ERIC Number: EJ1152171
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2017
Pages: 19
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1090-1027
EISSN: N/A
Preservice Early Childhood Educators' Pedagogical Beliefs
Di Santo, Aurelia; Timmons, Kristy; Lenis, Angelike
Journal of Early Childhood Teacher Education, v38 n3 p223-241 2017
Preservice early childhood educators begin postsecondary programs with established beliefs about children, children's learning, and their roles as future educators. The present study examined 26 first-year students' beliefs about children, classroom practice, and guiding children's behavior. Participants completed the Teacher Beliefs Q-Sort (Rimm-Kaufman, Storm, Sawyer, Pianta, & La Paro, 2006) at three time points over the course of their first year of studies. We compared responses across the three time points to explore whether the students' beliefs changed over time. Findings are presented under three main themes: 1) beliefs about children; 2) beliefs about classroom practice; and 3) beliefs about behavior management. Overall, findings reveal that for all three themes, at each time point, practices that are most characteristic of the participants' beliefs are child-centered, whereas beliefs that are least characteristic of their beliefs are teacher-directed. To support students' application of theory to practice, they should be given opportunities during their studies to voice, explore, and critically examine their beliefs in relation to philosophies and teaching approaches.
Descriptors: Preservice Teachers, Student Teacher Attitudes, Educational Attitudes, Early Childhood Education, College Freshmen, Beliefs, Children, Classroom Techniques, Behavior Modification, Q Methodology, Foreign Countries, Statistical Analysis, Questionnaires, Qualitative Research
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Higher Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Canada
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A