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ERIC Number: ED646327
Record Type: Non-Journal
Publication Date: 2022
Pages: 96
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: 979-8-8417-7092-3
ISSN: N/A
EISSN: N/A
Available Date: N/A
Impacts of a Social-Emotional Learning Curriculum on the Prereading Skills of Prekindergarten Students
Tiffany A. Clark
ProQuest LLC, Ed.D. Dissertation, The Florida State University
Self-regulation, an increasingly focus of social-emotional learning curriculums for over twenty years according to Zimmerman (2008), provides students with the ability of "setting goals, selecting strategies, and self-monitoring their effectiveness" as opposed to waiting for others to redirect their behavior (p. 166). Prekindergarten students who have documented strengths in social-emotional learning, and particularly self-regulation, have a greater chance at demonstrating academic readiness at the kindergarten level (Ashdown & Bernard, 2015). On the contrary, if students do not strengthen these social-emotional learning skills by the age of 8, a potential of long-term academic weaknesses exists (Aksoy, 2019).Prekindergarten options such as the State of Florida Voluntary Prekindergarten Program, strive to provide enriching methodologies for students at four years of age with aspirations of strong social-emotional skills and academic success in kindergarten. The most recent readiness results, from the 2018 school year, from the State of Florida indicate 58% of students demonstrated proficiency, meaning 42% of students were not ready for kindergarten during the 2019 school year (Nickerson, 2019). This result is an increase from 36% not being proficient in the 2018 school year (Postal, 2019).The purpose of this study was to better understand if an increased focus on social-emotional development at the prekindergarten level would increase a prekindergarten student's academic readiness in the form of print knowledge, phonological awareness, and oral language. In addition, the study researched the relationship between this social-emotional learning program and the number of verbal and physical aggressions for prekindergarten students. The leadership team for the school featured in this study researched several commercial programs dedicated to social-emotional learning and selected the "Incredible Years Dinosaur School" as the primary means for teaching social-emotional skills during the school years of 2020-2021. I conducted a descriptive study using ANOVA to compare academic reading scores of prekindergarten students at the school between the years of 2019-2020 (control group) and 2020-2021 (treatment group) using the results of the State of Florida Voluntary Prekindergarten Assessment for Assessment Period 1 administered within the first 30-days of each school year and Assessment Period 3 which occurred 30-days prior to the ending of both school years. I calculated the number of incidents of verbal and physical aggression using student behavioral incident forms to provide further data regarding the outcome. An additional analysis examined the role gender and age play in the success of students in both groups for the areas of literacy. This study finds that the students who participated in the "Incredible Years Dinosaur School" demonstrated growth in oral language skills with a decrease in both verbal and physical aggression occurrences. In addition, further analysis of age data between the control and treatment group indicated students from the younger cohort group (those who turned five years of age from February 1st 2021-August 31st 2021) demonstrated more success with pre-reading skills than those from the older group (those who turned five years of age from September 2, 2020-January 31, 2021. On the contrary, however, the results showed that the addition of the Incredible Years Dinosaur School at the school had no effect on the students' print knowledge or phonological awareness levels. While the school found the implementation of "Incredible Years Dinosaur School" strengthened students' social-emotional skills as measured by student behavioral data, the prekindergarten program at Country Wide School should research and employ supplemental reading curriculums for students to develop levels of print knowledge and phonological awareness. Oral Language, however, can be increased from such social-emotional learning programs as these programs typically provide modeling and an enhanced exposure to vocabulary. Prekindergarten programs should review the information presented in this study as well as examine the data from their own facilities to gauge whether additional time allotted to social-emotional learning possibly would be of benefit. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]
ProQuest LLC. 789 East Eisenhower Parkway, P.O. Box 1346, Ann Arbor, MI 48106. Tel: 800-521-0600; Web site: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml
Publication Type: Dissertations/Theses - Doctoral Dissertations
Education Level: Early Childhood Education; Elementary Education; Kindergarten; Primary Education; Preschool Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Florida
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Author Affiliations: N/A