In-service Early Childhood Teachers Research Articles

Exploring in-service early childhood teachers’ experiences of “learning together”: Focusing on classes at a graduate school of education

Exploring in-service early childhood teachers’ experiences of “learning together”: Focusing on classes at a graduate school of education

Analysis of Inclusive Education Perception among In-Service Early Childhood Teachers Using Inclusive Indicators

This article presents an analysis of inclusive education perceptions among in-service kindergarten teachers, contextualized within the context of inclusive education in China. In the 1980s, the Ministry of Education in China initiated the ‘Learning in Regular Classrooms’ campaign, advocating for the integration of special needs children into mainstream classrooms — an instrumental stride toward inclusive education. With the growing emphasis on inclusivity, the preschool education in China has progressively moving forward to embrace this paradigm. In this study, a survey was conducted with 30 in-service early childhood teachers in China, seeking to comprehensively assess their perceptions towards inclusive indicators within the broader framework of inclusive education. Through a meticulous analysis of the inclusive education indicators exhibited by 30 in-service kindergarten teachers, the research utilizes Booth's questionnaire as a validated instrument to gauge the nuanced facets of inclusive education implementation. The findings illuminate diverse performances among in-service kindergarten teachers, unravelling variations across three pivotal dimensions of inclusive education.

Exploring in-service preschool teachers’ acceptance of mobile learning in science teaching practice

In the sphere of preschool and elementary education, new interactive technologies built on intelligent mobile devices and auxiliary applications have drawn increasing attention. Based on the UTAUT2 (The expanding of the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology) theoretical model, the purpose of this study is to understand the situation of pre-school preschool teachers’ willingness to use mobile learning. This study conducted a survey on 329 in-service preschool teachers in 9 cities in Fujian Province, China, and conducted data analysis through statistical analysis software SPSS (Statistical Product and Service Solutions) 22.0 and AMOS (Analyze of Moment Structures) 22.0, verifying the UTAUT2 model in Effectiveness in understanding in-service early childhood teachers’ intention to move to learn. The results of structural equation modeling show that the proposed model has acceptable fitting data. The results of the study show that in-service preschool teachers have the willingness to actively accept mobile learning. Among many influencing factors, performance expectancy, effort expectancy, social influence, facilitating conditions, learning value, habit have significantly impact on behavioral intention to accept mobile learning. In addition, hedonic motivation did not support to affect behavioral intention and habit to affect use behavior. The study has important implications for researchers, educators, policy makers and mobile learning app designers.

Job satisfaction and self-efficacy of in-service early childhood teachers in the post-COVID-19 pandemic era

Although the global COVID-19 pandemic has drawn public attention to the ecology of teachers’ work, little is known about how external and internal factors interact and affect early childhood teachers’ job satisfaction and self-efficacy. The purpose of this study is to examine how the external ecology of kindergartens and individual personality traits affect the job satisfaction and self-efficacy of in-service early childhood teachers in the post-COVID-19 pandemic era through a self-reporting questionnaire distributed among 237 kindergarten teachers in online and offline learning community groups. It was found that the job satisfaction of early childhood teachers was a significant predictor of self-efficacy and played a partially mediating role between personality traits and self-efficacy. Furthermore, personality traits are considered significant predictors of job satisfaction and self-efficacy in Chinese early childhood teachers, and it was noted that these teachers were the least satisfied in terms of pay and promotion. With these findings, this study contributes to the job satisfaction and self-efficacy literature by validating their causal associations in the field of early childhood teachers. Our findings also provide guidelines for practitioners and policymakers in promoting early childhood teacher credentialing and external social support to enhance job satisfaction and self-efficacy. The unique value of this study lies in the clarification of how the work environment and ecology of early childhood teachers in the post-COVID-19 pandemic era influenced self-efficacy and of personality traits being the underlying attributions that led to this result.

Visual Arts Self-Efficacy: Impacts and Supports for Early Childhood Teachers

Although visual arts pedagogies are considered central within early childhood education programs, teacher self-efficacy has a direct impact on the quality and delivery of visual arts curricula. Until recently, the visual arts self-efficacy, pedagogical knowledge, and practice of in-service early childhood teachers have remained largely unexplored. The authors of this paper present a qualitative, iterative re-analysis of their three PhD studies which broadly focussed on early childhood visual arts praxis and specifically examined the visual arts beliefs and pedagogy of early childhood teachers in Australia and New Zealand. A thematic analysis of the intersecting self-efficacy findings raised in the three studies identifies the powerful influence of self-efficacy on teaching practice in the visual arts domain and offers new understandings about visual arts self-efficacy amongst early childhood teachers. The combined findings reveal several factors that restrain or enhance teachers’ visual arts self-efficacy across time, including the impact of childhood experiences, pre-service training and epistemological beliefs. The paper also identifies several enabling conditions that appear to support teachers to develop and maintain positive visual arts self-efficacy beliefs, including practical engagement with materials, sustained professional learning, relational trust and intentional leadership. These enabling conditions offer practical strategies and research recommendations in service of positive visual arts self-efficacy to enhance quality visual arts teaching in early childhood contexts.

보육일지에 기록된 유아음악활동 실시현황 분석

Objectives This study aims to provide data on the current status of music activities so that pre- and in-service early childhood teachers can improve the quality of musical activities by analyzing early childhood musical activities recorded in childcare journal at chldcare center. Methods After obtaining written consent for the reading of the childcare journal from the 3 to 5 year old teachers at a public childcare center located in Seoul, 3,529 musical activities recorded in the childcare journal were were extracted for 1,516 days and analyzed on the music activities analysis creteria(3 areas, 6 categories). For each musical activity, frequency and percentage were calculated according to the analysis creteria. Results First, the overall descriptive status of the content of early childhood musical activities was that 277 (7.8%) were describe musical elements, that 3,252 (92.2%) were not describe musical elements, 3,529 (100.0%) were describe the type of musical activity, 1,182(33.5) were describe the Nuri Curriculum area, and 2,347 (66.5%) were not describe the Nuri Curriculum area. Second, the overall descriptive status of teaching-learning methods of early childhood music activities was that 3,529 (100.0%) were describe the daily routine, 0(0.0%) was not describe the daily routine, that 2,774 (78.6%) were describe the music activity materials, and that 755 (21.4%) were not describe the daily routine. Third, the overall descriptive status of the evaluation of early childhood music activities was that 3,264(92.5%) were not describe the evaluation of music class activities, and that 265(7.5%) were describe the evaluation of music class activities. Conclusions It have suggested that early childhood music activities were found to be many cases in which the nursery journal does not describe content, teaching-learning methods, and evaluation of them, and that efficient methods of recording them should be sought to improve the quality of early childhood music activities.

Developing and validating the teacher self-efficacy for teaching students with autism spectrum disorder in inclusive early childhood classrooms

ABSTRACT We developed and validated an instrument, the Teacher Self-efficacy for Teaching Students with ASD Inclusive Early Childhood Classrooms Scale: TSE-ASDI/EC, to determine teachers’ self-efficacy for teaching students with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in inclusive early childhood classrooms. We engaged in literature and expert reviews followed by cognitive pre-testing with pre-service and in-service early childhood teachers. Next, we employed a series of analytic techniques to examine the factor structure, reliability, and relationships among the dimensions of the instrument for the entire sample and by subgroups. We provide evidence for validity based on test content, response process, internal structure of the instrument, and relations to other variables. This led to a unidimensional, 16-item scale to measure general education teachers’ self-efficacy for educating students with ASD in inclusive early childhood classrooms. Based on these findings we discuss implications for research and practice.

Development and validation of the STEM Teaching Self-efficacy Scale (STSS) for early childhood teachers.

The preparation of STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) teachers for early childhood education (ECE) has clearly become an important issue in recent years. Teacher efficacy can lead to changes in professional beliefs toward and teaching practices in STEM. In this study, we developed the STEM Teaching Self-efficacy Scale (STSS) and validated it in a sample of 225 pre-service and 193 in-service early childhood teachers in Zhejiang, China. Results indicated preliminary evidence of reliability and validity of the two factors of STSS: Pedagogy Self-efficacy and Content Self-efficacy. Items were constructed based on literature and selected through factor analysis to cover the scope of self-efficacy on the behaviors of STEM teaching and ensure the content and construct validity of the scale. Scores on the STSS subscales were positively correlated with early childhood teachers’ working status, age, occupational commitment, and interest in ECE, showing evidence of its criterion validity. The STSS provides a professionally and psychologically meaningful tool for evaluating early childhood teachers’ efficacy beliefs about teaching STEM, which would help obtain evidence for the optimal design of STEM teacher training programs.

