The present study sought to examine the perceptions of giftedness and identification procedures held by experienced teachers of gifted minority students. Twenty-seven 4th-grade teachers of gifted students in an urban school system with a high representation of minority and economically disadvantaged students were surveyed. Results indicated that experienced teachers still held a narrow conception of giftedness and were not aware of how culture and environmental factors may influence the...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Economically Disadvantaged, Minority Group Children, Family Problems, Urban Schools,...
This article presents the author's experiences during a 5-day tour at Reggio Emilia, Italy, that is well known for the phrase, "the hundred languages of children" (Edwards, Gandini, & Forman, 1993). The author saw the infinite ways that children expressed their ideas in each Reggio school being visited. The author found three means by which Reggio Emilia schools encouraged children to build their languages: (1) the combination of diverse materials, (2) the respect for children's...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Foreign Countries, Reggio Emilia Approach, Second Language Learning, Cultural...
The question of what to look for when visiting early childhood classrooms can be addressed on the basis of a set of fundamental developmental principles. In this article, the author outlines five developmental principles that can be invoked when seeking answers to the question every educator must address when creating a curriculum, namely: What should be learned?: (1) Strengthen children's understanding of their own experience; (2) The younger the children, the more they learn from direct...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Early Experience, Investigations, Communicative Competence (Languages), Young...
Early childhood teachers are faced with many more choices and decisions regarding the development of their curriculum than ever before. The development of state standards for young children in prekindergarten (pre-K) programs not only provides guidance but also places demands on content that must be addressed. Finding the time to plan creative activities that will meet the diverse range of children's interests and abilities, as well as meet state learning standards, is a challenge for teachers...
Topics: ERIC Archive, State Standards, Creative Activities, Young Children, Story Reading, Emergent...
Childhood obesity has reached epidemic proportions in the U.S. University health and physical education programs have a unique opportunity to assist in childhood obesity prevention through service-learning programs. However, prior to the implementation of service-learning curricula, it is imperative to gain insight in the unique needs of the selected community. The purpose of this study was to understand a service-learning community through exploring parent, teacher, and student perceptions...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Prevention, Physical Education, Health Education, Focus Groups, Family Involvement,...
This study examined the effect of trained peer tutors on the academic learning time-physical education (ALT-PE) scores of children with visual impairments. It found a mean increase of 20.8% for ALT-PE and increases in ALT-PE scores for closed and open skills and that trained peer tutors were more effective than were untrained peer tutors.
Topics: ERIC Archive, Tutors, Peer Teaching, Tutor Training, Physical Education, Visual Impairments,...
This study examined the mental effort required to monitor landmarks and the effect of the type of route on mobility-route training. The results revealed that the features of landmarks and competence in travel were significantly related, indicating that some environmental factors related to height and width are more easily learned when people can travel independently. A similar result was found when types of travel were compared.
Topics: ERIC Archive, Visual Impairments, Visually Impaired Mobility, Orientation, Children, Early...
The relative reinforcing value of toys was assessed in the absence of, and immediately following, participant observation of a peer manipulating one of the materials toys. Preference assessments were used to identify preference hierarchies. Reinforcer assessments were conducted with the most high-preferred preference item, a low-preference the least preferred item, and a control. Each participant allocated responding toward the high-preference item during baseline. When reinforcer assessment...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Toys, Reinforcement, Participant Observation, Play, Peer Influence, Preschool...
Discrete-trial teaching is an instructional method commonly used to teach social and academic skills to children with an autism spectrum disorder. The purpose of the current study was to evaluate the indirect effects of discrete-trial teaching on 3 students' stereotypy. Instructions, feedback, modeling, and rehearsal were used to improve 3 teaching aides' implementation of discrete-trial teaching in a private school for children with autism. Improvements in accurate teaching were accompanied by...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Teaching Methods, Private Schools, Autism, Check Lists, Pervasive Developmental...
The effects of manipulations of task variables on inaccurate responding and disruption were investigated with 3 children who engaged in noncompliance. With 2 children in an outpatient clinic, task directives were first manipulated to identify directives that guided accurate responding; then, additional dimensions of the task were manipulated to evaluate their influence on disruptive behavior. With a 3rd child, similar procedures were employed at school. Results showed one-step directives set...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Behavior Disorders, Negative Reinforcement, Young Children, Clinics, Task Analysis,...
