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The purpose of this study was to determine if CDA preparation courses affected beliefs about developmentally appropriate practice. Pre and post online TBS surveys were completed by 299 CDA candidates from campuses across the state enrolled in the three courses, each with the same syllabus and objectives. Analysis of the demographic information gathered with the pre-survey did not reveal a significant relationship between beliefs about developmentally appropriate practice and educational level of candidate or educational level of candidate's parents. No significant relationship was found between age, experience working with children, minority status, work environment, or computer usage, and beliefs about DAP. The study revealed a positive increase in beliefs about DAP after taking one course and while the increase was small analysis of factors within the survey did find a significant increase in beliefs about developmentally appropriate practices associated with teacher control and child centered literacy. The study found no significant difference in change of beliefs between face-to-face courses and Internet courses though the N was small making the finding inconclusive. The study did suggest a significant difference in positive change of beliefs about DAP for students enrolled in hybrid courses from students enrolled in face-to-face courses. / Department of Elementary Education

Syftet med studien är att undersöka och analysera pedagogers arbete med matematik på förskolans utegård. Studien genomfördes i form av intervjuer och observationer. Resultatet visar att pedagogers arbete med matematik på förkolans utegård främst sker genom att de benämner vad barnen gör med matematiska begrepp och utmanar dem genom att ställa frågor och på så sätt utveckla aktiviteterna. Vissa pedagoger nämner att de arbetar på ett undersökande sätt med problemlösning. Vissa pedagoger skapar även lärtillfällen inom matematik genom att förse barnen med material eller genom att arbeta med planerade aktiviteter på utegården som berör matematik. Pedagogerna ser bara fördelar med att arbeta med matematik på utegården och att det främst är deras eget förhållningssätt som påverkar hur detta arbete ser ut. Slutsatsen är att pedagoger har en viktig roll när det gäller hur arbetet med matematik på utegården ser ut. Detta gör att det är intressant att se att resultatet ändå visade att arbetet med matematik på utegården främst sker på barnens initiativ. / The aim of this study was to investigate and analyze how preschool teachers use preschool yard in their work with mathematics. The method that was selected to collect data was qualitative interviews and observations. The result shows that preschool teachers work with mathematics mainly occurs through use of mathematics concept to term what the children are doing and by challenging them by asking questions that can develop thechildren´s activities. Some preschool teachers mention that they work in an exploratory manner with problem solving.Some preschool teachers also create learning opportunities by providing the children with materials or by working with planned activities on the preschool yard involving mathematics. The result shows that the preschool teachers only see benefits with working with mathematics on the preschool yard and that their attitudes affect how this work is done. The conclusion is that preschool teachers have an important role in how work with mathematics on the preschool yard appears. This makes it interesting that the result still shows that the work with mathematics on the preschool yard occurs primarily on initiatives from the children.

A focus on early literacy that became heightened in the early 21st century has had the unintended consequence of restricting our ideas about what children should be doing in classrooms, creating a preoccupation not only with literacy in general but also with a specific subset of early literacy skills that often reflect Eurocentric cultural norms and values. This can result in a proliferation of assessments, prescriptive curricula, and skills-based activities that allow little flexibility for teachers. A narrowing of curriculum and expectations, of behaviors that “count” as literacy, limits the potential for teachers to create literacy experiences that build upon the rich funds of knowledge that all children possess. Our understanding of how teachers have been impacted by this and the ways in which contextual variables mitigate expectations and requirements has not been sufficiently developed. In the face of such concerns, this study sought to include preschool teachers’ own descriptions of their literacy practices and their beliefs about early literacy development. Using a mixed-methods approach that included in-depth interviews as well as a questionnaire, narrative portraits were developed for eight pre-k teachers in Texas who worked in various program settings: Head Start, public prekindergarten, “braided” programs, as well as privately funded. A comparative analysis was also conducted, including the application of Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological Theory to disentangle the influence of different contextual factors. Teachers navigated a host of different influences on their early literacy practice from local stakeholders and colleagues to policies, cultural values and expectations, as well as shifting expectations for the early literacy skills pre-k children should have in order to be ready for kindergarten. Regardless of their settings or beliefs about teaching, teachers experienced barriers that at times impeded their ability to teach the ways they wanted to. They described a variety of activities and approaches to supporting emerging literacy skills, and they balanced requirements and expectations with a desire to tailor their instruction and learning opportunities in individually appropriate ways. Survey responses mirrored those of previous studies that utilized the same questionnaires in order to develop an understanding of preschool teachers’ literacy beliefs and practices. What emerged was a picture of eight different teachers who believe in the potential of all children and are committed to providing a strong education foundation for the children in their classes. The field of early childhood is notoriously fragmented due to an incoherent system of governance, funding streams, and settings, resulting in a host of complications including expectations that might contradict one another and a redundancy within requirements that means teachers’ time is frequently consumed with paperwork, competing curricula, and duplicate assessments. Future studies should continue to explore how teachers are impacted by the social and political contexts that surround education and literacy, and including teachers’ perspectives is a critical aspect toward the continual improvement of early childhood education.

