scholarly journals Imagining and improvising with theory and practice : a narrative inquiry with first grade students during reading workshop

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Shonna R. Crawford
Keyword(s):  
Early Childhood ◽  
Narrative Inquiry ◽  
Aesthetic Experience ◽  
First Grade ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Deleuze And Guattari ◽  
Reading Workshop ◽  
Poststructural Theory ◽  
Early Childhood Literacy ◽  
Literacy Research

This paper illuminates the possibilities of thinking with poststructural theory when storying an emerging process of engaging in research with young children. The purpose of this paper is to describe processes, tensions, and imaginings while infusing poststructural theories into conversations with data (Deleuze and Guattari, 1987; Lenz Taguchi, 2010; Olsson, 2009). Currently much of early childhood literacy research (Park, 2011; Scull, Nolan and Raban, 2013; Vera, 2011) reports outcome-based findings and implications. While this research is informative, the emphasis is often on children as subjects and/or products/performances resulting from the research. In our narrative inquiry, we (first grade students, teacher, myself) worked together to explore ways students participated in a narrative inquiry about reading during reading workshop. While researching we experienced the ebb and flow-shifts and changes, tensions and challenges, joys and imaginings--of what it meant to participate in research. Thinking rhizomatically with our stories illuminated ways these shifts were initiated by lines of flight-- departures from the norm (Deleuze and Guattari, 1987; Kuby, 2013; Leander and Rowe, 2006). Lines of flight created new trajectories for our research including new ways of participating as we worked toward non-hierarchical relationships with young students. The improvisational nature of participation prompted an imaginative storying of our research through a jazz metaphor. This metaphor revealed relational improvisation with people and with materials as productive for students, teacher, and researcher as we produced our research. Ultimately our research invites practitioners and researchers to embrace teaching as an art, and learning as aesthetic experience.

scholarly journals Early Childhood Literacy Skills: The Effect of Socioeconomic Status, Home Literacy Environment, and Social Skills

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 3769-3775
Keyword(s):  
Socioeconomic Status ◽  
Early Childhood ◽  
Social Skills ◽  
First Grade ◽  
Home Literacy Environment ◽  
Literacy Skills ◽  
Home Literacy ◽  
Literacy Environment ◽  
Early Childhood Literacy ◽  
Children's Literacy

Literacy is an important skill that must be developed by a child for the next level of education, so it must be expected that parents help their children to develop reading habits at an early age. A family has a responsibility to provide rich experiences inside and outside the home that are very important for the development of children's literacy. This study aims to investigate the socio-economic status, home literacy environment, and social skills in early childhood literacy skills. The method used in this study is survey. A number of 120 students from first grade elementary school were recruited as samples. Parents of these children filled out questionnaires in the column of education and income of parents. Home literacy environment consists of literacy fasilities and parents-children activities at home, while social skills are obtained by measuring the ability to improve cooperative relationships, social sensitivity, adaptability, and communication. On the other hand, children's literacy skills are directly assessed by using tests. The research data was collected through questionnaires designed in the form of Likert scale and rating scale. The data is analyzed by using path analysis. The results of the research reveal a significant correlation between the socioeconomic status, home literacy environment, and social skills in literacy. The effect of socioeconomic status, home literacy environment, and social skills give direct positive influence on early childhood literacy skills.

Creating Critical Literacy Praxis: Bridging the Gap between Theory and Practice

RELC Journal ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 003368822098266
Author(s):  
Tsung-han Weng
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Foreign Language ◽  
Critical Literacy ◽  
Classroom Environment ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Teaching English ◽  
Speakers Of Other Languages ◽  
Literacy Implementation ◽  
Critical Literacy Pedagogy ◽  
Literacy Research

Although research in critical literacy has long been conducted in English as a second language contexts, a modicum of critical literacy research in English as a foreign language (EFL) contexts in which English is seldom used outside the classroom environment has also been undertaken. This article aims to discuss the introduction of critical literacy in the Teaching English to Speakers of other Languages (TESOL) profession, which has been neglected by TESOL researchers and practitioners in EFL contexts. The article reviews and synthesizes the existing literature by providing conceptualizations of the critical literacy approach to TESOL, examples of critical literacy implementation, and the benefits and challenges of implementing critical literacy pedagogy. The article concludes by calling for more critical literacy research in EFL contexts.

scholarly journals The Relationship between Learning Styles and Academic Performance: Consistency among Multiple Assessment Methods in Psychology and Education Students

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (6) ◽  
pp. 3341
Author(s):  
Jesús Maya ◽  
Juan F. Luesia ◽  
Javier Pérez-Padilla
Keyword(s):  
Early Childhood ◽  
Academic Performance ◽  
Learning Styles ◽  
Primary Education ◽  
High Performance ◽  
Multiple Choice ◽  
Assessment Methods ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Education Students ◽  
The Relationship

