Kindergarten Teachers’ Beliefs Toward Developmentally Appropriate Practice in Jordan

Abstract 
The objective of this study was to examine the beliefs of Jordanian kindergarten teachers toward developmentally appropriate practices (DAP). The sample consists of 285 (14.9%) randomly selected teachers working in public and private kindergartens. A questionnaire with two parts, (1) general information and (2) teachers’ beliefs regarding DAP, was developed to answer the research questions. The items were distributed into the five dimensions of early childhood professional practice that were published by the National Association for the education of young children (NAEYC). The findings indicated that the overall mean score of kindergarten teachers’ beliefs on the five dimensions was 4.08, indicating high beliefs toward (DAP). Teachers endorsed DAP on all dimensions except establishing reciprocal relationships with families. The findings also indicated that there are no significant differences between the means of teachers’ beliefs toward teaching children according to teachers’ level of education, years of experience, or teacher’s age (except in the caring community of learners and the development and learning domains). In the light of the findings of this study, some recommendations are presented.

Keywords Teachers’ beliefs _Developmentally appropriate practices _ Kindergarten

Introduction

Teachers’ beliefs are implicit assumptions about students, learning, classrooms, teaching strategies, curriculum, pedagogy and educational program (Kagan 1992). These beliefs are formed on the basis of direct experience or information provided by outside sources such as a college course, professional literature, or in-service training courses (Palenzuela 2004). Early childhood teachers’ beliefs about educational practice are shaped both by the training they receive (Brown and Rose 1995) and working with children in the classroom. Examining these beliefs is important because research indicates that teachers’ beliefs influence classroom practice (Kowalski et al. 2001). These beliefs influence their decisions in the classroom and their general classroom behavioral style (Abelson 1979). Moreover, teachers’ belief systems contribute toward

children’s acquisition of knowledge, serve to provide children with rules, generate a positive climate for learning, and directly influence students’ behaviors toward peers (Arbeau and Coplan 2007), as well as their ability to perform expected norms of an early childhood program (Kagan 1992).

Educational research puts heavy emphasis on studying teachers’ beliefs as indicators of the actual classroom behaviors of teachers, and subsequently the outcomes of children (Neuharth-Pritchett and Parker 2006). The main reason for this interest is the idea that the guiding theory determining teachers’ decisions in planning, teaching and assessing would be best understood by understanding what teachers believe to be important and what they believe not to be important (Charlesworth et al. 1993). In recent years, the focus of the early childhood education studies in the United States and in many other countries has been on the implicit beliefs or theories teachers form about teaching (Clark and Peterson 1986; Fang 1996; Isenberg 1990; Kagan 1992; Pajares 1992; Yonemura 1986; McMullen et al. 2005).

One of the earliest research studies of early childhood teacher beliefs was conducted by Bernstein (1975), in order to understand the beliefs underlying early childhood programs in England. His findings indicated that there was an invisible pedagogy underlying English infant schools serving children ages five through seven. In a similar study, King (1978) studied the cognitive constructs, beliefs, values and behavioral customs that teachers pass onto young children through instruction in the British classroom and found that in infant schools, teachers’ beliefs about children and the learning process was connected to their classroom practices.

Kagan and Smith (1988) examined the relationships between the cognitive styles of kindergarten teachers and their tendency to endorse a child-centered approach versus a teacher-structured approach. The study found the teachers’ perceptions of their own classroom behaviors and their actual observable behaviors to be highly interrelated. This was in agreement with the findings of Yonemura (1986) qualitative case study when he examined the beliefs of one early childhood teacher using a combination of classroom observations and discussions. Similarly, in her study to assess the relationship between teachers’ beliefs and practices, Nelson (2000) found that teachers’ personal beliefs were a greater determinant of their practice than environmental factors such as support from colleagues and principals.

A study by Lee et al. (2006) compared the scaffolding skills of 242 Korean teachers identified as holding either developmentally appropriate practice (DAP) beliefs or developmentally inappropriate practice (DIP) beliefs before and after an in-service training. There was no significant difference in the scaffolding of the Korean kindergarten teachers identified as DAP or DIP. However, DAP teachers made significantly greater gains on a scaffolding measure than DIP teachers after teacher training which provided scaffolding skills and strategies.

It is also worth noting that many studies found discrepancy between the beliefs teachers hold and their practices (Hatch and Freeman 1988; Verma and Peters 1975). Despite this commonly found discrepancy between beliefs and practices, the majority of research studies

strongly suggest that early childhood teachers’ implicit beliefs and theories are predictors of their in-class behaviors or instruction, and thus beliefs are considered a reliable tool for examining practice. In their study entitled ‘‘Teachers’ Beliefs and Practices Regarding Developmentally Appropriate Practices,’’ Archana and Deborah (2009) compared teachers’ stated practices with their in class behaviors regarding developmentally appropriate practices in India. The findings from the forty kindergarten teachers from Mumbai who participated in the study indicated that teachers’ beliefs were more developmentally appropriate than their stated practices or actual practices in the classroom.

Developmentally appropriate practice/instruction is based on cognitive learning theories, rooted in the work of Piaget and Vygotsky, which are guided by the premise that development refers to cognitive patterned changes over time (Schunk 2000). Their work formed the concept of

constructivism, which assumes that learners construct their own knowledge based on interactions with their environment that challenge their thinking (Schunk 2000).

