Effective preparation for early childhood education: What does North American research tell us?
Titel:
Effective preparation for early childhood education: What does North American research tell us?
Auteur:
Kontos, Susan Wilcox-Herzog, Amanda
Verschenen in:
European early childhood education research journal
Paginering:
Jaargang 11 (2003) nr. 1 pagina's 79-92
Jaar:
2003
Inhoud:
The purpose of this paper is to review research published in North American concerning how years of schooling, amount of specialised education, and years of experience are related to the teaching practices of early years educators. Two aspects of teaching practices were addressed: over-all classroom quality and teacher behaviour. The research revealed that 1) amount of teachers' formal schooling correlates with over-all classroom quality and, less often, to effective teacher behaviour; 2) specialised education may be causally related to over-all classroom quality and is correlated with effective teacher behaviour; and 3) teachers' experience cannot be consistently positively linked to over-all classroom quality or effective teacher behaviour. In general, research designs rarely allow causal inferences to be made, and the studies tell us little or nothing about the focus, pedagogical methods, or amount of specialised education that is effective in changing teachers' beliefs and behaviours for the better. Future research needs to employ more rigorous experimental designs and focus on specific aspects of specialised education if these gaps of information are to be filled.
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