Structured play and student learning in kindergarten: an ...

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STRUCTURED

PLAY AND STUDENT LEARNING

PLAY Head:

AND STUDENT

LEARNING

STRUCTURED PLAY AND STUDENT LEARNING IN KINDERGARTEN:

AN OUTCOME EVALUATION

A thesis report presented

by

Moira Smith Rodgers

to

The School of Education

In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of

Doctor of Education

In the field of

Educational Leadership

College of Professional Studies

Northeastern University

Boston, Massachusetts

January 2012

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Abstract

Structured Play and Student Learning in Kindergarten: An Outcome Evaluation

This qualitative research study was an outcome evaluation of an alternative kindergarten

curriculum to those currently used in most public schools. Tools of the Mind, a Vygotskian,

play-based curriculum was implemented during the 2010-2011 school year in four kindergarten

classrooms, involving data from approximately 50 students, within a public school district

located in a rural, coastal region of New England.

The following three research questions were investigated in this study:

1. How does the Tools of the Mind curriculum develop students¡¯ literacy skills and

understandings through play?

2. How does the teachers¡¯ implementation of the Tools of the Mind curriculum reflect

the curriculum as it was intended to be implemented? and

3. How do students who have experienced the Tools curriculum perform on the

Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills (DIBELS)?

This methodology used was a qualitative, five-step protocol (University of Wisconsin,

Madison, Cooperative Extension Campus) to assess the interplay of the intended, the enacted,

and the attained curriculum (Marzano, 2003). The Tools of the Mind curriculum was analyzed,

the teachers were surveyed about their implementation fidelity, and student DIBELS data was

analyzed. This study used the teacher survey responses and the student DIBELS data, to design

questions used in follow up interviews with teachers and the early childhood director. The

responses to these interview questions created the depth of detail needed to understand the

PLAY AND STUDENT LEARNING

impact of the curriculum on student learning outcomes and the teachers¡¯ professional

dispositions about teaching kindergarten.

The study findings provide educational policy makers, public school leaders, and

classroom teachers with another example of a way to alter their current kindergarten

environment if they so choose.

Keywords: kindergarten learning, play-based curriculum, early childhood classroom,

academic achievement, DIBELS

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Acknowledgements

¡°It is good to have an end to journey toward; but it is the journey that matters, in the end¡±

-- Ursula K. LeGuin, n.d.

I ran the Boston Marathon about 10 years ago. Prior to starting my training, I imagined that

completing that race would be an accomplishment that would change me forever. What I didn¡¯t

know was when I would cross the finish line on Boylston Street, the joy and satisfaction in

running 26.2 miles was profoundly rooted in the months of training that led up to that moment.

Ultimately, it was not the end but the journey getting there that was most meaningful to me. In

many ways, earning this doctorate has been a similar experience. As it was good to be finished

with the Boston Marathon, it is good to be finished with my doctorate. The joy and the

satisfaction in this accomplishment would not have been possible without some very important

people who provided instruction, coaching, guidance, and support on this profound personal and

professional journey.

With the deepest of heartfelt gratitude, I thank my advisor Dr. Margaret Dougherty, my

second reader, Dr. Alan Stoskopf, and my external reader, Dr. Andrea Martone. In addition, I am

indebted to Dr. Charles Depascale, Barb Wilder-Smith, and Elizabeth McGonagle for their

support. In their respective fields, all these people are exceptional. I am keenly aware of how

fortunate I have been to work with and learn from them.

My mom and dad, Maryanne and J. Thomas Smith, were my first teachers and role models

for the importance of education. Both of them have had an immeasurable influence on who I

am, what I value, and my belief that it is the journey that matters. Their love and support have

always been a constant in my life. So too has been the emotional and moral support of my sisters,

Megan and Shana. Their friendship, love, and belief in me were, and will always be, a source of

strength, comfort and inspiration.

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Finally, there are not words adequate enough to thank my husband, Mark, for his

unconditional support in the pursuit of all of my dreams and aspirations. His love, and the love

of my two beautiful and amazing children, Flynn and Nuala, has sustained me on this journey.

Flynn was entering kindergarten when I started my doctoral studies and Nuala is in kindergarten

as I finish. My passion for this study had a great deal to do with my interest in their early

learning experiences. My love for them, and being their mother, give my life¡¯s journey its true

north.

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