The present study evaluates a major education reform in Jordan-the implementation of public kindergartens-and provides an example of how evaluation can be incorporated into education reform. In the context of education reform in Jordan, 532 public kindergartens have been created over the last five years. A stratified random sample of kindergartens was selected to represent these new public kind...

This study clarified the relationship between children’s toes and kindergartens’ barefoot policy by comparing the condition of untouched toes, that is, toes not touching the ground while standing normally, between children who attended kindergartens following a barefoot policy and those who did not. Participants were 552 children (299 boys and 253 girls) attending kindergartens that followed a ...

Pinworm infection can occur through contact with contaminated surfaces followed by ingestion or even through inhalation of infective eggs. We have limited information regarding environmental contamination by eggs of Enterobius vermicularis. In order to determine environmental risk factors associated with the rate of E. vermicularis infection, we investigated possible environmental risk factors ...

This study examined how well nonverbal IQ (or fluid intelligence), vocabulary, phonological awareness (PA), rapid autonomized naming (RAN), and phonological short-term memory (STM) predicted mathematics outcomes. The 208 participating kindergartners were administered tests of fluid intelligence, vocabulary, PA, RAN, STM, and numeracy in the fall of kindergarten, whereas tests of numeracy and ap...

The objective of this exploratory investigation was to examine the nature of writing instruction in kindergarten classrooms and to describe student writing outcomes at the end of the school year. Participants for this study included 21 teachers and 238 kindergarten children from nine schools. Classroom teachers were videotaped once each in the fall and winter during the 90 minute instructional ...

Developmentally appropriate courseware can play a crucial role in enhancing children’s learning and development. Research studies have demonstrated that early childhood educators face major challenges in selecting and updating developmental courseware that supports young children’s development. The primary purpose of this study was to assess children’s digital courseware employed in Jordanian k...

BACKGROUND In view of the increasing prevalence of food allergies, there has been an associated increase in frequency of situations requiring an emergency response for anaphylaxis at the home, childcare facilities and educational institutions. OBJECTIVE To clarify the situation of adrenaline auto-injector administration in nursery/kindergarten/school, we carried out a questionnaire survey on ...

Kindergartens in China offer structured full-day programs for children aged 3-6. Although formal schooling does not commence until age 7, the mathematics program in kindergartens is specifically focused on developing young children’s facility with simple addition and subtraction. This study explored young Chinese children’s strategies for solving basic addition facts as well as their intuitive ...

BACKGROUND To examine the effect of nutritional education on children's breakfast patterns. METHODS A kindergarten based nutrition intervention was started in September 2001 among 8 kindergartens in Hefei with a total of 2,012 children aged 4-6 years and their parent pairs. RESULTS Monthly nutrition education sessions were held over two semesters in kindergartens part of the intervention ar...

In an attempt to determine the prevalence of pinworm infection, the egg positive rate of Enterobius vermicularis was examined using the adhesive cello-tape anal swab method in 1,512 preschool children sampled from a total of 20 kindergartens in Cheongju city, in November to December of 2004 (951 children from 13 kindergartens) and September to October of 2005 (561 from 7 kindergartens). The ove...