Preschool teachers rely on several strategies for motivating children to participate in learning activities. In the current study, we evaluated the effectiveness of and preference for three teaching contexts in which embedded, sequential, or no programmed reinforcement was arranged. The embedded context included highly preferred teaching materials, the sequential context included highly preferred edible items for correct responding, and a control context included neither. In addition, an...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Teaching Methods, Preschool Teachers, Preschool Children, Context Effect, Motivation...
Previous research implies that stereotypic behavior tends to be maintained by the sensory consequences produced by engaging in the response. Few investigations, however, have focused on vocal stereotypy. The current study examined the noncommunicative vocalizations of 4 children with an autism spectrum disorder. First, functional analyses were conducted in an attempt to identify the function of each child's behavior. For each of the participants, it was found that vocal stereotypy was likely...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Autism, Antisocial Behavior, Behavior Problems, Oral Language, Functional Behavioral...
Recently, nonmaternal center-based child care has been linked to problem behavior in young children (National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, 2003). In response, a comprehensive program to promote prosocial skills was evaluated in a classroom of 16 children between the ages of 3 years and 5 years. Classroom observations were conducted during evocative situations to determine the likelihood of problem behavior (noncompliance, vocal or motor disruptions, aggression) and preschool...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Comprehensive Programs, Child Health, Young Children, Play, Behavior Modification,...
This study investigated teachers' knowledge of, and capacity to identify resilience, in 92 primary school children in Far North Queensland. It was found that although teachers' knowledge of resilience was apparently strong, and they reported a significant level of confidence in their ability to assist children in building resilience, their capacity to identify levels of resilience in their students was lacking. The paper concludes with suggestions for future research. (Contains 3 tables.)
Topics: ERIC Archive, Elementary School Teachers, Knowledge Base for Teaching, Knowledge Level, Children,...
As part of the Victorian Early Numeracy Research Project, over 1400 Victorian children in the first (Preparatory) year of school were assessed in mathematics by their classroom teachers. Using a task-based, one-to-one interview, administered during the first and last month of the school year, a picture emerged of the mathematical knowledge and understanding that young children bring to school, and the changes in this knowledge and understanding during the first year of school. A major feature...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Young Children, Mathematics Curriculum, Mathematics Education, Knowledge Level, Prior...
Emergent literacy in young children with visual impairments is examined using a conceptual framework proposed by Senechal, LeFevre, Smith-Chant, and Colton (2001). The utility of this framework for young children with visual impairments is illustrated using data from a field study of preschool classes for children with visual impairments. (Contains 1 figure.)
Topics: ERIC Archive, Young Children, Emergent Literacy, Visual Impairments, Preschool Children,...
This empirical study compared the average ages at which four children with congenital blindness acquired 32 fine motor skills with age norms for sighted children. The results indicated that the children experienced extreme developmental delays in the acquisition of manual skills and a high degree of variability in developmental delays within and across six categories of fine-motor skills. (Contains 3 tables.)
Topics: ERIC Archive, Developmental Delays, Blindness, Early Intervention, Psychomotor Skills, Longitudinal...
Currently, the majority of American Indian families live in urban areas. A number of statistics demonstrate that urban American Indian families deal with a variety of stressors such as poverty and isolation. However, very little is known about how these families perceive their lives. This report provides an exploratory study examining the status of 20 urban American Indian mother/child dyads. Mothers were asked about the role of American Indian culture in their lives, their views of life in...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Urban Areas, Aggression, American Indian Culture, American Indians, American Indian...
In this article, the author discusses how a new afterschool arrangement is upsetting a 4-year-old child named Mackenzie. Her babysitter left last week, just as her mom started a new job with longer hours. She is missing her former caregiver and mom a lot. Based on the stories from her teacher and her father, the author gives her assessment of Mackenzie's situation. Although the childcare setting seems fine, it will take her some time to get used to it. She may also be bewildered because family...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Caregivers, Parent Teacher Cooperation, Young Children, Child Care, Anxiety,...
In today's rapidly changing world, people must continually come up with creative solutions to unexpected problems. Success is based not only on what one knows or how much one knows, but on one's ability to think and act creatively. In short, people are now living in the Creative Society. Unfortunately, few of today's classrooms focus on helping students develop as creative thinkers. In addition, the proliferation of new technologies is quickening the pace of change, accentuating the need for...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Creative Thinking, Problem Solving, Technology Uses in Education, Children,...
