PHD, Kent State University, 2017, College of Education, Health and Human Services / School of Teaching, Learning and Curriculum Studies

The purpose of this study was to compare and contrast teacher roles in two early childhood education settings—a U.S. Montessori preschool and a traditional Saudi public preschool—and to examine the philosophical, cultural, and theoretical influences on those roles. Cognitive constructivism, social constructivism, and multi-cultural theories were used as a research framework. Data was collected from the two teacher cases in their respective settings through classroom observations, in-depth interviews, and lesson plan/student assessment documents. The study's findings showed that the roles of a U.S. Montessori preschool teacher and the roles of a Saudi traditional preschool teacher are generally much the same. Though the contexts and the surrounding national cultures and educational philosophies contrast significantly, the work of an early childhood teacher can be summarized in five categories which were consistent between data contexts: academic instruction, relationship with students and other adults, personal and professional development, behavioral management, and environmental preparation. Complementing this general role similarity between contexts, however, was the contrast in aspects of these roles between the two case teachers: the degrees of their attention to their roles, their efforts to perform these roles with excellence, and their application of their philosophies within their particular preschool settings and national cultures. Internationally, ECE programs need clarity about teachers' responsibilities and a greater awareness of the cultural and philosophical influences on preschool teachers' work.

Committee: MARTHA LASH Ph.D. (Committee Chair) Subjects: Curriculum Development; Early Childhood Education; Education; Education Philosophy; Educational Theory

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Ohio University, 2014, Curriculum and Instruction (Education)

West Virginia provides universal access to publicly funded preschool for all 4-year olds in the state. This approach contrasts with the approach many states and the federal government take to offering preschool, which is to provide targeted programs, focused on traditionally at-risk populations. Support for moving toward universal access has grown to include the White House, where it has been touted as a priority in recent State of the Union Addresses. This research explores West Virginia's existing program to understand the experience of the students enrolled in the 2012-2013 school year using extant data. West Virginia's Universal Preschool program uses Early Learning Scale (ELS) to assess student growth during the preschool year, the results of which are collected in a statewide database. The West Virginia State Department of Education also collects data on student and classroom demographics. This study uses hierarchical linear modeling to analyze the relationship of student characteristics and baseline and growth scores on ELS. Additional descriptive analysis of site characteristics is also provided to provide a profile of the classrooms of the 2012-2013 preschool class. This study documents a gap in ELS scores at baseline between low SES and non-low SES students and between boys and girls. No gap was apparent between white and non-white students in the analysis. Students in West Virginia's Universal Preschool program show growth through the preschool year on ELS; however, growth rates of low-SES and male children are not great enough to close the gaps that exist when the students are initially assessed. This dissertation recommends that more research needs to be done to understand how classroom, student, and socio-geographic characteristics interact to influence student baseline and growth scores on ELS in West Virginia.

Committee: Eugene Geist A (Committee Chair); Gordon Brooks P (Committee Member); James Salzman (Committee Member); Jerry Johnson D (Committee Member) Subjects: Early Childhood Education; Education; Education Policy

Master of Science, The Ohio State University, 2006, Graduate School

Committee: Not Provided (Other) Subjects:

BA, Oberlin College, 2022, Economics

The United States lags far behind other developed countries in terms of preschool provision and access. Because subsidized preschool effectively serves as childcare for enrolled students, preschool policies have ramifications in the labor market; namely, whether or not parents return to work after having children. This paper investigates the only two state-wide universal pre-k programs in the country, those of Florida and Vermont. I use a synthetic controls approach in order to address the impact these programs have had on maternal labor force participation rates in each state. I find that while Vermont's pre-k policy may have produced a significant increase in maternal labor force participation, the results from Florida's policy are insignificant. This outcome suggests that differences in how the policies have been implemented drive whether or not the policy has meaningful impacts on mothers' decisions to rejoin the labor force. Vermont offers more full-day options than Florida, although both programs are only free for half-day provision; additionally, Florida offers programming for children ages 4 and up, while Vermont offers programming for children 3 and up. Finally, I suggest other routes to explore which may aid pre-k policies in making it more accessible for mothers to return to work: these include more targeted programs, more full-day options, and subsidized (rather than free) provisions.

