Off-campus UMass Amherst users: To download dissertations, please use the following link to log into our proxy server with your UMass Amherst user name and password.
Non-UMass Amherst users, please click the view more button below to purchase a copy of this dissertation from Proquest.
(Some titles may also be available free of charge in our Open Access Dissertation Collection, so please check there first.)
Preschool teachers' perceptions of the content and sources of their teaching knowledge
Abstract
The purpose of the study was to examine beginning preschool teachers' conceptions of teaching young children and their perceptions of the origins of these ideas. The participants were six preschool teachers employed during their first two years after graduating with A.S. degrees in early childhood education from five different two-year colleges. This qualitative multi-case study used observations, videotapes, and in-depth interviews to collect data about the experiences of the six teachers. The Ethnograph (Seidel, 1988) software program was employed to manage the data. An adapted model of pedagogical content knowledge, as described in the literature on teacher knowledge (Shulman, 1986; Grossman 1990), was used to organize the data along a learning-to-teach continuum, as described in the teacher socialization literature (Feiman-Nemser, 1983; Zeichner & Gore, 1990). This continuum begins with early experiences, progresses through formal teacher education, and continues throughout a teacher's career. The major findings of the study indicate earlier experiences provided the teachers with predispositions toward particular curriculum content and interactional styles. Their conceptualization of what and how to teach to young children was developed and enriched during formal teacher education with coursework contributing primarily to curricular knowledge. Practicum experiences, including opportunities to bring on-campus learnings into settings for young children, were a major source of the development of instructional strategies. A combination of coursework and direct experiences with children of varying ages and in various contexts contributed to the teachers' overall understanding of children. The teachers reported learning from colleagues, trying things out, and "just being with children" as rich sources of practical knowledge (Elbaz, 1981) during their early years of professional experience. Both explicit and implicit connections were made between how knowledge was gained during these induction years and the content and process of their formal teacher education programs, as well as with their prior experiences. This study, in contrast to previous studies of preschool teachers, provides descriptive data of the substance and process of five early childhood teacher education programs from the perspectives of their graduates. Insights were thus gained into the aspects of the teacher preparation experiences the teachers found have made valuable contributions to their present work.
Subject Area
Teacher education|Early childhood education
Recommended Citation
McLanahan, Janet Fowle, "Preschool teachers' perceptions of the content and sources of their teaching knowledge" (1992). Doctoral Dissertations Available from Proquest. AAI9305992.
https://scholarworks.umass.edu/dissertations/AAI9305992