Date of Submission

6-17-2018

Document Type

Dissertation/Thesis

Degree

Doctor of Education

Department

Education

Keywords

education, distributed leadership, policy enactment, kindergarten, self-regulation, curriculum

Abstract

On June 30, 2016, the Ontario Ministry of Education released The Kindergarten Program, a document which outlined the expectations to be taught and the pedagogical approaches to be used in all publicly funded Ontario kindergarten classrooms with a mandatory implementation date of September 2016. This document included a focus on self-regulation, since research has shown that self-regulation skills are essential for not only early learning but for social and emotional success throughout life. This Organization Improvement Plan (OIP) investigates several possible strategies for ensuring that all kindergarten teachers and Early Childhood Educators in School Board X can articulate what self-regulation is and why it is important, and that they can teach, document, assess and report on the self-regulation expectations. Strategies used in this OIP to develop and deepen educators’ understanding of self-regulation are underpinned by a constructivist orientation to learning (Butler & Schnellert, 2012) whereby learners actively construct knowledge and understanding, and build upon their prior knowledge, experience and beliefs. The change implementation plan in this OIP leverages existing structures in School Board X utilizing Cawsey, Deszca and Ingol’s Change Path Model (2016) as a guiding framework. The proposed solution explores how the educational leaders of the Curriculum Support Department can use a distributed leadership framework to create, support and sustain a Self-Regulation Leadership Team. Once implemented, this OIP is anticipated to effect positive change in kindergarten educators’ understanding of self-regulation and ensure that all learners reach their full potential.

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