Student-centered learning has an important place in education because it fosters student engagement and allows the traditional micromanaging teacher to transform into a guide. The current education model emphasizes teacher control and curriculum based on standardized testing, which stunts students' natural learning processes. This study…

In the action research project report, the teacher researchers found that many kindergarten and first-grade students did not have the reading readiness skills to be reading at their benchmark target. The purpose of the project was to improve the students overall reading ability. The dates of the project began on September 8 through December 20,…

This action research project involved the implementation of a program designed to improve student motivation to write through the use of children's literature. The targeted populations were students in one kindergarten class and one third grade ELL [English Language Learners] class in two elementary schools. Both schools were located in a…

A teacher in an East Tennessee elementary school observed after a year of kindergarten that her students had a hard time recognizing their letters based on the Brigance Test. She taught one letter a week by thematic instruction, and she was concerned her students would not be ready to read if they did not know their letters. A study was conducted…

Thirty-eight rural kindergarten students participated in this quasi-experimental study designed to assess the effect of employing daily, sequential phonemic awareness exercises on kindergartners' developmental spelling skills. In September all students were assessed for letter recognition, symbol-sound correspondence, phoneme segmentation and…

The purpose of this investigation was to evaluate the effects of a systematic auditory training program on the auditory discrimination ability and reading readiness of 55 white, middle/upper middle class kindergarten students. Following pretesting with the "Wepman Auditory Discrimination Test,""The Clymer-Barrett Prereading Battery," and the…

Several teaching methods aid young children in learning foreign languages, all of which include continuous repetition and review of learned information. The two methods used in this study were Total Physical Response (TPR) and songs/chants. The TPR method used a gesture for each vocabulary card, and the songs/chants method incorporated Spanish…

This report describes a program for improving phonemic awareness skills in kindergarten students. The targeted population consisted of kindergarten students in two elementary schools. The schools are located in the northern suburbs outside a large Midwestern city. The problem of poor phonemic awareness skills was documented with a parent survey, a…

This action research project evaluated a program for improving motor skills in kindergartners by incorporating into the core curriculum motor activities, new materials focused on motor skills, and authentic assessments of motor skills. Teacher observations, scores from the DIAL-R (Developmental Indicators for the Assessment of Learning-Revised)…

This action research project sought to incorporate character development education into a kindergarten classroom, with a focus on respect, responsibility, and cooperation. A behavior checklist was used by the teacher and parents to demonstrate the need for character education and to document improvement. Anecdotal records were also kept throughout…

A study examined the effect parental involvement through reading had on kindergarten achievement. Educators and parents today want to know how they can form home and school partnerships to benefit the children. Studies have shown that children whose parents are involved in their education have greater success in school. The study compared the…

This action research project implemented and evaluated a program for enhancing students' social skills in order to increase their ability to work cooperatively and to resolve conflict. The targeted population consisted of kindergarten students in a lower income urban school, located in a medium-sized Midwestern city. The problem of insufficient…

This Action Research Project was designed to increase student awareness and involvement of socio-economic differences and how the children can make a difference in their community. Service learning projects were non-existent at the Academy causing the young children to miss out on learning experiences that would teach them how to make a difference…

This Action Research Project implemented a program for improving human relation skills intended to raise the academic performance level of students. The target population consists of kindergarten, seventh grade (regular/at-risk), and high school (regular/behavior disordered) students. Analysis of both research literature and problem evidence…

A study examined the effects of using children's literature to introduce new science concepts to kindergarten children. Subjects, 48 kindergarten students, were arbitrarily assigned to either the control group or the experimental group. The experimental group was taught a unit on oceans using children's literature to introduce the science…