This report outlines the Bridgeport Futures Initiative, a collaborative project undertaken in 1990 by health, education, and social service organizations in Bridgeport, Connecticut, to improve the lives and educational outcomes of children and youth. The report discusses the origins of the initiative, as well as the cross-systems co-location case…

Daycare directors in northern Canada, with little or no post-secondary education, face the difficulties of programming for children from diverse cultures. Directors often feel isolated in their small communities, and a lack of programming expertise and early childhood development training for them has become a concern. This practicum designed,…

Third-grade students generally lack the social skills needed to resolve conflicts. This report describes a program for improving the social skills of third graders attending a middle-class suburban school. The researcher selected a resolution program which would address those problems outlined by a classroom teacher in an incident report, a…

Noting that many instructional routines discourage complex thought and language, a study examined how teachers and children used language in the first 3 weeks in 3 preschools. Specifically it explored how teachers talk to children, what teachers ask children to do with language, and what children say in school. The language features of…

Increasing numbers of children begin formal schooling without the requisite skills or abilities to succeed, most often due to deficiencies in language and emotional maturity. This study sought to identify potential precursors to later kindergarten difficulties that would suggest specific areas needing further study and support. Study participants…

This study explored two mothers' and two teachers' beliefs about who was responsible for children's teaching and learning. Participants were two teachers at Adams Elementary, a public school in middle-class suburban Boston (Massachusetts), and the mothers of two kindergartners there. The children were a boy and a girl, both firstborn and…

A study investigated the language use of six native Mandarin Chinese-speaking children, recent immigrants to the United States placed in an English-language kindergarten class. Taking the perspective of an immigrant child, the research focuses on the English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) learner's language behaviors when engaging in four classroom…

This booklet is intended to help teachers, aides, and parents of preschool-age children to establish desirable behaviors and eliminate inappropriate behaviors in their children. Following a list of definitions, the booklet discusses how to discriminate between different types of behavior and how to choose the appropriate level of response. Major…

Noting that the early childhood age group encounters--and poses--particular challenges that require understanding by early childhood teachers, this book presents theories and practical skills needed to administer discipline that will promote the educational development of young children and help them learn from their behavior. The guidance…

The Korean kindergarten curriculum involves a mixture of Japanese, American, and Korean methods. The Japanese influence is reflected in the use of large group instruction and an expectation of uniformity from the children, influences from the United States include a consideration for children's individual interests, and the Korean influence is…

In fiscal year 1990, the Bilingual Education Special Populations Program of the Department of Education awarded grants to 30 programs serving children of limited English proficiency. These programs were preschool projects, special education projects, or projects that served gifted children. This document reports the results of a survey, conducted…

This digest discusses factors associated with the acceptance and rejection of preschool children by their peers and offers a number of strategies that teachers and other adults can use in their attempts to help children achieve social acceptance. Behaviors and characteristics associated with peer rejection include aggression and misinterpretation…

This study investigates the effect of curiosity in first and second grade children as an individual difference variable in learning in a computer-based interactive learner control environment and discusses the implications for instructional designers and educators. The instruction was an art education lesson containing both facts and concepts. The…

In order to document the economic, social, educational, and emotional status and physical well-being of children in West Virginia, this databook provides national and state profiles, a separate minority profile, and 55 county profiles. For the state and each county, 10-year (1980-90) trend data are presented for 12 indicators: child abuse/neglect…

Quality requirements of curricula are analysed in terms of the educational effectiveness of their implementation. Improvement of educational effectiveness is seen primarily as taking place by improving the pupils' opportunity to learn, by increasing their time on task, by structuring and pacing their instruction, by clear and explicit objectives…