Chinese and American preschool teachers’ beliefs about early childhood curriculum

Abstract

This study examined the consistency of Chinese preschool teachers’ curriculum beliefs and self‐reported practices, similarities and differences between American and Chinese teachers’ beliefs, and associations between teachers’ personal, professional and socio‐cultural characteristics and curriculum beliefs. A total of 296 Chinese teachers and 146 American teachers completed the Teacher Beliefs Scale and the Teachers’ Background Information Questionnaire. Chinese teachers also completed the Instructional Activities Scale. Also, 10 teachers in each country were interviewed in depth. Principal components analyses revealed three reliable factors with similar structures for both Chinese and American teacher beliefs. However, a discriminant analysis indicated significant cross‐national differences in teachers’ level of endorsement of specific beliefs. Moderate associations were found between Chinese teachers’ curriculum beliefs and self‐reported practices. Chinese teachers’ general education, professional training, location of school, and class sizes were all significantly associated with their beliefs. For American teachers, only the general education level was related to curriculum beliefs.

Keywords:

• Beliefs and practices
• Cross‐cultural study
• Curriculum beliefs
• Early childhood curriculum
• Teacher beliefs
• Teacher training

Acknowledgments

The authors acknowledge the generous contributions of participating preschool teachers and administrators in Indiana, USA and Jiangsu Province, P.R. China. They are grateful to Prof. Tu Meiru and Prof. Lu Lezhen at Nanjing Normal University for their enthusiastic support and collaboration. Sue‐Yuen Wu assisted with the translation of the scales and conducted interviews in the United States. Xiangning Xiao conducted focus groups with Chinese teachers as a part of measures development. This research was supported by grants to the second author from the Purdue Research Foundation and the Purdue Global Initiatives Collaborative Research Program. Portions of the paper were presented at the Biennial Meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development, Minneapolis, MN, April 2001. For more information contact Jim Elicker (Department of Child Development & Family Studies, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907‐1269, USA; email: [email protected]).