Middle school teachers, like all educators around the nation, are encountering classrooms comprised of an unprecedented number of students from various cultural, ethnic, and racial backgrounds. Due to the influx of immigrants entering the U.S. educational system, the number of students who speak a native language other than English has grown dramatically and will account for about 40% of the school-age population by 2040. The reality of a multicultural, multilingual student population dictates...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Educational Strategies, Student Needs, Middle School Students, Teacher Effectiveness,...
This study examined the relationship between mothers and children with Down syndrome as reflected in the mothers' drawings of themselves and their disabled children. A sample of 20 mothers, 10 Bedouin-Arabs and 10 Jews, participated in the study. Of these, 10 mothers of children with Down syndrome served as the study group, and a matched group of 10 mothers of children who did not have Down syndrome served as a comparison group. Findings revealed that mothers of children with Down syndrome drew...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Mothers, Jews, Down Syndrome, Children, Freehand Drawing, Arabs, Matched Groups,...
This article describes a phenomenological study of the artistic creations of bird nests by four school-aged children to illuminate their internal experiences of attachment. The author analyzed qualitative data from in-depth interviews pertaining to two-dimensional and three-dimensional artistic representations of a bird's nest and a family of birds created by the child participants. Through the children's own voices and stories about their artwork, themes of danger, lack of protection, and...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Animals, Art Therapy, Attachment Behavior, Imagery, Counseling Techniques, Parent...
Factors that influence reinforcer choice have been examined in a number of applied studies (e.g., Neef, Mace, Shea, & Shade, 1992; Shore, Iwata, DeLeon, Kahng, & Smith, 1997; Tustin, 1994). However, no applied studies have evaluated the effects of postsession reinforcement on choice between concurrently available reinforcers, even though basic findings indicate that this is an important factor to consider (Hursh, 1978; Zeiler, 1999). In this bridge investigation, we evaluated the...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Developmental Disabilities, Children, Behavior Problems, Selection, Food,...
The purpose of this study was to examine the use of percentile schedules as a method of quantifying the shaping procedure in an educational setting. We compared duration of task engagement during baseline measurements for 4 students to duration of task engagement during a percentile schedule. As a secondary purpose, we examined the influence on shaping of manipulations of the number of observations used to determine the criterion for reinforcement (the m parameter of the percentile formula)....
Topics: ERIC Archive, Functional Behavioral Assessment, Referral, Intervention, Behavior Problems,...
Four preschool children (with and without disabilities), who often responded inappropriately to questions, participated in the current study. Pretest results were used to create sets of questions that the children either did or did not answer correctly (i.e., known and unknown questions). We then sequentially taught two different responses to a subset of unknown questions: (a) "I don't know" (IDK), and (b) "I don't know, please tell me" (IDKPTM). Results showed that...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Disabilities, Preschool Children, Questioning Techniques, Responses, Teaching...
The purpose of this study is to demonstrate that dynamic assessment based instruction increases children's learning by using a quasi-experimental research design in Korea. In this study, dynamic assessment is defined as a measurement method of the zone of proximal development (ZPD) as well as the qualitative and quantitative diagnostic information for individual children. In addition, dynamic assessment based instruction is defined as a teaching method using the diagnostic information types in...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Foreign Countries, Teaching Methods, Research Design, Experimental Groups, Data...
Family economic status is generally considered to be an important factor associated with students' educational outcomes. However, to evaluate the strength of this contention, it is important to first have appropriate measures of family economic status. Measuring the economic status of Vietnamese people has been particularly difficult as the respondents have not been able to report accurately on their income. This has been compounded in rural populations, because of the relative economic...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Foreign Countries, Outcomes of Education, Educational Objectives, Vietnamese People,...
In this article, we report a study in which we asked 137 parents and caregivers to evaluate a year-long family literacy program in which they participated. Parents valued the insights they gained about children's learning in general and literacy development in particular. They reported that they learned from each other as well as from the program facilitators; valued especially the structure of the program wherein they spent time working with children in classrooms; felt more included in the...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Foreign Countries, Caregivers, Family Literacy, Program Evaluation, Cultural...
This study sought to determine the accuracy of an assessment format in which selection outcomes were delayed and probabilistic; these are unavoidable features of an assessment designed to determine preferences of multiple children simultaneously. During the single arrangement, preference hierarchies were established by having a child repeatedly select from among several foods and by sequentially restricting preferred items from the array. After being taught the associations between colored...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Student Evaluation, Preschool Children, Probability, Paired Associate Learning,...