A Consensual Qualitative Research on the Personality Education Experience of In-service Early Childhood Teachers

반인륜적 사회문제가 심각한 상황에서 인격의 기초가 형성되는 유아기 인성함양은 매우 중요한 유아교육의 과제이다. 이에, 이 연구는 현직 유아교사의 인성교육 활동 경험을 합의적 질적 연구방법으로 접근하여 첫째, 현직 유아교사의 인성교육 활동에 대한 인식은 어떠한가? 둘째, 현직 유아교사가 인성교육 활동 과정에서 경험한 것들은 무엇인가? 셋째, 현직 유아교사의 인성교육 활동 결과는 어떠한가?를 규명하여 유아교사의 인성교육 역량을 높이는데 기여하고자 한다. 본 연구자는 현직 유아교사 11명을 개별 면접하여 자료를 분석하였다. 연구팀은 영역을 추출하여 중심개념과 범주, 하위범주를 추출하고, 분석의 타당성과 안정성을 확보하기 위해 감수와 교차분석을 실시하였다. 현직 유아교사의 인성교육 활동 경험은 인성교육에 대한 인식, 인성교육 과정, 인성교육 결과의 3개 영역으로 구성되었다. 먼저, 현직 유아교사들은 인성교육에 대해 유아기에 해야 하는 기본 교육이고, 주변사람의 영향이 중요하며, 자연스럽게 배워야 하는 학습으로 인식하였다. 둘째, 유아교사들은 인성교육 과정에서 유아들에게 지속적으로 개입하고, 인성교육 역할을 위해 노력하였으며, 인성교육에 대한 갈등을 경험하였다. 셋째, 유아교사들은 인성교육의 결과로 유아의 변화에 보람을 느끼고, 유아교사로서 깨달음을 얻었고, 더 효과적인 인성교육을 위한 기대사항이 있었다. 이러한 연구과정은 현직 유아교사들의 인성교육에 대한 인식과 노력을 확인하고, 유아교사에게 더 많은 인성교육 관련 강화와 지원이 필요함을 보여주고 있다.As horrifying and cruel accidents are increasing, posing threat to humanity in the society, cultivating personality in early childhood is becoming more and more important in early childhood education. This is because personality education conducted in infancy has a long-term effect on a person s entire life. This study looks into the experience of in-service early childhood teachers personality education activities through a consensual qualitative research method. First, what is the perception of in-service early childhood teachers on personality education activities? Second, what did the in-service early childhood teacher experience in the course of personality education? Third, what are the results of in-service early childhood teachers personality education activities? Answering to theses questions, this study is intended to contribute to enhancing the personality education capacity of early childhood teachers. This research was conducted with individual interview with 11 in-service early childhood teachers as participants, using a semi-structured questionnaire. 3 research teams conducted data analysis with supersion of the researcher. The research team extracted domains, and therein defined core ideas, categories, and subcategories, and conducted supervision and cross-analysis to secure the validity and stability of the analysis. The experience of personality education activities of in-service early childhood teachers consisted of three areas: perception on personality education, personality education course, and personality education results. First, the in-service early childhood teachers perceived personality education as a basic education that should be done in infancy, the people around them as crucially influential, and that personality education should be done naturally. Second, early childhood teachers continuously intervened with children in the character education process, tried to play a role in personality education, and experienced conflict over personality education. Third, early childhood teachers felt rewarded and gained insights when they witnessed children were changed as a result of personality education, and they had expectations for more effective personality education. This research process confirmed the awareness and efforts of in-service early childhood teachers on personality education with systematic approaches, and at the same time showed that more character-related programs need to be strengthened and supported for preparatory or in-service early childhood teacher education.

