Date of Award
1995
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Department
Psychology
Abstract
Two major pedagogical orientations currently dominate literacyEducation of young children in American schools. These two philosophies, "reading readiness" and "emergent literacy," share the common goal of efficiently and effectively teaching children to read. The purpose of this study was to determine if there has been a split between the theoretical orientation that practitioners believe they hold and the teaching methods that they practice. A survey instrument was designed to study the relationships among the early literacy assessment beliefs, knowledge bases, and practices of a systematically selected sample of Head Start, kindergarten, and first grade educators within the state of Indiana. Statistical analysis was used to compare the responses among the reading readiness and emergent literacy groups, using a two-tailed noncorrelated t-test. The totals from each of these sections were combined to produce a total literacy orientation score, which was also analyzed by a two-tailed noncorrelated t-test. The survey instrument also contained checklists to determine the knowledge bases of the practitioners. The difference in frequency of positive responses to items on the checklist was analyzed through a goodness of fit chi-square test. All results were tested for significance at the.05 level. There was a significant difference in beliefs between early childhood educators who espouse reading readiness and emergent literacy. There was no significant difference between the knowledge bases of early childhood educators who espouse reading readiness and emergent literacy philosophies. There was no significant difference in practice between early childhood educators who espouse reading readiness and emergent literacy philosophies. The study indicated a steadfast adherence to philosophical beliefs by both groups which was contrasted by a shift in practice, by reading readiness educators, toward emergent literacy.
Recommended Citation
Marley, Linda G., "Early Childhood Educators' Beliefs, Knowledge Bases, And Practices Related To Assessing Early Literacy" (1995). All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 795.
https://scholars.indianastate.edu/etds/795