Date of Conferral
2021
Degree
Doctor of Education (Ed.D.)
School
Education
Advisor
Beryl Watnick
Abstract
Research indicates that young children need to be able to self-regulate their emotions and behaviors to be successful in preschool and later schooling. However, there is no consensus in the education sector regarding what constitutes best strategies and practices when supporting self-regulation in young children. The purpose and guiding research question for this qualitative study were to explore teachers’ perspectives on effective strategies and practices used to support self-regulation in preschool and kindergarten classrooms. This study was premised on Bandura’s social learning theory, which explains human behavior in terms of continual interaction between cognitive, behavioral, and environmental factors when attempting to self-regulate. Twelve individual semistructured interviews were conducted with nine kindergarten and three preschool-certified teachers who had at least 1 year of classroom experience. The data were analyzed by using a hybrid coding method which consisted of three a priori codes for deductive analysis and eight in vivo codes for inductive analysis. The results of the study indicate that the participants believed in the importance of teachers’ ability to coregulate young children’s self-regulation by providing direct instruction, modeling, and different opportunities for observation, emulation, and self-control to strengthen or weaken young children’s inhibitions. A recommendation is that future researchers consult with preschool and kindergarten teachers about effective learning practices and strategies. This outreach may assist policy makers in gaining additional insight into the types of training resources possibly needed in the educational professional learning environment. Provision of these resources may increase teachers’ capacity to support young children’s self-regulation development during these early years, which may improve their subsequent learning.
Recommended Citation
Thomas, Cheryl Denise, "Preschool and Kindergarten Teachers’ Perspectives on Effective Strategies and Practices for Supporting Self-Regulation" (2021). Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies. 11137.
https://scholarworks.waldenu.edu/dissertations/11137
