An experienced kindergarten teacher implemented a 10-week practicum intervention designed to improve the classroom management skills of 9 kindergarten teacher aides. In-service training for participants included planned workshops, observations, team activities, coaching, and evaluation. Each participant concentrated on a specific skill or area of…

A volunteer program coordinator developed and implemented an 8-month practicum study that provided opportunities for interaction between 20 elderly adult tutors--residents of 2 senior citizen facilities--and 37 fourth-, fifth-, and sixth-grade students at five elementary schools in low- and middle-class metropolitan black communities. The tutoring…

A practicum study was planned and implemented by a working mother for the purpose of developing a child care resource and referral agency in an eastern metropolitan area. The objective of the practicum was to increase the number of child care referrals available to working families by 10 percent over a 10-week period. Of the 110 surveys mailed to…

A licensed counselor working in a privately owned mental health facility implemented a practicum study designed to improve the parenting skills and quality of family communication in families with children between 3 and 14 years of age. Practicum goals were to: (1) give parents information that would improve their parenting skills; and (2)…

A prekindergarten teacher working in a private elementary day school developed and implemented a prosocial behavior program designed to improve the social behavior of prekindergarten students. The program focused on decreasing the incidence of 10 behaviors: (1) pouting; (2) hitting; (3) yelling indoors; (4) interrupting; (5) whining; (6) ignoring…

This practicum addressed the problem of developing and implementing a school-based in-service model that would be facilitated and presented by the elementary school teachers who were to be instructed. A literature review led to the conclusion that successful implementation could be achieved by faculty and staff ownership of the in-service model…

A parent education component was planned and implemented as part of a university-based preschool program in the Department of Psychology at Rutgers-The State University. Goals of the practicum were to survey parents to identify topics of interest to them; to develop a parent education program focused on topics identified by parents; to sensitize…

A 10-week practicum intervention was implemented with 67 first graders at a small, independent, university-run school in order to improve the children's affective behavior by increasing their self-esteem. The program began with a meeting with parents at which they were informed of the school's emphasis on self-esteem. In-service education was…

A project was designed to reduce the turnover of direct care staff in a community-based residential facility that provides a home and educational or adult day training services for 54 severely or profoundly mentally and physically handicapped children and adults. The project sought to reduce total staff turnover by 40%, reduce employee…

This practicum report presents a plan to reduce referrals for psychological evaluations in the schools in Dade County, Florida. Three goals of the plan are identified: (1) to reduce the backlog of referrals in three elementary schools; (2) to improve the placement rate of those students who are referred; and (3) to help teachers identify children…

Over a l0-week period, an elementary school teacher designed and implemented a practicum study intended to help a target group of 24 kindergartners develop crucial mathematical problem-solving skills and to prepare them for taking the Stanford Achievement Test. The objective was addressed through implementation of direct instruction, modeling,…

An associate director of an independent preschool and elementary school developed and implemented a practicum intervention designed to improve five inexperienced teachers' ability to conduct parent-teacher conferences. Through self-evaluation, teachers identified skills they needed to improve. Intervention focused on preconference planning…

This practicum involved developing and implementing on a pilot basis a clearinghouse for resources on child safety education. The setting was a growing urban county in the Sunbelt. Project goals were to (1) locate local resources for child safety education; (2) establish a computerized database of the resources; (3) develop a system by which…

This practicum was designed to reinforce the importance of meeting the needs of the whole child in the classroom--the social, emotional, and psychological needs, not just the intellectual needs. The practicum was implemented in the Montessori Learning Center, a small private preschool and elementary school located in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, by…

A Piagetian, language-experience approach to the early teaching of reading to normal young and older developmentally delayed preoperational children was developed. The approach was discussed in a specially-developed manual which was field tested by 42 teachers among 390 children in 16 school systems in several states and in Canada. Subjects were…