Education Matters in the Nurturing of the Beliefs of Preschool Caregivers and Teachers

dc.creator	Mary Benson McMullen
dc.creator	Kazim Alat
dc.date	2002-01-01T00:00:00Z
dc.date.accessioned	2015-07-20T22:19:42Z
dc.date.available	2015-07-20T22:19:42Z
dc.identifier	1524-5039
dc.identifier	https://doaj.org/article/bdc439609adc41109a27928301432c5d
dc.identifier.uri	http://evidence.thinkportal.org/handle/123456789/19825
dc.description	This study examined the relationship between educational background and the philosophical orientation of early childhood educators who worked as caregivers and teachers of preschoolers, ages 3 to 6 years, in one midwestern state (Indiana) in the United States. Specifically, the highest level of education attained by the early childhood professionals and their educational background (whether specific to working with young children or not) were compared to their self-reported beliefs about best practice with young children, using developmentally appropriate practices (DAP) as the philosophy for comparison. A comparison of factor analyses from this study and from studies conducted by Charlesworth and colleagues in 1991 and 1993 indicate clear similarities. A significant, positive correlation was found between level of education and self-reported DAP beliefs scores, and results from 2 x 3 ANOVAs of the three factors that emerged from these data indicate that professionals with a bachelors degree or higher more strongly adopted DAP as a philosophy overall than colleagues with less education, whereas coursework specific to working with young children was found to be significant only in the case of beliefs related to child-initiated learning. Thus, in general, participants with 4 years of college or more, even if in an unrelated field, held stronger DAP beliefs than those with less education, even if that education was directly related to working with young children. The article suggests that more research needs to be done to examine whether a 4-year degree may be most desirable in terms of ensuring better-qualified preschool teachers. The article also discusses the implications of this finding for policy and advocacy in the field of early childhood education.
dc.language	English
dc.language	Chinese
dc.language	Spanish
dc.publisher	ERIC Clearinghouse on Elementary and Early Childhood Educati
dc.relation	http://www.ecrp.uiuc.edu/v4n2/mcmullen.html
dc.relation	https://doaj.org/toc/1524-5039
dc.source	Early Childhood Research & Practice, Vol 4, Iss 2 (2002)
dc.subject	Beliefs
dc.subject	Child Caregivers
dc.subject	Developmentally Appropriate Practices
dc.subject	Educational Attainment
dc.subject	Preschool Teachers
dc.subject	Theory and practice of education
dc.subject	LB5-3640
dc.subject	Education
dc.subject	L
dc.subject	DOAJ:Education
dc.subject	DOAJ:Social Sciences
dc.subject	Theory and practice of education
dc.subject	LB5-3640
dc.subject	Education
dc.subject	L
dc.subject	DOAJ:Education
dc.subject	DOAJ:Social Sciences
dc.subject	Theory and practice of education
dc.subject	LB5-3640
dc.subject	Education
dc.subject	L
dc.subject	Theory and practice of education
dc.subject	LB5-3640
dc.subject	Education
dc.subject	L
dc.subject	Theory and practice of education
dc.subject	LB5-3640
dc.subject	Education
dc.subject	L
dc.title	Education Matters in the Nurturing of the Beliefs of Preschool Caregivers and Teachers
dc.type	article