Committee: Christopher Andrew James Cotter (Committee Chair); Paul A. Brehm (Advisor) Subjects: Early Childhood Education; Economic Theory; Economics; Education; Preschool Education

Doctor of Philosophy, University of Toledo, 2020, Curriculum and Instruction: Special Education

As early childhood inclusion continues to grow, it is important to examine the quality of services that are provided for young children with disabilities. We need to especially investigate how early childhood general education teachers are involved in the special education process for their students in inclusive settings. This study describes the results of a statewide survey that explored general education preschool teachers' level of involvement in the steps of the Individualized Education Program (IEP) process. The study results indicate that although general education preschool teachers (N=125) report that they involved in the IEP process most of the time and feel responsible for the steps in the IEP, several factors still exist which hinder preschool teachers' involvement in the IEP process. Most preschool teachers stated lack of time to collaborate with itinerant teachers, too many teaching responsibilities, and a lack of flexibility in scheduling IEP meetings as barriers to their participation in the IEP process. The implications that are considered for this study concern policy, practice, and future research.

Committee: Laurie Dinnebeil (Committee Chair); Fox Christine (Committee Member); Katherine Delaney (Committee Member); Jackson Sarah (Committee Member) Subjects: Education; Special Education

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2019, Educational Studies

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of the repeated reading and dialogic reading interventions on listening comprehension outcomes of at-risk preschoolers. Repeated reading is defined as reading the text of the storybook twice while dialogic reading is defined as employing a series of prompts and questions to engage the child in a back-and-forth about the storybook. The first phase of the intervention involved repeated reading while the second phase of the intervention combined repeated reading with dialogic reading. The researcher used single-subject multiple baseline experimental designs across participants. The participants were four students from a university-affiliated preschool who were identified as at-risk. Participants' listening comprehension of storybooks was measured through a series of factual and inferential researcher-developed questions. Visual analysis and descriptive statistics were used to examine the effects of the interventions. Results indicate that repeated reading and dialogic reading can improve listening comprehension outcomes of at-risk preschool students.

Committee: Antoinette Miranda (Advisor); Laurice Joseph (Committee Member); Kisha Radliff (Committee Member) Subjects: Early Childhood Education; Education; Preschool Education

EdD, University of Cincinnati, 2018, Education, Criminal Justice, and Human Services: Curriculum and Instruction

Nature preschools, which bridge the world between environmental education and early childhood education (Bailie, 2012), are gaining popularity across the globe. This educational philosophy has grown in response to the changing outdoor lives of children. Current research shows that children in the United States have limited access to unstructured play in outdoor settings (Clements, 2004; Singer, Singer, D'Agnostino, &DeLong, 2009; Wridt, 2004). Since a number of studies have linked childhood experiences in nature to environmentalist attitudes later in life (Broom, 2007; Chawla, 1999; Wells & Lekies, 2006), there is concern that children today are not getting these foundational experiences in nature that lead to a caring relationship with the natural world. Nature preschools aim to fill this gap by giving children facilitated experiences in nature and time for unstructured outdoor play. The purpose of this photovoice study was to understand nature preschools through the perspective of the preschool children. This study adds to the literature by answering three research questions: 1) How do young children attending a U.S. nature preschool describe their school experience? 2) What are the characteristics of the child-nature relationship for young children attending a U.S. nature preschool? 3) What are best practices for working with preschool children in a photovoice process? Results show that the children do not view nature preschool as a traditional classroom experience and that they value outdoor hikes as the most important part of the school day. The children are interested in learning the names of plants and animals and scientific terms and view being in nature as a positive experience. Photovoice methodology, having individuals use cameras to collect and analyze their own data, is typically used with teens and adults. The results of this study demonstrate that children ages 3 – 6 are capable of being active collaborators in a photovoice protocol. (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Helen Meyer Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Victoria Carr Ed.D. (Committee Member); Emilie M. Camp Ph.D. (Committee Member); Lisa Vaughn Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Preschool Education

