Exploring Parents' Understanding and Application of Dialogic Reading While Teaching Their Preschoolers the Social Skills Associated with Courage, Empathy, and Love

• Other Authors: McMonigle, Tiffany (authoraut)
• Format: Others
• Language: English; English
• Published: Florida State University
• Subjects: Teachers > Training of
• Online Access: http://purl.flvc.org/fsu/fd/FSU_migr_etd-5031

The development of morality in children has been deemed one of the most important endeavors of parenting (Klein, 2002; Lickona, 1983). Being that children first learn about moral elements from their parents (Lickona, 1992), it is necessary to understand how parents approach teaching the social skills associated with moral elements. As such, the purpose of this study was to explore parents' understanding and application of dialogic reading while teaching their preschoolers the social skills associated with courage, empathy, and love. Literature pertaining to moral development, children's literature and moral development, parents and shared book experiences, the connection between social skills and literacy, and dialogic reading was reviewed in order to inform this study. Three middle class mothers and their five-year-old children participated. Using a qualitative, case study research design, multiple forms of data were collected. All data collected were analyzed using Vygotsky's (1978) Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) in order to make sense of the social interactions, which took place between the three mothers and their children during shared book experiences. The findings reveal all participating mothers and their children moved from their initial development level to a more advanced developmental understanding of the social skills associated with courage, empathy, and love in collaboration with more knowledgeable others. Each of the participants demonstrated differences in both cognitive and affective behaviors during shared book experiences from the initial observation to the post dialogic reading training observations. Recommendations for future research are offered. === A Dissertation submitted to the School of Teacher Education in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. === Spring Semester, 2012. === January 25, 2012. === Dialogic Reading, Moral Education, Parents, Preschoolers, Social Skills === Includes bibliographical references. === Ithel Jones, Professor Directing Dissertation; Stacey Rutledge, University Representative; Vickie Lake, Committee Member; Diana Rice, Committee Member; Mary Frances Hanline, Committee Member.