Session Information
SES B 07, Paper Session
Paper Session
Contribution
Pre service teachers’ confidence in their teaching abilities is important and its directly related to their success not only during their teacher education programs and also after graduation while teaching in their own classrooms. Several theorists already emphasized the importance of this issue. Vygostky highlighted the importance of the teachers’ teaching abilities especially in the area of early childhood education and development (Berk, 2000). Ecological theory also gives high importance to confidence in skills. According to ecological theorist Bronfenbrenner, all kinds of surrounding environments can affect teacher’s education progress and knowledge (Hernandez, 2008). Pre service teachers’ confidence makes serious difference in their teaching performance because pre service teachers’ confidence is regarded as a variable of primary attention. According to the results of the current study conducted by Lim-Teo et al., (2008) pre service teachers’ motivation level, competence and confidence level are above the average. In other words, it can be concluded that, teacher education at university makes an early childhood teacher more motivated, competent and confident.
From that perspective, it is inevitable that confidence in teaching skills to succeed in competitive environment of pre service teachers must be developed effectively. Darling-Hammond, Chung and Frelow (2002) also stated that well prepared teachers feel more comfortable in the sense of competence and confidence to meet teaching objectives. Beliefs of teachers are directly connected with their education and practices and as a result of those experiences they feel more confident while communicating with young children. Therefore, well developed higher education practices are required and they have significant results for supporting teachers’ self confidence (Saracho & Spodek, 2007). The importance of this issue is emphasized not only in Turkey education system in terms of curriculum but also in all European countries. Moreover, National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) gave complete list of guidelines in the sense of contemporary knowledge and common truths about what establishes qualified early childhood education practice. In order to provide early childhood education quality via qualified early childhood teachers, their skills are also play an important role in the early childhood education. NAEYC provides guidelines to identify some of teaching requirements to establish better early childhood programs. Necessary teaching skills including confidence in working with young children, an understanding of child development, scaffolding children learning by sufficient and beneficial ways, considering parent’s involvement and education are regarded as important components of effective early childhood education (Mcfarlland & Lord, 2008). This requirement can be gathered by confident early childhood teachers. Therefore, this research aims to determine early childhood pre service teachers’ confidence in their teaching abilities by answering the following research question: “What is Turkish pre-service early childhood teachers’ confidence levels related to teaching abilities?”
Method
Expected Outcomes
References
Berk, L.E. (2000). Child Development (5th ed.). Boston: Allyn and Bacon. 23-38 Darling-Hammond, L., Chung, R., & Frelow, F. (2002). Variation in Teacher Preparation: How well do different pathways prepare teachers to teach. Journal of Teacher Education, 53(4), 286-302 Hernandez, T. C. (2008). Teacher confidence in skills: A comparison of traditionally certified teachers and alternatively certified teachers. Unpublished master’s thesis, Kean University, New Jersey. Mcfarlland, L. & Lord, A. (2008). Bringing professional experience to the rural university classroom through community play sessions: Experiences of pre-service teachers and families. Education in Rural Australia, 18(1). National Association for the Education of Young Children (2003). Early Childhood Curriculum, Assessment and Evaluation: Building an Effective, Accountable Systems in Programs for Children Birth through Age Eight. A Joint Position Statement of the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) and the National Association of Early Childhood Specialists in State Departments of Education (NAECS/SDE) Retrieved January 10, 2005, from http://www.naeyc.org/about/positions/pdf/pscape.pdf Saracho, O. N. & Spodek, B. (2007). Early childhood teachers’ preparation and the quality of program outcomes, Early Child Development and Care, 177(1).
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