The emergence of different full-time Kindergarten Centres has raised numerous questions among different stakeholders in the education sectors in different parts of the globe, including Canada. Most stakeholders are primarily determined by establishing the impacts of full-time kindergarten programs on children’s learning opportunities and educational attainment (Pyle et al., 2018). One of the primary aims of full-day Kindergarten is to lay a firm foundation for learning during the early developmental years. However, to achieve and foster this firm foundation, the implementers need to ensure that they do so in a safe and caring play-based environment that will help promote learners physical, social, emotional, and cognitive development (Pyle et al., 2018). With the prospective advantages associated with full-day kindergarten programs, Ontario is one of the states that introduced this program in all the public school systems for four and 5-year-olds in 2010. The program’s implementation took place in bits, thus by the end of 2014, all the other provinces in Canada had implemented it in all the provinces (Blair et al., 2018). The introduction of the Ontario full-day Kindergarten now dictates that all the school boards offer before and after-school programs for students who are full-timers in the Kindergartens (Blair et al., 2018). The development of children’s cognitive and mental processes is at its peak during the early days of life. As a result, full Day Kindergarten is crucial since it will lay a foundation for boosting the learner’s academic achievement, especially in numeracy and literacy (Blair et al., 2018). When analyzing the Ontario Full-day Kindergarten Program, students get the opportunity to spend more time doing maths, writing, and related reading and social activities, and this aids in significantly boosting their cognitive abilities. The Ontario Full Day Kindergarten program prepares students to be successful in the areas of self-regulation and numeracy. This essay, therefore, seeks to expound on how the program fulfills its mandate by searching for related articles and presenting the findings.
A description of my research process.
Locating literacy sources from different library databases is often a challenging task. However, gaining a detailed understanding of the Ontario Full-day Kindergarten program will lay a foundation for understanding the weaknesses which need improvement. Full-Day Kindergarten is a new concept that is now gaining recognition in different provinces in Canada and other countries. As a result, there is a substantial amount of resources on the online library databases that can be used to expound on this topic.
To locate high-quality peer-reviewed scholarly journals and articles, I used the search engines Google Scholar and OMNI. After logging online, I typed the words “Google scholar,” and after a few seconds, the page loaded and provided a space where I Could type the necessary words. I then typed the keywords “Full day, Kindergarten, self-regulation, and numeracy.” The page opened and provided me with several articles discussing Full-day Kindergarten. However, I had to narrow down my search to Ontario Full-day Kindergarten program. One way through which I narrowed down to specific sources was by selecting those that can be published in the past five years and specifically discussed the influence of Ontario Full-time Kindergarten on self-regulation on numeracy and self-regulation. All the other articles discussing this subject matter but were published more than five years ago did not meet the criteria for inclusion in this study.
An Interpretation of the Findings from the Located Peer-Reviewed Scholarly sources.
The first valuable article that was established is primarily concerned with establishing the effectiveness of the full-day, play-based Kindergarten program in Ontario in promoting self-regulation, literacy, and numeracy. The article was written by three authors Youmans, Kirby, and Freeman. All the three authors work in the faculty of education at Queen’s University, Ontario, Canada; thus, they have experience on the subject matter. The study used a total of 32,027 participants (Youmans et al., 2018). According to the regression analysis of the study, schools that did not have Full-day Kindergarten programs exhibited higher means for self-regulation in 2012 (t=16.409, p<.001), numeracy (t=8.29, p<.001). In 2009, non-full day Kindergarten schools experienced even much better results (Pelletier & Fesseha, 2019). For instance, in self regulation, Non-Full-day Kindergarten Program schools had (t=29.018, p<.001) and numeracy (t=25.302, p<.001). However, Full-Day Kindergarten schools have slightly lower means of leading to a statistically significant negative effect of (-.063, p<.001).