Doctor of Education (Ed.D.), University of Findlay, 2018, Education

Preschool as an early intervention for children of low-income has been shown to better prepare them for the rigor of today's kindergarten classroom. However, research suggests families of low-income children are less likely to enroll in preschool. This qualitative study examined the reasons why parents of low-income were not enrolling their children in a public preschool program in one school district. Data were collected through semi-structured, individual, one-to-one interviews with eight parents and seven teachers. Overall, this study found: parents were unaware of the opportunity, the half-day schedule was a challenge, some parents wanted to teach their children, parents may be deterred by negative preschool experience with a sibling, and parents have negative perceptions about the district.

Committee: Melissa Cain Dr. (Committee Chair); Jon Brasfield Dr. (Committee Member) Subjects: Education

Specialist in Education, Miami University, 2018, School Psychology

The current study explored the role of preschool attendance in early literacy attainment (as measured by scores on the STAR Early Literacy assessment) for students in kindergarten. It also examined the difference between students of low-income backgrounds who did, and did not, attend preschool. This research was conducted in order to answer a specific question that school administrators from a local school district had: Does preschool make a significant difference in students' early literacy attainment? Results indicated that students who attended preschool scored significantly higher than students who did not attend preschool. In addition, results from the present study demonstrated that students of low SES who went to preschool did not score significantly higher than students of low SES who did not go to preschool. This only occurred during the winter, though, as students of low SES who went to preschool did score significantly higher on their spring SEL scores than students of low SES who did not go to preschool. Based on the findings of this study, a relationship between preschool attendance and early literacy development was confirmed.

Committee: Raymond Witte (Committee Co-Chair); Michael Woodin (Committee Co-Chair); Jason Abbitt (Committee Member); Joel Malin (Committee Member) Subjects: Educational Psychology

MS, Kent State University, 2015, College of Education, Health and Human Services / School of Health Sciences

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether acute media exposure to a brief animated video clip influences the snack choices of preschool children. The study was a non-experimental, post-test, observational, quantitative, comparative design. Participants (n=58) were preschool students enrolled in pre-kindergarten class, ages four to six years, from four local Ohio early childhood education centers. Participants were divided into three groups: a treatment I group (HSV), who were exposed to a short animated video clip depicting a character consuming a healthful snack; a treatment II (USV) group, who was exposed to a short animated video clip depicting a character consuming an unhealthful snack; and the control group, who underwent no media exposure. Participants were asked to choose from seven snack foods varying in nutritional content and self-selected portions. Food Processor SQL and SPSS software were utilized to analyze data. Digital photography was used to measure snack food choices, portion size, and plate waste. A two by three factorial ANOVA was used to compare variables. A p-value of < 0.05 was established to determine significance. Tukey HSD Multiple Comparisons testing was used to analyze significant results among group treatment variables. There were no significant differences (p > 0.05) between treatment and control groups; however, there were significant differences among gender. According to the p-values, males consumed significantly greater amounts of kilocalories, carbohydrates, protein, saturated fat, and trans fat versus females. This study demonstrates there is more to dietary behaviors and preferences than short-term media exposure, and gender is a factor in the formation of these habits.

