A learner-centered journey: pre-service early childhood teachers’ learning through self-reflections and feedbacks with design-based curriculum course

Abstract

ABSTRACT This study was aimed at designing and developing a learner-centered curriculum course for pre-service early childhood teachers considering their expectations, supporting active creation of lesson plans, and investigating course effectiveness. Participant self-reflections and course assistant feedback regarding lesson plans were gathered. At the semester end, participants evaluated their course expectations of developing knowledge and skills involving lesson planning. Through participants’ lesson plans, self-reflections, and final evaluations, the designed learner-centered curriculum course was demonstrated effective. Gathering pre-service early childhood teachers’ ideas during curriculum preparation made them active participants within the process as well as enabled them to recognize the significance of their ideas. It was also determined active participation to create lesson plans and one-on-one feedback improved pre-service teachers’ lesson planning. Thus, this study can be seen as reflecting the promise of a designed learned-centered course.