Date Approved

5-11-2017

Embargo Period

5-12-2017

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

MA School Psychology

Department

Educational Services and Leadership

College

College of Education

Advisor

Callueng, Carmelo

Committee Member 1

Dihoff, Roberta

Keywords

prekindergarten programs, academic readiness, learning behaviors

Subject(s)

Readiness for school; Sex differences in education

Disciplines

Early Childhood Education

Abstract

Prekindergarten programs have been designed with the purpose of improving children's academic skills and behaviors before the start of formal schooling (Howes et al., 2008). Previous research has determined that academic readiness in young children is influenced by the child's learning behaviors (Schaefer & McDermott, 1999). The study examined children's learning behaviors and academic readiness at the pre-Kindergarten year in a learning-centered private school in Southern New Jersey. Forty children were recruited from three separate classrooms and tested with the Bracken School Readiness Assessment-Third Edition (BSRA-3: Bracken, 2007) to assess their academic readiness. Learning behaviors of the children were assessed using the Preschool Learning Behaviors Scale (PLBS: McDermott et al., 2012). Mann-Whitney U tests was employed to determine if gender differences were significantly found in all three areas of learning behaviors assessed, but gender differences in academic readiness and learning behaviors. Pearson correlation was used to calculate the correlation between learning behaviors and academic readiness of the participants. Findings of this study determined a significant relationship between learning behaviors and academic readiness. Gender differences in learning behaviors were also significant, favoring girls in all three areas of the PLBS. In the area of academic readiness, a significant gender difference was not found, with both girls and boys scoring similarly on the BSRA-3.

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