Committee: Natalie Caine-Bish PhD (Advisor); Tanya Falcone MS (Committee Member); Karen Gordon PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Nutrition

PHD, Kent State University, 2012, College of Education, Health and Human Services / School of Teaching, Learning and Curriculum Studies

The purpose of this case study was to examine the interactions between parents and children as they participated in weekly tutoring sessions to develop phonemic awareness (PA) with the use of kinesthetic motions for the phoneme (KMP). The study examined how the parents extended the learning and explored the changes in their literacy understandings. In addition, it documented the children's growth in PA. The four major sources of data of the study were: field notes constructed from recordings of the tutoring sessions and dyads reading a poem at the beginning and end of the study; parental logs; interviews; and literacy measures of the children. The study chronicled the change in the parents as they developed the ability to teach PA. The parent-child interactions demonstrated the parents acted as effective tutors. They scaffolded attending to sound with KMPs and developed the following understandings through the use of poetry: to direct their children to attend to print nonverbally by pointing and verbally with the use of specific language for directionality, letters and punctuation. The children developed PA, as evidenced in their use of KMPs outside of the sessions, in their identification of letter sounds and ability to encode phonemes. The parents' guidance of the children to text resulted in growth in concepts about print. The implications of the study include the need to incorporate concrete markers,such as the KMP, with preschoolers in PA activities, the need to teach parents to scaffold interaction with text through pointing, and the need to seriously consider engaging parents in academic tutoring.

Committee: Timothy Rasinski (Committee Co-Chair); Belinda Zimmerman (Committee Co-Chair); Tricia Niesz (Committee Member) Subjects: Early Childhood Education; Education; Elementary Education; Literacy; Reading Instruction

Doctor of Philosophy, Case Western Reserve University, 0, Nursing

One in six children in the United States have developmental disabilities, and infants and toddlers may exhibit telling symptoms of delay in their earliest days with a failure to master milestone benchmarks. Despite modest gains in developmental screening rates, less than one in five children with a known delay will receive developmental enrichment services via the federal Early Intervention service line or special education preschool programs, and those remaining are left to struggle with their undiagnosed and untreated delays until they are identified upon entering kindergarten. This research aimed to uncover quantitative data patterns in the diagnosis and treatment of young children with developmental delays. Using predictive modeling techniques, the findings add to related research evidence for future interventions to increase timely conversions of delay diagnosis to treatment utilization. This work is underpinned by a developmental adaptation of Ryan and Sawin's Individual and Family Self-Management Theory (2014), exploring contextual and family management processes leading to service utilization outcomes. Sourcing data from the National Survey of Children's Health (NSCH 2018-2021), three research questions aided in identifying the demographic and social factor clusters of children with undiagnosed and/or untreated delays within the developmental screening, diagnosis of delay, and developmental service utilization trajectory. Indicators of medical care access, including sick care sources and recent preventive visits, and children's special health care needs, including the impact of conditions on the child's daily life, were key indicators in resulting models. However, all created classification and regression tree (CART) and random forest models had varying levels of predictive ability from low-moderate (developmental screening) to high (developmentally related diagnosis and service utilization) predictive ability, with areas under the curve ranging between 0.56 (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Nicholas Schiltz (Committee Chair); Barbara Lewis (Committee Member); Valerie Toly (Committee Member); Faye Gary (Committee Member) Subjects: Developmental Psychology; Early Childhood Education; Health Care; Medicine; Nursing; Occupational Therapy; Physical Therapy; Speech Therapy

Master of Science, The Ohio State University, 1976, Graduate School

Committee: Not Provided (Other) Subjects:

Master of Science, The Ohio State University, 2008, Graduate School

Committee: Not Provided (Other) Subjects:

Master of Science, The Ohio State University, 1976, Graduate School

Committee: Not Provided (Other) Subjects:

Master of Science, The Ohio State University, 1970, Graduate School

Committee: Not Provided (Other) Subjects:

Master of Science, The Ohio State University, 1969, Graduate School

Committee: Not Provided (Other) Subjects:

Master of Science, The Ohio State University, 1968, Graduate School

Committee: Not Provided (Other) Subjects:

Master of Arts, The Ohio State University, 2008, Graduate School

Committee: Not Provided (Other) Subjects:

Master of Science, The Ohio State University, 2007, Graduate School

Committee: Not Provided (Other) Subjects: