Contribution
Improving the quality of teacher education has been a central goal of educational reform movements in United Arab Emirates (UAE) for a number of years. In this vein, United Arab Emirates University (UAEU) as one of the main providers for qualified teachers in UAE is attempting to equip their pre-service teachers not only with current theory, but also with strategies and problem-solving skills to address the increasing demands, expectations, and standards related to education reform. Teacher education faculty at this university have made efforts to fulfill their responsibilities of preparing pre-service teachers to meet professional standards in this country as well as the standards of the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE) as College of Education at this university received accreditation from NCATE in 2003. At UAEU, to better prepare future teachers to meet the new realities that they will face, there has been a need for examination of traditional educational assumptions that the pre-service teachers may hold. Fundamental changes to the quality of classroom teaching are unlikely to happen without changes to current and future teachers' conceptions of teaching. The general body of research literature on classroom teachers' thinking and beliefs echoes this view. For instance, Nespor (1987) asserts that beliefs are important influences on the ways people conceptualize tasks and learn from experiences. Clark and Peterson (1986) affirm that teacher beliefs serve as a "contextual filter" through which teachers screen their experiences in the classroom, interpret them, and adapt their subsequent classroom practices. Kagan (1992) expands on this metaphor indicating that as teachers accept new information from outside sources, they filter it through their own belief systems, translating and absorbing it into their distinctive pedagogies. Thus, the research seems to indicate that pedagogical beliefs and projected practices among pre-service teachers are important to study because beliefs are likely a major determinant of their future teaching behaviors (Fang, 1996; Vartuli, 1999). The current study investigated what pre-service early childhood and elementary teachers in UAE believe regarding constructivist versus traditional pedagogy and what their projected practices are; how pre-service early childhood and elementary teachers differ from each other in terms of their beliefs and projected practices; if there are any influences on their current teaching beliefs and projected practices; and, what the influences are on their choice of teaching profession. Specifically, the researcher sought to answer following questions: (1) To what degree do pre-service early childhood and elementary teachers in UAE endorse or accept constructivist ideas? (2) To what degree are pre-service early childhood and elementary teachers in UAE planning to engage in practices based upon constructivism in their future classroom teaching? (3) How do these pre-service early childhood and elementary teachers differ from each other in terms of their beliefs and projected practices? (4) What do these pre-service early childhood and elementary teachers report to be the major influences on their current pedagogical beliefs? This study is worthwhile as beliefs make up an important part of teachers' general knowledge through which teachers perceive process and act upon information in the classroom (Clark and Peterson, 1986; Fang, 1996). Research primarily concerned with teacher beliefs reached the conclusion that teachers' beliefs are much likely to affect their classroom behaviors, which ultimately affect student achievement (Fang, 1996). In the current study, it was assumed that the beliefs of early childhood and elementary education pre-service teachers aligned with constructivist epistemology are important since these pre-service teachers are likely to affect their future students' achievement. Likewise, there is no doubt that aspects related to constructivist theory widely inform and influence the fields of early childhood and elementary education because of its implications for what and how young children are taught in early childhood and elementary education settings.Sample For this study a convenience sample of 53 pre-service early childhood teachers, 23 early childhood education majors and 30 elementary education majors, was used. 21 of the 53 pre-service teachers were in their third year, and 32 were in their fourth year at the college. It generally takes 5 year for these pre-service teachers to finish their programs.Instrument The beliefs and projected practices of pre-service early childhood and elementary teachers were assessed by the data gathered using "Pre-service Teacher Beliefs Questionnaire (PTBQ), a 35-item Likert type scale with 2 subscales, a profile, and a reflection section. This questionnaire is a modified version of The Early Childhood Teacher Educator Beliefs and Practices Questionnaire (ECTEBPQ) (Buldu, 2003). Analysis The quantitative data for this study was analyzed employing a series of descriptive statistics and t-tests using SPSS 14.0 statistical package. Pre-service teachers' responses to the open-ended questions were analyzed using a phenomenological procedure. To do this, the researcher first read through the respondents' answers to each question and got a feel for what was being said, identifying key themes and issues within each response. Then, the researcher identified the major themes in the emerged responses and coded them by assigning a number to each group. Later, the respondents' answers were entered into SPSS to compute the frequency distribution of the responses. Finally, the frequencies of responses were converted into percentages. It is apparent from the results of this study that pre-service early childhood and elementary teachers in UAE do hold beliefs congruent with the principles of constructivist epistemology. That is, pre-service teachers tend to agree with the