Early childhood education—teacher education

Abstract

Early childhood education, like all other aspects of education, has passed through a number of stages in its development. There seems to be no question as to the importance of placing young children in learning environments. There is also ample evidence as to the importance of the teacher in the learning environment. It is the importance of the teacher that provides the basis for discourse. How can we provide teachers that are knowledgeable about the needs of children and at the same time have the skills to guide them in learning situations? The problem of how to assure competent teachers is the same at all levels of education. This paper will focus on one attempt to train teachers to be knowledgeable, caring, and capable of designing instructional activities that promote desirable learning in young children. Discussions of early childhood education and training programs for the teachers of young children often lose their substance because of semantics. In an effort to avoid having the reader assume definitions that the authors do not assume, these definitions are offered. Early childhood for the purpose of this paper is defined as the child from ages four to eight. This definition seems to offer a way to limit the scope to that range generally used by state departments of education for certification purposes. This is not to say that all certification is structured this way but that most certificates labeled early childhood fall somewhere within this range. Our second definition concerns teacher