Graduate Research Papers

Availability

Open Access Graduate Research Paper

Keywords

Readiness for school--Iowa; Kindergarten--Iowa; Early childhood education; School age (Entrance age);

Abstract

This project looked at the following research questions:

How can schools establish a strong transition plan for students entering kindergarten?

What information would be valuable to evaluate and revise a kindergarten transition plan for the benefit of all parties involved?

In order to answer these questions, current literature was reviewed looking at all parties involved in the transition to kindergarten: children, families, schools, and the community. The path to the project included collaboration initially with kindergarten and preschool staff and led to the final development of the project collaborating with two community members, a preschool laboratory director and a scholar who had done advanced post-masters studies in Early Childhood Education. The project was developed considering the resources in our community and based on past experiences. We considered what practices had been used in the past, such as parent meetings and the opportunity for preschool children to visit kindergarten. Based on the review of literature, additions were made to the plan to include a community-based program with the aid of a transition coordinator, who is identified as a vital part of the transition plan. We also realized that the plan would benefit all parties if it extended over a two-year period. The author believes that the transition plan outlined in this project is a good first step in providing a strong, appropriate transition to kindergarten for children, families, and the community. The author suggests multiple data points to collect regarding the current transitional kindergarten program to evaluate its appropriateness and benefit to children and families. This information will allow decision-makers to adjust the plan over time since it is intended to be dynamic and ongoing.

Year of Submission

2013

Degree Name

Master of Arts in Education

Department

Department of Curriculum and Instruction

First Advisor

Jill M. Uhlenberg

Comments

If you are the rightful copyright holder of this graduate research paper and wish have it removed from the Open Access Collection, please submit a request to scholarworks@uni.edu and include clear identification of the of the work, preferably with URL.

Date Original

2013

Object Description

1 PDF file (vi, 52 pages)

Language

en

File Format

application/pdf

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