constructivist-compatible beliefs and disagree with beliefs indicating preference for traditional instruction. Unlike the analysis of beliefs, the analysis of frequency of engagement in constructivist-compatible practices showed more mixed results. The findings reveal that early childhood pre-service teachers are planning to often engage in practices congruent with constructivist epistemology in their future classrooms. Unlike pre-service early childhood teachers, pre-service elementary teachers are a little bit hesitant with the constructivist practices. They report that they are planning to sometimes engage in practices congruent with constructivist epistemology and sometimes to engage in traditional practices in their future teaching. These mixed results might be due to the influences on their current teaching beliefs that pre-service teachers reported in response to the open-ended questions. In terms of the major field of study, pre-service teachers who majors in early childhood education differed from those of who majors in elementary education, scoring higher on the beliefs scale and projected practices scale. These results suggest that type of content knowledge and skills gained in different disciplines influences the adoption of more constructivist beliefs. This difference may be explained by the specialized content knowledge these teachers had gained. It is fair to say that those who majored in early childhood education have had some exposure to principles of constructivist epistemology. The principles that became known as the developmentally appropriate practice (DAP) (Bredekamp & Copple, 1997) that permeate most early childhood education programs (McMullen & Alat, 2002) had their roots in certain philosophical and educational traditions including constructivism. Early childhood teacher education programs have traditionally espoused the importance of DAP and for many years, these programs have been dominated by the principles of DAP. So, the exposure to these principles may be greater in early childhood than in elementary education, thus, the greater influence on the beliefs of teachers who majors in early childhood education. This finding has been well documented in early childhood pre-service and in-service teacher beliefs research literature (Buchanan, Burts, Bidner, White, & Charlesworth, 1998; McMullen, 1998, 1999, 2003; Smith, 1997; Vartuli, 1999). The results of the analysis of responses to the first open-ended question revealed that preservice teachers reported "their college professors, college courses, practicum experiences, their desire serve their country, and H.H. Sheikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan, the late president and founder of the UAE" were among the major influence on their current teaching beliefs. The results of the analysis of responses to the second open-ended question revealed that preservice teachers reported "active learning, theory of Multiple Intelligences, Piaget, play, theories of learning" were the major idea that they have been exposed in the college they attend. The results of this study provide useful information to those scholars engaged in early childhood and elementary teacher education program revisions. A clear understanding of the beliefs and projected practices of pre-service early childhood and elementary education teachers has implications for the development of early childhood and elementary teacher education undergraduate program philosophies. This study demonstrated that constructivist epistemology is perhaps uniquely suited to serve as core knowledge for early childhood and elementary education pre-service teaching because it is comprehensive enough to guide early childhood and elementary education pedagogy and teacher education. The high degree of agreement across the early childhood and elementary education pre-service teacher beliefs congruent with the constructivist epistemology studied may significantly contribute to the educational reform efforts in UAE early childhood and elementary teacher education programs. The notion that college professors have strong influences on pre-service teachers should prompt colleges of education to consider whether the principles of constructivism might form part of a larger strategy to improve the quality of teacher education programs. Abdal-Haqq, I. (1998). Constructivism in teacher education: Considerations for those who would link practice to theory. (Report No: EDO-SP-97-8). Washington, DC: ERIC Clearinghouse on Teaching and Teacher Education. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED426986). Bredekamp, S., & Copple, C. (Eds.). (1997). Developmentally appropriate practice in early childhood programs. Revised Edition. Washington, DC: National Association for the Education of Young Children. Buchanan, T. K., Burts, D. C., Bidner, J., White, V. F. & Charlesworth, R. (1998). Predictors of developmental appropriateness of the beliefs and practices of first, second, and third grade teachers. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 13(3), 459-483. Buldu, M. (2003). Constructivist-compatible beliefs and practices among U.S. early childhood teacher educators. (Doctoral Dissertation, Indiana University, Bloomington, 2003). Ann Arbor, MI: ProQuest Information and Learning Company (UMI Number: 3094165). Cannella, G. S., & Reiff, J. C. (1994). Individual constructivist teacher education: Teachers as empowered learners. Teacher Education Quarterly, 21(3), 27-38. Clark, C. M. & Peterson, P. L. (1986). 