The effects of vocal intraverbal training and listener training on the emergence of untrained categorization skills were evaluated. Five typically developing preschool children initially learned to name a number of previously unfamiliar visual stimuli. Each child then received one of two types of training. Intraverbal training involved reinforcing vocally emitted category names by the child in the presence of a spoken exemplar name. Listener training involved reinforcing the selection of visual...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Visual Stimuli, Preschool Children, Classification, Preschool Education, Pretests...
In this article, we report on a study examining those factors which contribute to the mathematics performance of a sample of children aged between 8 and 13 years. The study was designed specifically to consider the potency of a number of mathematical affective factors, as well as background characteristics (viz., gender, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status), on children's mathematics performance. Data were collected by surveying the children and drawing on performance ratings from their...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Mathematics Achievement, Preadolescents, Early Adolescents, Children, Gender...
By age three or four, children have already begun to construct their gender and racial identity. Stereotypes, prejudices, and practices in homes, communities, and the media can negatively affect children's feelings about themselves and others. Derman-Sparks (1983, 3) warned that young children may develop "pre-prejudice," which she defined as "beginning ideas and feelings in very young children that may develop into real prejudice through reinforcement by prevailing societal...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Racial Bias, Consciousness Raising, Critical Theory, Multicultural Education,...
The primary purpose of this study was to demonstrate the efficacy of the blending portion of the Promoting Awareness of Sounds in Speech (PASS) program, a comprehensive and explicit phonological awareness intervention curriculum designed for preschool children with speech and language impairments. A secondary purpose was to examine the effects of stimulus characteristics on responsiveness to the phonological awareness intervention via post-hoc analysis. A single-subject design was used to...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Intervention, Language Impairments, Phonological Awareness, Preschool Children,...
Over the last decade, the field of early intervention/early childhood special education (EI/ECSE) has emerged as a primary service for infants and preschool children with disabilities and their families. Systems for providing early intervention for infants and toddlers exist in every state, and all state Departments of Education are responsible for special education for preschool children. In EI/ECSE, a unified theory of practice has emerged and draws from a range of psychological and...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Early Intervention, Educational Theories, Caregivers, Disabilities, Preschool...
Teaching children who are victims of Katrina is not a multicultural education issue per se. However, there are some intersections between the victims of Katrina and the educational responses to them, and some of the primary constituent groups and issues that multicultural education represents and intends to serve. These are children of color and poverty who are marginalized in schools relative to resource allocation, learning opportunity, and academic achievement. Unfortunately, the lessons...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Multicultural Education, Student Needs, Educationally Disadvantaged, Disadvantaged...
Chronic pain among children is poorly understood, and few studies portray the experiences of sufferers and their families. This qualitative case study aimed at gaining a rich description and a contextual understanding of the experiences of a young chronic pain sufferer, aged 6, and her family members through an art-making process. Several examples of the art images are presented along with excerpts from the exploratory conversations that captured the meanings that the child and family members...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Pain, Family Life, Coping, Chronic Illness, Young Children, Case Studies, Art...
Heritage languages (HL) are language spoken by the children of immigrants or by those who immigrated to a country when young. The purpose of this article is to briefly review what is known about heritage language development over time and to identify some gaps in people's knowledge. In this article, the authors consider three aspects: how much HL speakers use their HLs, how well they know them, and the attitudes they have toward their HLs, focusing here on older children, adolescents, and...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Immigrants, English (Second Language), Second Language Learning, Heritage Education,...
A critical issue in teacher education today is the mismatch between racially homogenous teachers and students from increasingly diverse cultural backgrounds. In the United States, the student population is becoming more diverse while the teaching force is becoming increasingly monocultural, white, and middle class. Current data on the teaching force also reveal that the prospective teaching population is predominantly white, middle class, monolingual, female, rural and suburban. The impact of...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Student Diversity, Whites, Minority Group Children, Cultural Pluralism, Teacher...
To investigate issues in transition to kindergarten for children with special needs, we explored several sources of information (peer-reviewed literature, government websites, parent surveys, and interviews with professionals). We found that administrative issues like lack of integration and the evaluation of services available to children and families, and parent support issues like promoting advocacy were recurring themes in all sources. Although some barriers are very clear, more systematic...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Disabilities, Kindergarten, Special Needs Students, Student Adjustment, School...
