Melbourne Graduate School of Education - Theses

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    Parents' and staff' perception of quality in preschools
    Schaper, Clare ( 2003)
    Effective working partnerships between parents and staff are widely recognized as a major factor that contributes to the delivery of high quality preschool services. Available research suggest that while parents and staff embrace a number of similar attitudes about quality in early childhood services, they also hold some differing perceptions. This study, conducted in a rural city in Victoria, explored how parents and staff agree and differ in their perceptions of preschool quality. Throughout the duration of the study both parents and staff expressed their beliefs about the importance of quality preschool services. The study found that parents and staff held similar perceptions relating to a number of factors which the literature has shown to contribute to quality, such as staff-child interactions, teachers experience and professional development. The study also found that their perceptions were divided in other areas which the literature identified as contributing factors such as the suggestion for the need to introduce a standard curriculum framework for all preschools as well as the need for parents to be involved in their children's preschool. The findings from this study can highlight the importance of strengthening the partnerships between parents and staff, necessary to enhance the delivery of high quality preschool services.
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    Curriculum differentiation for gifted pre-schoolers : a study of a professional development program
    Morrison, Karin ( 1999)
    Curriculum differentiation has been shown to positively influence the way gifted children develop in educational settings, yet very few pre-school teachers have any training in gifted education and curriculum differentiation. This study examines the needs of young gifted children and whether a differentiated curriculum to meet these needs can be developed in a manner that is accessible to pre-school teachers who have had no formal training in the area of giftedness. The sample included a group of twelve pre-school teachers who participated in a series of workshops examining giftedness in early childhood, the learning needs of young gifted children and ways to respond to these needs. The study utilised a comparison of curriculum units developed by the teachers, both before and after the intervention of the workshops. The units were analysed according to criteria identifying specific characteristics of curriculum differentiation and their presence in the units of work developed by the teachers. This analysis showed that there was a substantial increase in the presence of the identified characteristics in the curriculum units developed at the conclusion of the workshops and that many of these characteristics were also evident in units of work developed eighteen months after the conclusion of the workshops. For example, variety of process, product and interaction were infrequent characteristics prior to the workshops, yet were evident in almost every unit both immediately after the conclusion of the workshops and eighteen months later. While the sample of this study is small, the findings suggest that specifically designed workshops can significantly influence the curriculum that teachers develop to respond to the needs of the gifted children in their care.