Young children experiencing toxic stress has negative consequences on their development. The purpose of this case study was to explore teachers' perceptions of toxic stress in young children and the classroom practices used to assist students experiencing toxic stress from two rural early childhood centers in an eastern state in the United States.…

Receptive language skills allow students to understand the meaning of words spoken to them. When students are unable to comprehend the majority of the words that are spoken to them, they do not have the ability to act on those words, follow given directions, build on prior knowledge, or construct adequate meaning. The inability to understand the…

Colleges and universities graduate many qualified teachers each year who are eager to enter their own classrooms, yet over one third of teachers leave the profession within the first 5 years of teaching. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to examine teachers' perceptions of their first teaching positions to determine whether they…

The dissertation project is a study of how childrens' increasingly skillful use of certain language forms ("stance forms") help them to more effectively perform culturally salient social identities in discourse. Although scholars have long claimed that language use helps to position speakers in terms of socially recognizable identities,…

Scope and Method of Study. This study examined two sections of a course in child development, one online and one face-to-face, to determine similarities and differences between the two related to constructivist education and constructivist processes. Course documents, instructor reflections, online discussion forum text, student-instructor…

This dissertation examines the ways in which a principal of a K-12 school in Chile exercises leadership through talk and nonverbal communication when engaging other educational practitioners about how to view particular school events. More specifically, this study focuses on the verbal and nonverbal means that the principal uses, as a political…

This study was undertaken to develop a rich image and understanding of the actions taken by the leaders in charge to translate the Reggio Emilia approach into their university Child Development Lab School and associated teacher education classes. As the university selling is one in which the links between theory, research and practice are highly…

Because child welfare workers serve the most vulnerable children and families, it is necessary that they have sufficient knowledge, skills, and values (competencies) to provide quality services. This study focuses on competencies that the Division of Child and Family Services, Utah (DCFS) views as essential for entry-level child welfare work, and…

State-level policy attention to young children's early learning opportunities burgeons; a sense of urgency exists to identify reform agendas that are both effective and sustainable. "P-3" often is used as the term for the first level of a seamless P-20 system that stretches from early childhood through post-secondary education. While it…