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Sample A: Cover Page of Thesis, Project, or Dissertation Proposal

Sample A: Cover Page of Thesis, Project, or Dissertation Proposal

Sample A: Cover Page of Thesis, Project, or Dissertation Proposal

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engaged in st<strong>or</strong>ybook discussions. These possible circumstances could explain the lack <strong>of</strong><br />

statistical significance using regression-based analytical techniques but the detection <strong>of</strong><br />

statistically significant mean differences between the intervention and book reading<br />

control groups using ANOVA-based analytical techniques. Perhaps slighter differences<br />

between intervention and book reading control group teachers‘ st<strong>or</strong>ybook reading<br />

techniques were detectable when examining groups means but not when determining<br />

causality <strong>of</strong> intervention methods on children‘s outcomes.<br />

Classroom and Experimental Group Assignment<br />

Because both the intervention and book reading control groups included teachers<br />

and children assigned to both full- and half-day classrooms, the final research question<br />

investigated differences between experimental group assignment and Head Start<br />

programming dosage. Results revealed statistically significant findings f<strong>or</strong> children‘s<br />

emergent literacy skills, emotion knowledge, and social skills. First, supp<strong>or</strong>ting the use <strong>of</strong><br />

dialogic reading techniques during st<strong>or</strong>ybook reading, findings demonstrated that<br />

children in classrooms assigned to the intervention group had stronger vocabulary skills<br />

than children in classrooms assigned to the book reading control group. The same results,<br />

however, were not found f<strong>or</strong> regression-based analytical techniques despite the inclusion<br />

<strong>of</strong> only slightly different variables than ANOVA-based analyses and the fact that both<br />

ANOVA- and regression-based approaches are part <strong>of</strong> the general linear model.<br />

In <strong>or</strong>der to examine whether <strong>or</strong> not ANOVA- and regression-based analyses‘<br />

controlling f<strong>or</strong> different variables may have lead to these varying results, ANCOVA,<br />

MANCOVA, and hierarchical regression analyses were rerun, all controlling f<strong>or</strong> the same<br />

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