The Impact of Music Pedagogy Education on Early Childhood Teachers’ Self-Efficacy in Teaching Music: The Study of a Music Teacher Education Program in Hong Kong

Previous studies have suggested that teacher education plays a crucial role in developing pedagogical knowledge and enthusiasm in teaching music. Based on Bandura’s (1977) self-efficacy framework, this study sought to investigate the impact of music teacher education program on self-perceived confidence and competence of 32 in-service early childhood teachers. Adopting a mixed methods approach, the Music Teaching Self-Efficacy Survey (MTSES) was the main source of quantitative data, whereas focus group interviews elicited the qualitative data. The results showed a significant increase in the participants’ self-efficacy after completing a music pedagogy program which had strong emphasis on applied music. Aligning with Bandura’s social cognitive theory, each of the four sources of self-efficacy contributed to changes in self-efficacy perception. Mastery experience was the most significant source, as exemplified by prior relevant experiences, peer teaching, and practice in music classrooms. Vicarious experiences included observations of music specialists and peers. Verbal persuasion included feedback and encouragement from the course instructor and peers. Lastly, physiological and affective states included anxiety in musical performance as well as stress and fatigue. The findings of this study may inspire the policymakers and universities for the future development of music teacher education programs in Hong Kong and beyond.

예비유아교사와 현직유아교사의 놀이실행에 대한 인식

본 연구의 목적은 놀이중심 교육과정의 안정적인 현장 정착을 지원하기 위해 예비유아교사와 현직유아교사의 놀이실행에 대한 경험의 의미를 탐색하는 것이다. 연구를 위해 총 20명(예비유아교사 10명, 현직유아교사 10명)을 심층면접하였다. 연구결과는 다음과 같다. 첫째, 놀이실행에서 중요성이 강조되는 관찰, 영유아의 놀이 흐름을 따라가는 공간구성과 자료제공, 신중해지는 교사의 놀이참여 변화를 경험하였다. 둘째, 놀이실행에서 해야 하지만 혼란스러운 놀이중심 교육과정과 교사성장통의 어려움을 경험하였다. 셋째, 놀이실행을 위해 교육 연수와 교사 간 소통과 협력을 통한 교사 역량 강화, 재정적 지원, 인적 지원, 인식 전환의 외부 지원에 대한 요구가 나타났다. 본 연구의 결과는 교사 양성과정의 교육과정과 현직유아교사를 위한 지원 방안을 마련하고 놀이중심 교육과정의 정착을 위한 기초자료로 활용될 수 있을 것이다.

Okul Öncesi Öğretmen Adaylarının ve Uygulama Öğretmenlerinin Öğretmenlik Uygulaması Dersine İlişkin Görüşlerinin İncelenmesi

Bu çalışmanın amacı okul öncesi öğretmen adaylarının ve uygulama öğretmenlerinin, Öğretmenlik Uygulaması dersine ilişkin görüşlerini incelemektir. Nitel araştırma desenlerinden olgu bilim çalışmasının kullanıldığı bu araştırmanın katılımcıları 41 okul öncesi öğretmen adayı ile 31 okul öncesi öğretmenidir. Açık uçlu görüş bildirim formu aracılığıyla toplanan veriler içerik analizi yöntemiyle analiz edilmiştir. Katılımcılara göre Öğretmenlik Uygulaması sürecinde karşılaşılan sorunlardan bazıları öğretmen adayı ile uygulama öğretmeni arasında yaşanan anlaşmazlıklar ya da sınıf yönetiminde yaşanan zorluklardır. Katılımcıların bu sorunlara yönelik çözüm önerilerine bakıldığında ise öğretmen adayı ve uygulama öğretmeninin sürekli iletişim içinde olması ya da sınıf yönetimini kolaylaştırmak adına ilgi çekici yöntemlerin kullanılması gibi önerilere yer verilmiştir. Kişilere düşen sorumluluklar kısmında ise uygulama öğretim elemanlarının da öğretmen adayları ve uygulama öğretmenleri kadar sürece dahil olması gerektiğine değinilmiştir. Bu bulgular doğrultusunda, araştırmanın öğretmen yetiştirme programlarında yer alan Öğretmenlik Uygulaması derslerinin geliştirilmesi ve iyileştirilmesinde destekleyici olacağı düşünülmektedir.