随着教师研究关注点从教师行为发展到教师认知，教师信念成为重要的研究议题。职前教师教育政策性文本也开始关注教师信念等问题，促进师范生信念的改变成为职前教育的目标。在教师信念研究中，基于中国大陆职前教育背景的师范生信念的动态研究相对比较少。 / 本研究采用质性研究取向、个案研究策略，选取了P师范大学英语专业和学前教育专业共8位师范生为研究对象。通过深度访谈、文件分析等方法搜集田野研究数据，探究在职前教育阶段师范生信念的发展变化，并分析影响师范生信念发展变化的因素。 / 研究发现，在专业课后，学前教育专业师范生都转向幼儿中心的信念取向；实习后，学前教育专业师范生信念出现回归倾向。英语专业师范生在专业课后信念发展变化有一些多样性。师范生信念的转变可以分为两组，专业课学习之后，EFL-X、EFL-Q这两位师范生信念呈现整合的特点，实习后，两位师范生信念转向以传统教师中心取向为主。而另外两个英语专业师范生则呈现另一类型。专业课后，EFL-Z、EFL-R两位师范生持有学生中心的信念取向，实习后，他们的信念呈现整合的特点。师范生信念的发展是一个动态的过程，师范生信念由基于个人经验的信念发展初期，发展到基于理论的信念发展阶段，再发展到基于情境的、经验的信念发展阶段，这一阶段师范生信念出现具体化，回归传统两种发展变化形态。 / 在不同的阶段中，影响师范生信念的因素具有差异性。在专业课学习阶段，学前教育教育专业师范生信念受职前教育课程影响比较明显。师范生接受专业理论课程时，师范生进行一致性检验，新习得的信息与原有的基于个人经历形成的信念不一致，出现认知冲突，认知冲突是信念改变的开始。专业课传递的理念处于比较强势的地位，同化了之前基于社会文化及个人因素形成的信念，基于专业课形成的信念还要反复地通过实践环节进行一致性的检验。学前教育专业主干课程的课程内容强调儿童中心，理论课程的学习阶段有见习环节，见习的重要作用在于及时强化师范生在专业课程中习得的信念。大学教师在教学中注重学生参与、注重实践性，课程组织以及大学教师的教学方式都符合情境学习理论所强调的通过即时的情境、注重学习材料的真实性，在参与实践的过程中学习的理念。结合真实的情境进行学习，容易引起师范生的认知冲突，因此，学前教育专业师范生信念改变比较明显。英语专业职前教育课程理论课程与实践课程相分离，在专业课形成理念得不到及时的强化，不利于师范生信念的改变。英语知识课程理念和教师职业教育类课程所强调的理念有一些不一致，是导致专业课后英语专业师范生信念出现差异性的原因之一。 / 实习过程中，师范生信念主要受情境性因素、基于实践的反思、社会性互动影响。师范生在实习过程中教学实践与信念的一致性强化专业课习得的信念，信念的发展形态为具体化。如果实践和师范生持有的信念不一致，出现认知冲突，伴随比较消极的情绪，师范信念开始动摇，出现回归的倾向，出现信念的重新整合或回归教师中心的信念取向。 / 个人、社会方面的因素对师范生信念有所影响，高中学习经历是影响大一英语专业师范生信念形成的因素。实习阶段，受考试文化因素的影响，师范生信念发生回归传统的倾向。另外，师范生的个人性格、个人性别、其他学习经历制约职前教育课程对个人信念影响的大小。 / With the shift of focus in teacher research from teachers’ behavior to teachers’ cognition, teachers’ beliefs have become an important research issue. Recently, pre-service teacher education policies have begun to pay attention to teachers’ beliefs. Promoting changes in the beliefs of pre-service teachers should be one of the central tasks of pre-service teacher education. However, few studies of pre-service teachers’ beliefs have been conducted in the context of mainland Chinese pre-service teacher training programs. / The present research followed a qualitative research approach and employed the case study method. Eight students of a normal university, four pre-service teachers majoring in English and four majoring in preschool education, participated in the study. The researcher collected data through in-depth interviews and document analysis to address the following questions. How do pre-service teachers’ beliefs develop during pre-service teacher education? What factors would effect changes in the beliefs of pre-service teachers? / The results show that before their teaching practicum the preschool education majors tended to hold child-centered beliefs, whereas after it their beliefs tended to reflect a traditional teacher-centered orientation. The changes in the beliefs of the English majors exhibited greater variety, although two general types of belief-changes were observed. Two of the English majors showed an integration of teacher-and student-centered beliefs before the teaching practicum, and reverted to teacher-centered beliefs after it. The other two originally held student-centered beliefs, and then moved toward an integration of teacher-and student-centered beliefs after the teaching practicum. / The influential factors in changing the participating pre-service teachers’ beliefs differed at different stages of the research. The preschool education majors were affected by the university curriculum in significant ways, and then tried to reconcile their experience in the teaching practicum with a theoretical perspective. Cognitive conflict arose when there was a discrepancy between teaching experience and earlier held beliefs, leading to a change in beliefs. Beliefs based on formal education tend to be influential