Western educational policies and practices have impacted Taiwanese early childhood programs. The concept of developmentally appropriate practice has become part of the educational program for young children in Taiwan. This research study was completed to: (a) describe Taiwanese parents' beliefs about developmentally appropriate practice (DAP) in early childhood programs; (b) examine group differences between fathers' and mothers' beliefs about DAP; (c) investigate group differences between parents of different socioeconomic statuses beliefs about DAP; (d) explore group differences between parents' beliefs about DAP when their children attend different types of schools (public and private); and (e) identify salient factors related to the variability of developmentally appropriate beliefs of Taiwanese parents. Three hundred seventy-nine matched Taiwanese parent pairs (mothers and fathers) participated in this survey research study. All parents had at least one child between the ages of 3 and 6 years. Four hundred forty-eight children attended public schools, and 415 attended private schools. The Teacher Beliefs Questionnaire was modified and used to collect data in this study. Findings showed: (a) fathers' and mothers' beliefs about DAP are significantly correlated; (b) fathers' and mothers' socioeconomic statuses are significantly correlated with their developmentally inappropriate practice beliefs; and (c) parents' socioeconomic status was a significant predictor of their DAP belief scores and family, culture, and inclusion belief scores. Future studies are needed to determine the effectiveness and appropriateness of the Teacher Beliefs Questionnaire with Taiwanese parents. Including parent's age, child's gender, child's birth order, residential region, and number of children as variables in future research studies may explain variations in parents' DAP beliefs. Employing qualitative methods, such as classroom observations, case studies, and interviews may be used to verify these findings. The Taiwanese Ministries of Education and Interior may find this study's results useful in creating policies and best practices related to the education of young children. Teachers may use these results to guide their work with parents.

The purpose of this study was to investigate and compare the perceptions of urban parents of two countries concerning standards of selected criteria of high quality standards of early childhood programs developed by the National Academy of Early Childhood Programs (NAECP).Two hundred and forty nine parents ( U. S. = 129, Taiwan = 120) participated in the study. The effects of country, sex, and educational background were examined.The study was conducted by using the questionnaire survey. The instrument was constructed by the researcher based on the Accreditation Criteria and Procedures of the National Academy of Early Childhood Programs.A three-way.MANOVA on 10 dependent variables with independent factors of country, sex, and educational background was used to test Hypothesis I at the .05 level of significance. The Hypothesis I was rejected.To test Hypothesis II, a Spearman's Rho rank order correlation coefficient was computed using the mean ranks of the 10 criteria. Significance was examined at the .05 level. The Hypothesis II was accepted.These findings leading to the following conclusions:1. American and Taiwanese parents shared the similar perceptions that supported the quality standards developed by the NAECP. Most of the statistically differences that existed between American and Taiwanese parents were the differences of the degree of acceptance of the quality standards.2. The only criterion that caused parents' selections to lean toward negative responses was the staffing standards.3. Whenever there was a statistically significant difference between American and Taiwanese parents, the Taiwanese parents were always agreed more than the American parents.4. Regardless of factors of sex and educational background, both American and Taiwanese parents shared similar values in that they ranked health-and-safety and teacher-child interactions as the first or second important factors.5. Regardless of the factors of sex and educational background, both American and Taiwanese parents shared the same values in that they ranked administration and evaluations as the two least important factors when selecting an early childhood program for their children. / Department of Elementary Education