Online academic learning beliefs and strategies: a comparison of preservice and in-service early childhood teachers

PurposeThis study explored preservice and in-service early childhood teachers' online academic learning beliefs and strategies.Design/methodology/approachTwo hundred preservice and in-service teachers respectively from Taiwan participated in this research. A focus group discussion was carried out concerning the development of the questionnaires. The exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis confirmed good construct validity and reliabilities of the survey.FindingsThe survey results showed that in-service teachers generally held more sophisticated learning beliefs than the preservice teachers in all scales. Also, in-service teachers responded with a higher level of online academic learning strategies than the preservice teachers did. Regarding their online experiences, preservice teachers who spent an appropriate amount of time online had more positive beliefs than those with excessive online experiences. However, preservice teachers did not reveal employment of their ICT literacy in their online academic learning strategies. It was found that those in-service teachers with more online learning experience also showed higher levels of online academic learning beliefs. They used more deep strategies in their online academic learning.Practical implicationsThe findings of this study could provide insights for the development of online academic learning ability in preschool teacher training programs.Originality/value(1) In-service teachers generally held more sophisticated learning beliefs than the preservice teachers. (2) Preservice teachers who spent an appropriate amount of time online had more positive beliefs than those with excessive online experiences. (3) Preservice teachers did not reveal employment of their ICT literacy in their online academic learning strategies. (4) In-service teachers with more online learning experience also showed higher levels of online academic learning beliefs. They used more deep strategies in their online academic learning.

Picturing pre-service and in-service teachers’ views about scientists and science teaching

ABSTRACT Courses in teacher training programmes, especially science method courses, play a major role in the development of beliefs. Because children’s science learning starts in preschool years, it is critical to investigate early childhood teachers’ beliefs about scientists and science teaching. The purpose of this study was to describe, document, and then compare the pre-service and in-service early childhood teachers’ beliefs about scientists and science teaching. A causal-comparative design with unequal sample sizes was used. The independent variables were the type of service, pre-service or in-service. The dependent variable was the score obtained on the ‘Draw a Scientist Test’ and the ‘Draw a Science Teacher Test'. The sample consisted of 139 pre-service and in-service early childhood teachers. Pre-service teachers were studying in a teacher-training programme at a major research university and in-service teachers were working in public schools in the south part of Turkey. The results indicate that inservice teachers held more stereotypical images than pre-service teachers about scientists. In addition, pre-service teachers had positive belief of scientists while in the training programme, but in-service teachers lacked this positive belief. A key implication of the study is that more professional training for in-service teachers should be offered within professional development programmes.

Mathematical pedagogical content knowledge of early childhood teachers: a standardized situation-related measurement approach

Measurement instruments of early childhood teachers’ mathematical pedagogical content knowledge (MPCK) have to consider the special characteristics of early childhood teaching. Early childhood teaching includes some planned activities but in contrast to learning in school, it is often motivated and generated by situations which unfold spontaneously in play and everyday activities. Therefore, and to respect that early childhood teachers as experts in their field may fail to explain their knowledge explicitly but indeed show implicit knowledge in their daily work, a measurement approach related to concrete situations seems to be suitable. While there are qualitative MPCK interview-instruments following this approach, there is still a lack of standardized instruments suitable for large-scale studies. As a first proposal to approach this gap, we developed a paper–pencil test with multiple-choice items measuring MPCK, and respecting early childhood teachers’ implicit knowledge. The test is based on descriptions of four typical kindergarten situations. Linked to each situation, we developed a set of items measuring professional knowledge concerning mathematical abilities of children and two multiple-choice items measuring professional knowledge of adaptive mathematical learning activities. The 39 items were piloted with a sample (N = 149) of pre- and in-service early childhood teachers. The results show validity evidence related to the test content, response processes, the internal structure of the test, as well as convergent evidence. Therefore, the test provides a suitable first approach to measure early childhood teachers’ MPCK, while addressing their implicit knowledge.

