple preschools were selected as the sites. Participants for interview included three abbots and one head nun, four principals, and twelve teachers. Participants for observations included four teachers of third year classes in each preschool. The study concentrated on four research questions: (a) what are the elements of the character education curriculum? (b) How do teachers teach moral development concepts and skills? (c) What are the teachers' perceptions of the moral development of third year preschoolers? (d) How do teachers assess their pupils' moral development? Key findings for the research questions were: character education was not a subject in the National Preschool Curriculum which was implemented in the Buddhist temple preschools. Core morality was integrated into every topic. The moral behaviors emphasized in the curriculum and the lesson plans included discipline, mindfulness, kindness, helpfulness, patience, honesty, respect, thriftiness, and politeness. The Buddhist concept of the process of moral development includes character education and meditation. The preschoolers were trained to pay respect to teachers and …

The purpose of this study was to determine the extent to which faith-based preschools promote spiritual development in preschoolers. The participants in the study were faith-based early childhood teachers and administrators from seven states. Early childhood professionals representing 11 Christian faith traditions completed written surveys or online surveys. A total of 201 faith-based educators completed the survey; 20 respondents participated in semi-structured interviews. The concurrent triangulation mixed-method design provided data on 8 program dimensions which support children's spiritual development: prayer, Bible literacy, worship, building character, service opportunities, assessment, parental involvement and context. I analyzed quantitative data using descriptive and inferential statistics. All items were examined using mean, standard deviation, frequency, and percentages. Qualitative data gathered from semi-structured interviews were coded and analyzed using NVivo8® qualitative analysis software (QSR International, Inc., Cambridge, MA, http://www.qsrinternational.com). From this data I identified the extent to which faith-based preschool programs support children's spiritual development through the practices of prayer, Bible literacy, worship, building character, service opportunities, assessment, parental involvement and context. Data analyses revealed statistically significant differences in faith-based teachers' hours of training in children's spiritual development across all program practice dimensions. A key finding of the study was that training in children's spiritual development …

In this study, various communicative strategies that young children employed to create and develop pretend play with peers in the block center were examined. Two preschools, one in Korea and the other in the United States, were selected. Subjects were children in the 4-year-old classroom in each school. The average age of the children at the time of the investigation was 59 months. For data collection, videotaping, audiotaping, field-note taking, interviews with teachers, and school enrollment records were used. During pretend block play, children created talk and actions in order to deal with challenges related to various aspects of play (e.g., accessory play materials, construction, plot, and enactment). Accordingly, children's communicative strategies were categorized as follows: (a) material communication, (b) construction communication, (c) plot communication, and (d) enactment. Also, subcategories under each category were developed. It was found that, in different phases of play in which they faced different types of challenges, children used certain strategies more often (communication about material selection and construction definition were most frequently used in the initiation phase of play). In terms of cultural aspects of the pretend play, in the Korean setting, the following were noticed: (a) a rigidly formed participant structure in which …

The purposes of this study were to determine the childrearing expectations of the Korean—American immigrant parents as measured on the five subsets of the Parent As A Teacher Inventory (PAAT), and to identify the influential factors within the Korean-American immigrant parents as a function of sex of child, family size, sex of parent, age of parent, education, income level, language, cultural aspects, accessibility, length of residence, and racial discrimination (independent variables). PAAT and the Parent Identification Questionnaire (PIQ) were administered to 118 Korean-American immigrant parents, 53 fathers and 65 mothers in North Texas. All subjects had children ages three through five and were natives of Korea. A multiple regression analysis was used to determine which independent variables would be the best predictors of parent expectations using PAAT subset scores and the total score as dependent variables: Creativity, Frustration, Control, Play, and Teaching-Learning; and eleven independent variables.

This study investigated Taiwanese preschool teachers' awareness of cultural diversity of new immigrant children and how this awareness influences their educational practices. In particular, this study focused on the cultural awareness of preschool teachers who work with young Taiwanese children whose mothers are immigrants from Southeast Asia. This study used quantitative and qualitative methods. One hundred seventy-two Taiwanese preschool teachers from the different geographic areas of Taiwan participated in the study. Data were collected through the use of the Cultural Diversity Awareness Inventory (CDAI) survey and participant interviews. Research results of the study revealed: (a) most Taiwanese preschool teachers had an awareness of cultural diversity, but their perceptions of how to create a multicultural environment need to be improved; (b) Taiwanese preschool teachers' personal experiences with children from different cultures were more associated with their cultural awareness than their ages and educational levels; (c) Geographic location was the factor affecting preschool teachers' awareness of cultural diversity and educational practices. This study is informative to the understanding of Taiwanese preschool teachers' awareness of cultural diversity and the implications of this awareness for classroom practice. In addition, multicultural perspectives of the Taiwan society toward immigrant families and children can benefit from the …

Research indicates that states have implemented juvenile justice reforms to enact harsher punishments, to transfer greater numbers and younger juvenile offenders to adult criminal court, and to restrict discretion of the juvenile court judges. Social science studies have found that harsher punishments, transfers to adult criminal court and other measures do not work, but that comprehensive approaches which address the numerous major factors contributing to juvenile offending have been successful. This study examined the legal status of the juvenile justice system by focusing upon ten diverse sample states and analyzed the social science research on factors contributing to juvenile offending and on prevention, treatment, and rehabilitation approaches. The study was accomplished by legal research, qualitative social science research, and analysis of both. Findings indicated: a) state statutes require and allow adult punishment of juvenile offenders, transfer of juvenile offenders to adult criminal court, and direct filing of charges against juveniles in adult criminal court; most states begin these proceedings at age 14, some have no age minimum; b) social science research indicates numerous factors contribute to juvenile offending with most of the factors categorized into the major factors of early antisocial behavior, deviant peers, parents and family, sociomoral reasoning, biological …

Based on the survey results of 150 South Korea toddler caregivers about training needs, I developed a relationship-based approach for a toddler caregiver training program. The training program was modified using suggestions provided by 6 South Korean professors, who were asked to review the program. Survey findings revealed that: (a) All participants (toddler caregivers) perceived that it is necessary for caregivers to attend training. However, most (72.2%) found that it was difficult to attend training programs more than 1 time per year because it was hard to find a substitute teacher (64%). Participants desired to attend training programs on toddler care because of the lack of in-service education (26%), curriculum (24%), and training programs (15.3%); (b) Caregivers who had the third-degree caregiver certification preferred to learn parent education more than child development. However, caregivers who had a higher degree of caregiver certification preferred to learn child development more than parent education; and (c) Caregivers who had more than 5 years of teaching experience preferred to learn about the teacher's role more than caregivers who had fewer than 4 years of teaching experience. Future studies need to evaluate the effect of this relationship-based training program for toddler caregivers in relation to …