Mathematics

Reach out and Read Plus Math

Investigators: Todd Brown and Faye Jones

The purpose of the Reach out and Read + Math grant is to develop a mathematics intervention to engage children in mathematics activities as early as 12 months of age. As the national Reach out and Read program has helped develop language skills- in this project we are targeting the mathematics skills in young children. The goal is to see if medical pediatric residents can be effective teachers for parents learning to engage their children in mathematics activities at home and through book reading.

Scaling Up the Implementation of a Pre-Kindergarten Mathematics Curriculum in Public Preschool Programs.

Investigators: E. Todd Brown, V. Molfese, D. Molfese

This is a sub-contract on from grant awarded to P. Starkey and A. Klein (University of California-Berkeley) by the U.S. Department of Education, September, 2006 to August, 2011. The purpose of this project is to study the effects of implementing a mathematics intervention in public preschool programs on the development of young children's mathematics concepts, and using the perspectives of teachers, parents, and school administrators to evaluate the impacts and the intervention.

Language & Literacy

More than just a sand table: Enhancing science learning and reasoning for young children by embedding language and literacy practices in science instruction.

Investigators: Lori Norton-Meier, Jill Jacobi-Vessels, Yuliya Ardasheva

This project places an emphasis on science teaching and learning in preschool settings with four objectives: 1) Extend to preschool education (3-5 year olds) fundamental knowledge of the relationship between growth of students' conceptual science understanding and their language developments through a systematic teaching approach called Project See What Happens (SWH) that will embed and integrate literacy instruction in the context of active inquiry-based science learning; 2) Investigate the impact of varying lengths of participation in the proposed professional development program on teachers' knowledge, beliefs, intentions and practices with respect to effectively developing science and literacy learning through integrated science and language instruction; 3) Examine the differential impact of varying levels of change in teachers' science and literacy pedagogies on preschool children’s developing understandings of science content, reasoning, literacy and language skills; and 4) Investigate a model, including exploration of barriers and possible solutions, of how to improve science teaching and literacy practices among preschool education teachers by providing professional development on integrating science and literacy teaching with the SWH approach.

The Effects of a Phonological Awareness Intervention on the Decoding Skills of Kindergarten Children

Investigator: Jill Jacobi-Vessels

This study is an investigation of the effects of a phonological awareness (PA) intervention alone versus a PA intervention with connections to reading practice (PAR) on the PA skills, word reading skills, and non-word reading ability of kindergarten students. The study also compared the two intervention conditions to a storybook reading contrast group (C). The participants in the study were 24 kindergarten students (13 females and 11 males) enrolled in three public kindergarten classrooms in a metropolitan Midwestern city. Participants completed pretest and posttest assessments of letter knowledge, name writing, PA skills, and reading skills.

The study is framed within emergent literacy theory, which states that reading development is a complex process that begins in early childhood and derives from social interactions, print experiences, and language exposure. While the current study did not produce significant posttest score group differences, the effect sizes for the PA and reading skills measures were moderate to large. The PAR group made significantly larger gains on the segmentation measure than the Contrast group while the PA group did not. The PAR group also made significant gains on the blending measure over the gains made by the PA group. The effect sizes on the PA skills were large. The study findings are promising evidence that the use of kindergarten children's names to make connections between PA intervention and reading practice is practically significant.

Teacher Learning

In the company of children: Supporting pre-service teacher education through a professional development model in urban preschool classrooms

Investigators: Lori Norton-Meier, Jill Jacobi-Vessels, Todd Brown, & Dianna Zink

During the Fall 2011, the researchers at the ECRC in cooperation with the faculty and staff at the Early Learning Campus will design a study to investigate pre-service teacher learning at the center. As we grow the many practicum experiences our pre-service teachers will have at the ELC, we plan to systematically evaluate their learning as well as the development of each person's professional identity as an educator of young children.

Home-School Relationships

Little Cardinals: Expanding Horizons for Parents and Children. Child Care Access Means Parent in School (CCAMPIS) Program- U.S. Department of Education

Investigator: Todd Brown

The Little Cardinals grant provides childcare support and parenting seminars for Pell Grant eligible single parent students to encourage full-time enrollment in the university. In 2010-2011 the grant funding provided support for 19 children at the Early Learning Campus. The faculty and staff of the Early Childhood Research Center and CEHD conducted a series of parent seminars and provided resource materials for ELC library.