and to assimilate pre-existing beliefs based on personal experience and the prevailing culture, but need to be consolidated by practice. The preschool education curriculum emphasizes child-centered beliefs, which are to be strengthened by internship experience. Normal universities emphasize the full participation of pre-service teachers, and preschool education majors have many opportunities to learn through practice. The organization of the curriculum and teaching methods are in line with situated learning theory, which emphasizes the situated nature of the learning process in the immediate context and the use of authentic learning materials. For English majors, in contrast, the curriculum and practice are separated. Beliefs shaped by the courses taken are not immediately strengthened by practice, and are thus more resistant to change. What is more, there are inconsistences between English subject courses and educational theory courses. That discrepancy appears to be the main reason for the diversity in pre-service teachers’ beliefs observed in this research. / During the teaching practicum, participants’ beliefs were affected by the context, reflection on practices, and social interaction. Consistency between practice and beliefs reinforced their beliefs, whereas discrepancies led to negative emotions and belief-regression. / Personal factors and the assessment-centered culture that prevails in mainland China also affected the participating pre-service teachers’ beliefs. The main influence on those beliefs was the participants’ own educational experience, which was largely characterized by an emphasis on assessment. During the teaching practicum, this assessment-centered culture prompted the English majors to resort to a traditional teacher-centered orientation. Also, personal factors such as personality, sex, and additional learning experiences, influenced the effectiveness of the teacher training program in shifting the beliefs of all participating pre-service teachers. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / 李玲. / Parallel title from added title page. / Thesis (Ph.D.) Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2015. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 238-261). / Abstracts also in English. / Li Ling.

This study explored preschool teachers' perspectives on caring relationships and their perceptions of how such relationships affect children's autonomy and motivation in preschool in two cultural settings: one city in China and another in the U.S. Data was collected from preschool teachers in both locations using a qualitative interviewing research strategy. The study found that consensus exists among preschool teachers from the two cities about the importance of caring relationships, in which trust, acceptance, equality, and mutual respect were viewed as these relationships' primary characteristics. There were also shared values regarding teachers' roles and their effective strategies for establishing social skills and caring and sharing among children. Nevertheless, some underlying assumptions about caring, especially teachers' understandings of autonomy and motivation, differed somewhat in relation to the social, cultural, philosophical, or practical influences in the two cultural contexts. The results of the study provide opportunities for early childhood teachers and teacher educators in both contexts to reflect on their own assumptions about these values, as well as insights for preparing caring teachers in both cultural settings.

published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education