'Teachers' thought processes.' In M. C. Wittrock (Ed.) Handbook of Research on Teaching. New York: Macmillan, pp. 255-96.Fang, Z. (1996). A review of research on teacher beliefs and practices. Educational Research, 38(1), 47-65. Kagan, D. M. (1992). Implications of research on teacher belief. Educational Psychologist, 27(1), 65-90.McMullen, M. B. (1998). The beliefs and practices of early childhood educators in the U.S.: Does specialized preparation make a difference in adoption of best practices? International Journal of Early Childhood Education, 18(3), 5-30 McMullen, M. B. (1999). Characteristics of teachers who talk the DAP talk and walk the DAP walk. Journal of Research in Childhood Education, 13(2), 216-230. McMullen, M. B. (2003, April). Acquiring and supporting developmentally appropriate beliefs and practices in early care and education professionals. Paper presented at the Biennial Meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development, Tampa, FL. McMullen, M. B., & Alat, K. (2002). Education matters in the nurturing of the beliefs of preschool caregivers and teachers. Early Childhood Research and Practice, 4(2). Nespor, J. (1987). The role of beliefs in the practice of teaching. Journal of Curriculum Studies, 19(4), 317-328. Richardson, P. (2004). Possible influences of Arabic-Islamic culture on the reflective practices proposed for an education degree at the Higher Colleges of Technology in the United Arab Emirates. International Journal of Educational Development, 24(4), 429-436. Smith, K. E. (1997). Student-teachers' beliefs about developmentally appropriate practice: Pattern stability, and the influence of locus of control. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 12(2), 221-243.UAE Ministry of Education and Youth (2000). UAE Ministry of Education and Youth, Vision 2020.Vartuli, S. (1999). How early childhood teacher beliefs vary across grade level. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 14(4), 489-514.Own PublicationsBuldu, M. (2006). Young children's perceptions of scientists. A preliminary study. Educational Researcher, 48(1), 127-138. Buldu, M. & Yilmaz, A. (2005). Assessing the quality in different U.S. early childhood education programs. Cukurova University Social Sciences Institute Journal, 14(1), 121-136. McMullen, M. B., Buldu, M., Lash, M., & Alat, K. (2004). An assessment tool for professional development. Examining quality in our preschool professionals from multiple perspectives with the Early Childhood Professional Questionnaire. Child Care Information Exchange, 157, 31-35. McMullen, M. B., Alat, K., Buldu, M., & Lash, M. (2004). A snapshot of NAEYC's preschool professionals through the lens of quality. Young Children, 59(2), 87-92. Buldu, M. (2002). Young children's computer use: Perspectives of early childhood teacher educators. Technology and Teacher Education Annual. Nashville, TN: Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education. Abstract The current study investigated what pre-service early childhood and elementary teachers in UAE believe regarding constructivist versus traditional pedagogy and what their projected practices are; how pre-service early childhood and elementary teachers differ from each other in terms of their beliefs and projected practices; if there are any influences on their current teaching beliefs and projected practices; and, what the influences are on their choice of teaching profession. For this study a convenience sample of 53 pre-service early childhood teachers, 23 early childhood education majors and 30 elementary education majors, was used. 21 of the 53 pre-service teachers were in their third year, and 32 were in their fourth year at the college. The beliefs and projected practices of pre-service early childhood and elementary teachers were assessed by the data gathered using "Pre-service Teacher Beliefs Questionnaire (PTBQ), a 35-item Likert type scale with 2 subscales, a profile, and a reflection section. It is apparent from the results of this study that pre-service early childhood and elementary teachers in UAE do hold beliefs congruent with the principles of constructivist epistemology. That is, pre-service teachers tend to agree with the constructivist-compatible beliefs and disagree with beliefs indicating preference for traditional instruction. Unlike the analysis of beliefs, the analysis of frequency of engagement in constructivist-compatible practices showed more mixed results. The findings reveal that early childhood pre-service teachers are planning to often engage in practices congruent with constructivist epistemology in their future classrooms. Unlike pre-service early childhood teachers, pre-service elementary teachers are a little bit hesitant with the constructivist practices. They report that they are planning to sometimes engage in practices congruent with constructivist epistemology and sometimes to engage in traditional practices in their future teaching. In terms of the major field of study, pre-service teachers who majors in early childhood education differed from those of who majors in elementary education, scoring higher on the beliefs scale and projected practices scale. These results suggest that type of content knowledge and skills gained in different disciplines influences the adoption of more constructivist beliefs. The results of the analysis of responses to the first open-ended question revealed that preservice teachers reported "their college professors, college courses, practicum experiences, their desire serve their country, and H.H. Sheikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan, the late president and founder of the UAE" were among the major influence on their current teaching beliefs. The results of the analysis of responses to the second open-ended question revealed that preservice teachers reported "active learning, theory of Multiple Intelligences, Piaget, play, theories of learning" were the major idea that they have been exposed in the college they attend. The results of this study provide useful information to those scholars engaged in early childhood and elementary teacher education program revisions. A clear understanding of the beliefs and projected practices of pre-service early childhood and elementary education teachers has implications for the development of early childhood and elementary teacher education undergraduate program philosophies.
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