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PROFESSIONAL EDUCATION FOR TEACHERS OF YOUNG CHILDREN
Barbara T. Bowman
Erikson Institute
May 16, 2001
Eager to Learn, the report from the National Research Council on early
childhood pedagogy made as its first recommendation that "Each group of
children in an early childhood education and care program should be assigned a
teacher who has a bachelor’s degree with specialized education related to
early childhood, such as developmental psychology, early childhood education,
and early childhood special education." The research that supports this
recommendation is: 1) The professional development of teachers is related to the
quality of early childhood programs (Jorde-Bloom).). 2)
Program quality predicts developmental outcomes for children (Kontos, et al.,
1997, Vandell & Coransaniti, 1990). 3) Formal professional education
consistently is linked to positive teacher behaviors (Bollin, 1990; Espinosa,
1980; Fisher, 1989; Howes, 1997; Darling –Hammond, 1998). 4) There is a strong
relationship between the number of years of education and training and the
appropriateness of a teacher's classroom behavior (Howes, 1997; Ruopp, Travers,
Glantz, and Coelen, 1979). 5) Improved teacher performance is obtained from
training focused specifically on child development and early childhood education
(Ruopp, Travers, Glantz, and Coelen, 1979). 6) The amount of formal education
best predicts effective educational practices (Arnett, 1989; Berk, 1985;
Clarke-Stewart and Gruber, 1984).
The Committee accepted as a given that education is an essential component of
all early childhood programs, and therefore, the term teacher refers to the
person primarily responsible for a group of children in a center-based program,
whether the program is called childcare or preschool.
I am often asked why teachers of young children need so much education. Most
adults know more than preschoolers and can take adequate care of their basic
needs. Yet research consistently shows that highly educated and professionally
trained teachers provide better quality programs, increasing the likelihood that
children have the cognitive, social, and emotional skills necessary for healthy
development and school success.
In school, children must learn cognitive skills like reading, writing, and
arithmetic. They are expected to have self-control, to know how to interact with
peers, and to follow directions. They are expected to have mastered basic
grammar, to have a good-sized vocabulary, and to enunciate clearly in the
standard accent of the language. Children who begin early preparing to do these
things will be more successful.
Learning well in school begins with a healthy child in a responsive family
receiving the basic ingredients for development. However, learning well in
family and community does not necessarily prepare children for school. Children
also need the opportunity to learn school related skills and knowledge. For
literacy, for example, this includes learning not just to speak but to acquire a
significant vocabulary, attend to the meaning of words, hear the sequence of
sounds in words, see the relationship between written and spoken language,
understand the stream of written language without contextual clues, and so on.
Young children learn social, emotional, physical and cognitive concepts best
when they are integrated into their daily life. Well-educated teachers, who have
a deep understanding of the various disciplines, are able to see how children’s
questions and interests can lead to substantive learning in science, math,
literacy, the arts, and social sciences. They are able to extend natural and
home-inspired learning with the formal knowledge systems. And, as is always the
case, the more basic the question, the more knowledge is required. For example,
children’s understanding of number line is enhanced when the teacher
understands why it is a fundamental concept in mathematics and can connect it to
other mathematical ideas. Research on teacher efficacy suggests teacher’s
knowledge of subject matter is related to how well children learn. Presumably,
teachers who have deep subject-matter knowledge are able to use their knowledge
flexibly and spontaneously with children. They are able to build on what
children already know in a natural and enjoyable way.
There is also "compelling evidence" (Ashton, 1996) of the
superiority of teachers with professional course work as well as general
education in promoting student achievement. Graduates of teacher education
programs 'drop out' of teaching less frequently than teachers without such
experience, suggesting that pre-service professional education effects a
teacher's decision to continue teaching. Early childhood teachers with more
professional education have been found to be more appropriate in their classroom
behavior (Roupp, et al., 1979; Clarke-Stewart & Gruber, 1984; Berk, 1985;
Howes, 1997). Well-educated teachers who were professionally supported staffed
the model programs that have demonstrated the strongest and most enduring
effects.
Four domains of professional education are particularly important for
teachers in preschool programs. First, teachers must understand how young
children learn since they do not learn precisely the way older children and
adults do. They actually have to learn what and how their families and
communities want them to learn. But they are not helplessly waiting for an older
person to teach them. At birth they have the latent capability to learn to walk
and to talk, to use their senses, to make categories, to use symbols, to love
and to be loved. Not only do they have the capacity to learn these things, they
want to; or in the words of the NRC report, they are eager to.
