Classroom behavior management practices in kindergarten classrooms: An observation study.

The main purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the types of management practices that teachers use when disturbing behaviors occur in their classrooms. Teachers and children were observed in 14 kindergartens during daily classroom activities. Data was collected through the use of observation checklists, documents, and teacher’s short interviews.  The present study distinguishes the classroom management practices into two broad categories: positive non - punitive practices and negative punitive practices. The results showed that teachers combine most of the non - punitive practices such as, establishing and re-establishing rules, encouraging children to be responsible, promoting students to discuss a topic involving behavior, emotions or situations of concern, etc.,  with punitive practices such as verbal reprimand, intervention by yelling etc. Research has yielded important information that has practical implications for the improvement of classroom behavior management practices

Implementing a Web Application Screener for Preschoolers: Executive Functions and School Readiness

Web applications can be constructed to assess the executive functions and literacy skills of preschool aged children using a variety of research protocols. This work describes such a web application and its research protocol with tasks that screen inhibition, auditory and visual working memory, letter sound connection, word identification, and cognitive flexibility. The application was tested on a group of 65 preschoolers with cognitive deficits whose parents were advised to allow their children to reattend kindergarten classes and a control group of 65 typically achieving peers of similar age and gender. The results revealed that children at the age of four and five years old with cognitive deficits presented lower scores of correct answers and larger latencies in all six tasks compared to children that participated in the control group