| dc.description.abstract | Effective language practices are crucial for children's oral language and reading development in early childhood education (ECE), yet they are often underutilized in pre-K classrooms. Published curricula provide a potential framework to guide teachers' instructional practices, but little research examines the specific language guidance within ECE curricula or how teachers implement and adapt it. This dissertation addresses this gap by investigating the language guidance in The Creative Curriculum for Preschool (6th Ed.), a widely used Pre-K curriculum, and exploring teachers' interpretations and adaptations of this guidance. Through content analysis and semi-structured interviews, the study examines two primary research questions: the types of teacher talk promoted by the curriculum and teachers' perceptions and responses to the language guidance. Findings from the content analysis reveal diverse types and purposes of teacher talk, highlighting the importance of fostering meaningful conversations, modeling complex language, and explaining new vocabulary. The content analysis also identifies varying levels of explicitness within The Creative Curriculumlanguage guidance, emphasizing the nuanced ways in which the curriculum addresses language development. Additionally, the content analysis highlights how different activity settings within the curriculum necessitate unique patterns of teacher talk, emphasizing the importance of flexible language approaches across the classroom day. Insights from the teacher interviews indicate that while teachers were guided by the written curriculum, they also adapted it to suit their contexts by referencing, supplementing, modifying, and scaling back the guidance. These adaptations were influenced by factors such as student characteristics, teacher characteristics, and broader systemic considerations, illustrating the complexity of curriculum implementation in ECE. Overall, these findings have significant implications for curriculum development and teacher learning opportunities in ECE, informing strategies to support effective language practices and ultimately enhance children's language and literacy development. | |