Children are genetically primed to begin the learning process. For example,
infants can make a large number of different sounds but gradually they stop
using sounds they do not hear every day and focus on those found in their native
language. Early abilities, then, are the base for later learning but children
quickly become focused on the challenges of their everyday environment, building
on what they already know to form more complex skills and knowledge. Good
teaching provides a bridge between what children currently know and more mature
understanding.
If new opportunities to learn are too narrow or too meager, children may not
be able to use there past experience to make sense of the new ones. For example,
when children are encouraged to rote count without understanding the meaning of
the counting process, they may learn the invariant order of number tags (they
can say 1 to 5 in order) but be unable to count five objects.
Second, teachers must learn about individual differences. Young children are
not all the same; they differ in temperaments and responsiveness, in maturation,
in the pace at which they learn, in the difficulty and ease with which they
learn different things. For example, children learn to talk using somewhat
different strategies. Some learn whole chunks at once in phrases like; "I
want some more", and "give it to me" while others learn one word
at a time, developing a large vocabulary of single words before putting them
together in phrases (Bates et al., 1988). Teaching preschool age children,
therefore, must be more explicitly tailored to these preferences than is
necessary later. Gradually, as children learn the cultural expectations of their
communities—particularly language--their thinking and behavior will get closer
to those of other children in their group, and they will find it easier to learn
in lock step with one another. But this takes time. As a consequence, there is
no standardized curriculum that works well for all children. Teachers must be
able to match what they want children to learn to individual children’s styles
and pacing. They must also be able to assess accurately whether individuals are
learning and if not, to replan their teaching.
Equally important, teachers of young children must be alert to the difference
between normal variations in the pace and style of children’s learning and
developmental lags and handicapping conditions. Differences between typical and
atypical development are often subtle. For example, if we judge language delay
by whether a 2 year old has fewer than 30 words, between 9 and 17 are language
delayed (Rescorla, 1989). However, by age 5, only between 1 to 3% of children
are still considered delayed (Silva, 1980). What this means is that a
significant number of two year olds may seem delayed, in part at least, because
of variations in their individual rate of acquiring language. Failure to
appreciate the distinction between individual difference and disabilities can
delay early intervention for children who may need it and subject typically
developing children and their families to unnecessary stress.
Third, teachers must learn to establish effective relationships with
children. There is an increasing amount of evidence showing that when children
are able to feel emotionally secure with their teacher, they are more active in
their exploration of the environment, and therefore, have more opportunities to
learn (Birch & Ladd, 1997; Howes & Smith, 1995; Pianta & Steinberg,
1992). One of the consistent findings in early education is that an emotionally
warm and positive approach in learning situations leads to more constructive
behavior in children (Bowman et al., 2001). Studies also point out that children
who establish satisfactory relationships with their preschool and kindergarten
teachers are more likely to do well in school the next year (Howes, 1994; Pianta,
1994).
Fourth, teachers need group management skills. Teaching young children in
group settings is a complex job so teachers need specific knowledge of teaching
methods. They need to know when to teach and what methods are best to teach
different things. They need to know how to manage large group activities, when
to work with small groups and individual children, how to understand and
communicate with families from different cultural backgrounds to name just of
few of their tasks. Teachers also need assessment strategies to plan teaching
and determine achievement. Cultural and language differences affect what
children know and how they know it, so teachers must learn how to engage and
build understanding with children who come from different backgrounds. And they
need to do this as economically as possible because they have a number of
children to teach.
In view of the research, the Committee on early childhood pedagogy made the
recommendation that education programs should provide teachers with a stronger
and more specific foundational knowledge of the development of children’s
social and affective behavior, thinking, and language. This foundation must be
linked to teachers’ knowledge of mathematics, science, linguistics,
literature, etc. as well as to instructional practices for young children.
The Committee recognized that "there is a great disjunction between what
is optimal pedagogically for children’s learning and development and the level
of preparation that currently typifies early childhood educators." To move
toward the kind of high quality teaching our children need and deserve, there
must be a substantially greater commitment of public and private resources to
teacher education than are currently available. The Committee suggests that
innovative educational programs, scholarship and loan programs, and higher
compensation are essential if all children are to be ready for school. The
children are eager to learn, they need the opportunity.
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