The medium of instruction issue has continuously been discussed in relation to standards of education. It has been for a long time a controversial issue and sometimes a complicated one in many countries, including the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The main objective of this study was to investigate prospective teachers' views about the use of English as the medium of instruction in KG classes. Sixty-two students in the Early Childhood Program in the College of Education at the UAE University participated in the study and only 21 students volunteered to take part in the focus-group interviews. A questionnaire and a focus group interview were used as the two main tools for collecting data. The overall results demonstrate prospective teachers' positive views about English language and its use as the medium of instruction in children's classes. Major results highlight the importance of using English in KG classes for developing children's communication skills and assisting them to gain more confidence at subsequent stages of their education. Another important result demonstrates the role of English in helping children to develop intellectually, socially and linguistically. In order to guide future research in this area, recommendations were discussed and recorded toward the end of the article.
The focus of this study is to understand children who may demonstrate undesirable behaviors. We are teaching a child, not a label. Many teachers see these children as different (and difficult) and treat them as such. This attitude creates huge barriers between these teachers and their students. It is argued that we should treat all children as normally as possible, and concentrate on their strength rather than their weaknesses. This research provides evidence of the power of art-filtered through the teaching/learning process and the student-teacher relationship-to increase productive creative behavior and eliminate or decrease disruptive behavior, by providing a healthy environment of respect, trust, and love and the freedom for all children to learn and experience comfort and security. As a result, an environment of healthy teaching and learning, substantial progress toward described ends was made. To achieve the goal of becoming more compassionately focused art teachers, three areas of focus were attended to change the child's disruptive behavior: (a) student-teacher relationship, (b) classroom management, and (c) instructional performance. As a result of improvements in these areas, the child's disruptive behavior started to change gradually and diminish consistently during the art making experience.
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