현직유아교사와 예비유아교사의 테크놀로지 교과교육학지식에 관한 연구

현직유아교사와 예비유아교사의 테크놀로지 교과교육학지식에 관한 연구

An analysis of Consciousness Level for Information Ethics between Pre-service and In-service Early Childhood Teachers

An analysis of Consciousness Level for Information Ethics between Pre-service and In-service Early Childhood Teachers

유아영재교육에 대한 예비 유아교사 및 현직 유아교사의 인식 연구

본 연구는 예비 유아교사와 현직 유아교사들이 유아영재교육에 대하여 어떠한 인식을 하고 있는지, 인식의 차이는 어떠한지를 파악하고자 수도권 소재 유아교육 및 아동보육 관련 학과 재학생과 유치원 및 어린이집 교사 738명을 대상으로 설문조사를 실시하였다. 설문지는 유아영재교육에 대한 필요성 및 문제점, 실시시기, 선발방식, 교육영역, 수업방식, 고려사항으로 구성되었다. 조사 분석 결과 첫째, 예비 유아교사와 현직 유아교사들은 유아영재교육의 필요성과 유아영재교육의 부재로 인한 문제점에 대하여 높은 수준의 인식을 하였다. 둘째, 영재교육의 시기를 정하는 것은 바람직하지 않고 영재 각자의 다양한 관심사와 놀이 중심의 통합 방식으로 유아영재교육을 해야 한다고 하였다. 셋째, 유아영재교육이 다양한 영역의 통합이어야 하고 수학, 과학 영역위주는 바람직하지 않다고 하였다. 넷째, 유아영재교육에서 가장 고려해야 할 사항으로 아동의 발달적 특성과 부모교육 프로그램 동시 진행, 그리고 유아영재교육 전문교사 양성이라고 하였다. 이 같은 결과로부터 얻은 결론으로 유아교육 현장에서의 교사들은 유아영재교육에 대한 필요성과 이의 부재로 인한 문제점 뿐 아니라 여러 영역에서 전문가와 동일한 수준의 바람직한 인식을 가지고 있으나, 현재 우리나라의 유아영재교육은 사교육에서만 실시되고 있을 뿐 유치원이나 어린이집 등 공교육 체제상에서는 잘 이루어지고 있지 않는 한계점을 드러내고 있다.

Fostering Connections to Nature — Strategies for Community College Early Childhood Teachers

ABSTRACTHow can early childhood teacher educators at the community college level create opportunities for their students to explore and relate to the natural world? This article discusses three learning opportunities in an early childhood associate-degree program that foster connections between preservice and inservice early childhood teachers and nature education — the Goldsworthy project, a local habitat course, and an animal study project in a curriculum course. Each learning opportunity helped teachers develop effective teaching strategies for engaging children with nature education and also a personal and professional disposition toward valuing nature education as future teachers.

An examination of Chinese preservice and inservice early childhood teachers’ perspectives on the importance and feasibility of the implementation of key characteristics of quality inclusion

ABSTRACTThe Chinese Preschool Inclusion Survey, which is an adaptation of Odom et al. [2004. ‘Preschool inclusion in the United States: A review of research from an ecological systems perspective’. Journal of Research in Special Educational Needs 4 (1): 17–149] a list of the features of quality preschools, was given to 234 preservice teachers and 307 inservice teachers in a large Chinese province so as to examine whether early childhood education (ECE) teachers agree on the key characteristics of high quality inclusion in terms of importance and feasibility. One significant finding of the study is that both preservice and inservice teachers highly ranked the importance of the key characteristics of high quality inclusion in ECE settings, yet both ECE teachers ranked the feasibility of implementing the key characteristics lower. Additionally, two factors that influenced preservice teachers’ perceived importance and feasibility of inclusion were years of study and courses related to special education, and five factors that influenced inservice teachers’ perceived inclusion beliefs were bianzhi, certification, years of teaching, opportunities for professional development and degree. Teacher education reform is called upon to affect change in terms of creating positive beliefs regarding high quality inclusion services and implementation of effective practices in stronger, collaborative support systems for Chinese children with special needs and their families. Implications for policy, professional development, and teacher education reform are provided.