Universities strive to ensure quality education focused on the diversity of the student body. According to experiential learning theory, students display different learning preferences. This study has a three-fold objective: to compare learning styles based on personal and educational variables, to analyze the association between learning styles, the level of academic performance, and consistency of performance in four assessment methods, and to examine the influence of learning dimensions in students with medium-high performance in the assessment methods. An interdisciplinary approach was designed involving 289 psychology, early childhood education and primary education students at two universities in Spain. The Learning Style Inventory was used to assess learning styles and dimensions. The assessment methods used in the developmental psychology course included the following question formats: multiple-choice, short answer, creation-elaboration and an elaboration question on the relationship between theory and practice. Univariate analysis, multivariate analysis, and binomial logistic models were computed. The results reveal Psychology students to be more assimilative (theoretical and abstract), while early childhood and primary education students were evenly distributed among styles and were more divergent and convergent (practical) in absolute terms. In addition, high scores in perception (abstract conceptualization) were associated with a high level of performance on the multiple-choice tests and the elaboration question on the relationship between theory and practice. Abstract conceptualization was also associated with medium-high performance in all assessment methods and this variable predicted consistent high performance, independent of the assessment method. This study highlights the importance of promoting abstract conceptualization. Recommendations for enhancing this learning dimension are presented.

scholarly journals Cash transfers and early childhood care and education in Zimbabwe: A critical inquiry to discourse, theory and practice

2016 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hilton Nyamukapa
Keyword(s):  
Early Childhood ◽  
Social Protection ◽  
Public Investment ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Cash Transfer ◽  
Transfer Program ◽  
Early Childhood Care ◽  
Food Education ◽  
Childhood Care ◽  
Access To Food

<p>Cash transfer based social protection can potentially contribute positively upon targeted beneficiaries on a variety of developmental aspects. This study explored the pilot and scaled-up phases of the Harmonised Social Cash Transfer program to determine impacts towards improving under-eight children’s access to food, education, and health services. Stories of significant change were gathered in retrospect from purposively sampled caregivers and children beneficiaries. Based on thematic and guided analysis, it emerged that the programmes’ theoretical and practical approaches renders the interventions less effective as impact assessment is narrowed to the early childhood cohort. This is furthered by relatively insufficient size of grants disbursed per household and commodity supply-side challenges. Consequently, a review to theoretical and practical tenets of the cash transfer approach becomes imminent in the Zimbabwean context. Targeting criteria needs refinement and supplemented with policy and multi-faceted public investment to address underlying limitations to impact on young children. </p>

Using Multicultural Picture Books to Promote Racial Justice in Urban Early Childhood Literacy Classrooms

2018 ◽  
Vol 54 (8) ◽  
pp. 1058-1084 ◽  
Author(s):  
Terry Husband
Keyword(s):  
Early Childhood ◽  
Picture Books ◽  
Census Data ◽  
Early Childhood Teachers ◽  
Racial Awareness ◽  
Racial Justice ◽  
Approaches To Teaching ◽  
Race And Racism ◽  
Racially Diverse ◽  
Early Childhood Literacy

Recent census data indicate that student populations in U.S. classrooms continue to become increasingly racially diverse. Despite these changes, many early childhood teachers remain reluctant to teach children about race and racial justice. In this article, I argue that multicultural picture books can and should be used to promote racial awareness and racial justice among young children. I discuss reasons why early childhood teachers should abandon colorblind approaches to race and racism in their classrooms. Then, I provide a framework of multiple approaches to teaching children about race through multicultural picture books. Practical considerations are presented.

Word Awareness, Reading and Development

1977 ◽  
Vol 44 (1) ◽  
pp. 203-206
Author(s):  
Marjorie H. Holden
Keyword(s):  
Early Childhood ◽  
First Grade ◽  
Conscious Awareness ◽  
Older Children ◽  
Cognitive Changes ◽  
Developmental Factors ◽  
Language Structure ◽  
Early School ◽  
Discrete Responses

Research on young children's word awareness, the ability to identify the lexical constituents of a meaningful utterance, has received different interpretations: Either word awareness is related to linguistic and cognitive changes associated with the early school years or is a concept that children can learn when appropriate techniques are employed. This study was devised to clarify the nature of variables influencing word awareness during early childhood by analyzing responses of 26 kindergarten and 24 first-grade children to the Homophones Test of Word Awareness. Responses were assigned to seven categories representing a continuum characterized as ranging from discrete to global. Older children made fewer errors, and they gave a higher proportion of discrete responses. Younger children gave more global responses. Memory was evidently not the source of the younger children's inability to perform as well as the older ones. Rather, the difficulty appeared to stem from the younger children's inability to divorce sound from meaning in spoken messages. The role of developmental factors in children's conscious awareness of language structure and lexical units is supported by these findings.

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