Skip to main content

Advertisement

Log in

Preschool Teachers’ Shared Beliefs About Appropriate Pedagogy for 4-Year-Olds

  • Published:
Early Childhood Education Journal Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

The 18 preschool teachers in the study tended to agree that preschool education for 4-year-olds should foremost be fun and engaging, not stressful. Teachers should develop curricula based on children’s interests and everyday lives, and allow children to choose their activities and to direct their own play and exploration at their own pace. The goal of preschool education should be to promote children’s social, emotional, and physical well-being, and not focus so much on academic learning.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Similar content being viewed by others

Notes

  1. The two classrooms in the video clips were referred to as the classrooms A and B in the interviews with the participants.

References

  • Bredekamp, S., & Copple, C. (Eds.) (1997). Developmentally appropriate practice in early childhood programs (Revised ed.). Washington, DC: National Association for the Education of Young Children

  • Browning, K. G. (1997). Michigan public preschool teachers’ views of the meaning of risk status and children’s readiness for kindergarten. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Michigan

  • Caruso D. A., Dunn L., File N., (1992). Cognitive curriculum practices in preschool programs: Implications for teacher preparation. Journal of Research in Childhood Education 7(1), 27–36

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Clark C. M., Peterson P. L., (1986). Teachers thought process In: Wittrock M. C., (ed), Handbook of research on teaching 3rd ed. Macmillan, New York, pp. 255–296

    Google Scholar 

  • Hains A. H., Fowler S. A., Schwartz I. S., Kottwitz E., & Rosenkoetter S., (1989). A comparison of preschool and kindergarten teacher expectations for school readiness. Early Childhood Research Quarterly 4, 75–88

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • IRA, & NAEYC (1998). Learning to read and write: Developmentally appropriate practices for young children. A joint position statement of the International Reading Association (IRA) and the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC). Young Children 53(4), 30–46

  • Kagan D. M., (1990). Ways of evaluating teacher cognition: Inferences concerning the Goldilocks principle. Review of Educational Research 60(3), 419–469

    Google Scholar 

  • Kagan, S. L., & Cohen, N. E. (Eds.) (1996). Reinventing early care and education: A vision for a quality system. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass Publishers

  • Katz L. G., (1999). Curriculum disputes in early childhood education. ERIC Clearinghouse on Elementary and Early Childhood Education, Champaign, IL

    Google Scholar 

  • McMullen M., Elicker J., Wang J., Erdiller Z., Lee S. -M., Lin C.-H., et al., (2005). Comparing beliefs about appropriate practice among early childhood education and care professionals from the U.S., China, Taiwan, Korea and Turkey. Early Childhood Research Quarterly 20(4), 451–464

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • National Education Goals Panel, (1997). National education goals report. Washington D.C.: Author

  • Phillips D., (1996). Reframing the quality issue. In: Kagan S. L., Cohen N. E. (eds). Reinventing early care and education: A vision for a quality system. Jossey-Bass Publishers, San Francisco, pp. 43–63

    Google Scholar 

  • Piotrkowski C. S., Botsko M., Matthews E., (2000). Parents’ and teachers’ beliefs about children’s school readiness in a high-need community. Early Childhood Research Quarterly 15(4), 537–558

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Saracho O. N., Spodek B., (2005). Preschool teachers’ professional development. In: Spodek B., Saracho O. N. (eds). Handbook of research on the education of young children (2nd ed.) Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Publishers, Mahwah, NJ

    Google Scholar 

  • Sarason S., (1996). The culture of the school and the problem of change. Teachers College Press, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Smith, T., Kleiner, A., Parsad, B., Farris, E., & Greene, B. (2003). Prekindergarten in U.S. public schools: 2000–2001 (NCES 2003–019). US Department of Education (No. NCES 2003-019). Washington, DC: National Center for Education Statistics

  • Stipek D., Byler P., (1997). Early childhood teachers: Do they practice what they preach? Early Childhood Research Quarterly 12, 305–325

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tobin, J., (1989). Visual anthropology and multivocal ethnography: A dialogical approach to Japanese preschool class size. Dialectical Anthropology, 13(2), 173-187

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tobin J., Wu D., Davidson D., (1989). Preschool in three cultures: Japan, China, and the United States. Yale University Press, Boston

    Google Scholar 

  • Walsh D. J., Smith M. E., Alexander M., Ellwein M. C., (1993). The curriculum as mysterious and constraining: Teachers’ negotiations of the first year of a pilot programme for at risk 4-year-olds. Journal of Curriculum Studies 25(4), 317–332

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • West, J., Hausken, E. G., & Collins, M. (1993). Readiness for kindergarten: Parent and teacher beliefs. Washington DC: U.S. Department of Education, Office of Educational Research and Improvement, NCES 93-257

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Joon Sun Lee.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Lee, J.S. Preschool Teachers’ Shared Beliefs About Appropriate Pedagogy for 4-Year-Olds. Early Childhood Educ J 33, 433–441 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10643-006-0059-1

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10643-006-0059-1

KEY WORDS:

Navigation