When analyzing findings from this study, although the initial hypothesis states that the Full-day Kindergarten program improves numeracy and self-regulation of students, findings indicate that its influence on self-regulation and numeracy was negative and not supported. As a result, the program needs to institute several changes to enhance its effectiveness. For instance, the Ontario Full Day Kindergarten program needs to be strengthened by including evidence-based practices. Additionally, it needs to revise its curriculum expectations and put much emphasis on numeracy skills and self-regulation.
The second article also offered valuable insights on Ontario Full day play-based Kindergarten program. The article was written by palletizer and Corter in 2019 and thus provides updated information concerning the effectiveness of a full-day kindergarten program (FDK) on self-regulation and numeracy. This study was conducted in the large municipality of Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
When analyzing the findings in this study, FDK is associated with numerous benefits compared to Half Day Kindergartens. The resulting Anova results from this study indicate that learners in the FDK outperformed those in the HDK (Patricia et al., 2019). Those in the FDK had a mean of 104.28, while those in HDK had a mean of 95.55. Subsequently, students in FDK had better results than those in HDK concerning numeracy. Therefore, findings from this study indicate that FDK has long-term self-regulatory and academic gains among its users. As a result, all the provinces in Canada should strive towards embracing the Full-day Kindergarten program (Patricia et al., 2019).
The last scholarly article that was reviewed was primarily concerned with analyzing the self-regulation skills of Ontario’s full-day Kindergarten program. The main participants in this study were four teachers who taught in different schools in Ontario during the first year of its enrollment. One of the primary concerns that emerged from the study is that unsafe violence, bullying, and disruptive behavior prompted most teachers and students, especially in Kindergarten, to explore their self-regulation skills (Pelletier & Fesseha, 2019). Findings from the study also indicate that there are numerous challenges in sustainability and making students in Kindergarten understand self-regulation and what it entails. Based on the findings from this study, one crucial aspect that is evident is that self-regulation is an essential aspect in a Full-day Kindergarten program (Pelletier & Fesseha, 2019). However, most learners do not understand what it entails and how I can be practiced. Therefore to ensure that the FDK program is successful, the curriculum needs to be revised and ensure that every teacher understands what self-regulation entails and how learners can be educated on how they can enhance this crucial skill.
Solution to the identified challenges.
When analyzing all the presented articles, one evident aspect relates that although FDK is associated with several advantages, especially in regard to increasing the self-regulation and numeracy skills of learners in Kindergarten, some of the studies indicate that FDK does not have a significant impact on the numerical and self-regulation skills of students. One way through which the effectiveness of the identified gaps, especially in regard to FDK, is by revising the current curriculum and using evidence-based practices in its enrollment. Additionally, the effectiveness of FDK programs can be enhanced by ensuring that teachers primarily focus on improving learners’ numerical and self-regulation skills. Additionally, the different stages should strive to maximize success by controlling the number of children in every classroom. The school boards should ensure that I reduce the number to not more than 20 to ensure that every learner has sufficient access to the teachers. By doing so, the need of every student will be identified, and this will lead to positive outcomes.
Works Cited.
Blair, C., McKinnon, R. D., & Daneri, M. P. (2018). Effect of the tools of the mind kindergarten program on children’s social and emotional development. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 43, 52-61.
Patricia Pelletier, J., & Corter, J. E. (2019). A longitudinal comparison of learning outcomes in full-day and half-day Kindergarten. The Journal of Educational Research, 112(2), 192-210.
Pelletier, J., & Fesseha, E. (2019). The Impact of Full-Day Kindergarten on Learning Outcomes and Self-Regulation among Kindergarten Children at Risk for Placement in Special Education. Exceptionality Education International, 29(3).
Pyle, A., Prioletta, J., & Poliszczuk, D. (2018). The play-literacy interface in full-day kindergarten classrooms. Early Childhood Education Journal, 46(1), 117-127.
Youmans, A. S., Kirby, J. R., & Freeman, J. G. (2018). How effectively does the full-day, play-based kindergarten program in Ontario promote self-regulation, literacy, and numeracy? Early Child Development and Care, 188(12), 1788-1800.