The effects of reinforcement pairing and fading on preschoolers' snack selections were evaluated in a multiple baseline design. Baseline preferences for snack options were assessed via repeated paired-item preference assessments. Edible, social, and activity-based reinforcers were then exclusively paired with a less preferred snack option. Once the snack paired with reinforcement was selected most frequently, the three types of reinforcement were systematically faded. Frequent selections of the...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Reinforcement, Decision Making, Attitude Change, Preschool Children, Food, Social...
Acquisition of verbal behavior is a major goal of interventions for children with developmental disabilities. We evaluated the effectiveness of manipulation of an establishing operation for functional discriminated mands. Four individuals with developmental disabilities participated in a training procedure designed to teach two separate mands for two separate preferred items. Participants were taught to mand using picture cards. Following training, the manipulation of the establishing operation...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Verbal Stimuli, Developmental Disabilities, Motivation, Intervention, Behavioral...
We designed a series of analyses to develop a measurement system capable of simultaneously recording the free-play patterns of 20 children in a preschool classroom. Study 1 determined the intermittency with which the location and engagement of each child could be momentarily observed before the accuracy of the measurement was compromised. Results showed that intervals up to 120 s introduced less than 10% measurement error. Study 2 determined the extent of agreement between two observers who...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Intervals, Measurement, Error of Measurement, Play, Preschool Children, Class...
One of the missions of education is to prepare children for complex tasks that occur in their cultural environment. By means of abstracting, the effects of this complexity can be reduced. Recent research and theoretical development show us that young children already seem to be able to think abstractly. The acknowledgement of this potential in young children may provide a vehicle for the promotion of more mathematical thinking. In this article, we describe an approach to abstraction that...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Foreign Countries, Sociocultural Patterns, Cultural Context, Abstract Reasoning,...
This article focuses on the first phase of a recent National Research Center on Giftedness and Talented (NRC/GT) project, which used survey research to target a disproportionate nationally stratified random sample of primary grade teachers about their beliefs and practices related to talent development in young children and their responses to case studies describing four different types of students--one easily identified as gifted from a traditional paradigm; the others manifested talents...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Academically Gifted, Primary Education, Talent Development, Minority Group Children,...
The purpose of this article is to present various techniques that will engage young children, ages 3-8, in learning science and mathematics. Children actively engage in acquiring basic science and mathematics concepts as they explore their environment. The methods presented are intended to meet the developmental levels of young learners as they make connections with science and mathematics. Also included is a review of science and mathematics content and process skills appropriate for early...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Young Children, Science Instruction, Mathematics Instruction, Mathematical Concepts,...
Process-oriented inquiry can help preservice and inservice early childhood teachers implement constructivist science education in their own classrooms. In this article, we discuss the basic elements of process-oriented inquiry applied to early childhood science education, show how we foster the development of process-oriented inquiry teaching skills with our preservice early childhood education students, and argue that the validity of children's conclusions is more important than right or wrong...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Constructivism (Learning), Early Childhood Education, Young Children, Teaching...
Librarians have been working with families for years within and outside of libraries, providing access to print, motivating young children to read, and making connections with schools. Through interviews, observations, and an analysis of outreach documents from libraries in urban, suburban, and rural counties, this study sought to investigate what practices librarians were exercising to support children in preparing for school and once in school. The focus of this article is on librarians'...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Young Children, Public Libraries, Librarians, Outreach Programs, Library Services,...
The purpose of this study was to critically examine how family literacy is promoted and represented on websites developed by family literacy program providers. Naturalistic research over the last 20 years or so demonstrates that the family is a rich site for supporting children's literacy development across socioeconomic and cultural contexts. That research suggests that families engage children in a wide array of literacy activities in their daily lives. Furthermore, significant others, in...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Criticism, Foreign Countries, Family Literacy, Web Sites, Internet, Socioeconomic...
Knowledge about various illnesses and their management is not satisfactory among high school students especially in rural areas in India. Various incorrect practices and myths associated with illnesses and injuries still exit. Training and education about correct management of injuries and illnesses for students is a sound and logical investment. A randomized controlled trial was undertaken among 120 students of ninth class (age group- 14-15 years) from a Government Senior Secondary School at...
Topics: ERIC Archive, First Aid, Intervention, Injuries, Knowledge Level, Poisoning, Health Conditions,...