The purpose of this research was to examine whether certain caregiver personality characteristics, as measured by the Myers-Briggs Personality Type Indicator (1989), were related to caregiver beliefs about teaching practices in early childhood education settings, as measured by the Teacher Beliefs Inventory (Peters, Neisworth and Yawkey, 1985). Once the beliefs about teaching practices and the personality characteristics were identified, it was expected that there would be patterns of personality dimensions that would be more compatible with each of the beliefs about teaching practices. The study also explored whether a caregiver's beliefs about teaching practices were related to the amount of education as well as their satisfaction with working conditions. Job satisfaction with working conditions included caregiver satisfaction ratings of staffing, space and materials, activity organization, and schedule. / Participants were 167 child caregivers from early childhood programs in Orange and Seminole counties in Florida. Caregivers were attending paraprofessional training classes. In summary, the present study suggests that for the caregivers involved in this study: (1) There were no significant relationships between personality characteristics and beliefs about teaching practices. A personality characteristics profile emerged of caregivers as being extroverted, preferring to learn from concrete information, basing decisions on affect rather than logic, and preferring a high degree of structure. (2) There were significant differences between caregivers' levels of education and their beliefs about teaching practices. When caregivers had more education than a high school diploma/GED, they had stronger beliefs about cognitive/developmental and maturationist/socialization teaching practices. This did not hold true for the cultural training/behaviorist beliefs about teaching practices. / Another result worth noting is that caregivers of children under three had the least amount of education and years of employment. (3) There were no significant relationships between beliefs about teaching practices and levels of job satisfaction. As a group, the caregivers were moderately satisfied. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 55-03, Section: A, page: 0465. / Major Professor: Belen C. Mills. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1994.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_77106 |
| Contributors | Willmott, Kathleen Elizabeth., Florida State University |
| Source Sets | Florida State University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text |
| Format | 134 p. |
| Rights | On campus use only. |
| Relation | Dissertation Abstracts International |
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