The term ‘‘developmentally appropriate practice’’ was first published in 1986 in a position statement from the NAEYC as a tool for programs in response to trends toward more formal academic instruction in early childhood programs (Shepard and Smith 1988). The concept of developmentally appropriate practices (DAP) was originally described in detail in a policy statement by NAEYC (Bredekamp 1987), and was subsequently refined in a more recently published document (Bredekamp and Copple 2009). DAP curricula focus on the overall development of the whole child including social, emotional, aesthetic, moral, language, cognitive, and physical (which includes health, gross motor, and fine motor) domains. DAP practices are individually, age group, and culturally appropriate.

These ‘‘best practices’’ relate to the everyday reality of the individuals within a group, as well as to the learning community as a whole (Oakes and Caruso 1990). DAP curricula are learner-generated and learner-centered, yet teacher-framed. In other words, the teacher is the one who judges what is needed to meet the developmental and learning needs of children, and it is he or she who prepares the environment and develops the curriculum accordingly. DAP curricula encourage problem-solving, critical thinking, and intellectual risk-taking, and engender dispositions of life-long learning. Assessment of children in DAP environments is ongoing and continuous, and is done for the purpose of preparing a conducive environment for children’s development and for building upon existing strengths (McMullen 1999).

In contrast the didactic practices—which some teachers consider to be developmentally inappropriate—are directly tied to the behaviorist theories of learning. However, some evidence suggests that didactic practices are beneficial to some children (Karnes et al. 1983). According to behaviorism, learning is an effect of the responses to stimuli; thus, when applied to a classroom setting, children learn when they repeat correct responses to teacher-produced stimuli and when children’s errors are corrected immediately so as to keep them from learning incorrect knowledge (Stipek et al. 1995). Typically, this approach to instruction incorporates teachers’ use of repetition, direct instruction, tasks taught in small sequential steps, and behaviors shaped by external reinforcement (Buchanan et al. 1998; Stipek et al. 1995). These practices are further characterized by teacher-directed learning that involves rote memorization, drill-and-practice, the use of workbooks and worksheets, lack of student choice, and lack of collaboration with peers (Stipek et al. 1995).

Finally, didactic practices allow little room for integration of content areas or hands-on, concrete learning experiences. Teachers typically manage student behavior with negative consequences for unacceptable actions and

extrinsic rewards for following the rules (Charlesworth 1998).

Early Childhood Education in Jordan

The field of early childhood education is relatively new to Jordan, but it has been placed as one of the country’s major concerns in the educational field. In response to the needs of addressing the development of children’s education from the age of two to eight at the national level, a National Team for Early Childhood Development (ECD) established by Queen Rania in 1999 completed an extensive ECD Strategy Document that provided an overview of the current situation of young children in Jordan in areas such as early childhood development in kindergarten education, health, the education of children with special needs, early childhood development at the family and community levels, and licensing standards for kindergarten education (Queen Rania Al-Abdulla 2003).

In 2003, the ministry of education (MoE) announced its Strategic Project ‘‘education reform for the knowledge economy (ERFKE)’’ to promote the quality of the teaching process at all levels of early childhood education. In spiteof great efforts made by the Jordanian government and other local and international institutions to place children’s issues at the top of their agendas, Jordan may still have many challenges ahead in attaining positive changes in the lives of children (Jordan Times 2002). UNICEF’s latest publication on (ECD) pointed out the poor conditions in most kindergartens in Jordan, as well as a lack of in-service and personnel training (Dajani 2001). Moreover, a national study on the distribution of kindergarten in Jordan revealed that the majority of kindergartens are privately owned which make it unaffordable to children who come from low-income backgrounds (MoE 2004). Education provided at these kindergartens mainly centered around academic development, with little emphasis on other developmental areas. In fact, only 56% of kindergartens in Jordan were found to abide by official licensing conditions and standards set by the Ministry of Education. In accordance with the NAEYC (2009), these standards are inadequate, inappropriate, or incomprehensive. At the same time, the qualifications of preschool teachers are below the required standards to be granted a teaching license. As a result, there is a great demand for highly qualified personnel in the Kingdom as well as the neighboring Arab countries. Since the early 21st century, the MoE has worked hard and made some progress completing many achievements such as: (1) preparing the national interactive curriculum that has been evaluated and modified accordingly; (2) preparing the general early childhood curriculum and its outputs; (3) developing the criteria and the conditions of licensing kindergartens in cooperation with the National Council for Family Affairs; (4) training all teachers in public kindergartens on the national interactive curriculum and on the working program with young children (Wisconsin University Program); (5) developing the criteria to accredit kindergartens; (6) coordinating with the Jordanian universities to have early childhood education majors in order to empower teachers academically; and (7) working on expanding the programs and projects that relate to each childhood education (UNESCO 2006).

As children grow, beliefs held by teachers become very important for children’s desire to learn. Teachers should encourage children to value learning by giving positive values to questions. Kindergarten teachers’ beliefs are important as they may yield important information as the behavioral repetitive of the child (Kagan 1992). Many early childhood programs seem to have lived up to popular beliefs that to help young children get ahead in their academic preparations, these programs often took a ‘‘regimented curriculum approach’’ (Olenick 1986) by putting

children in large groups, with time spent predominantly on formal, teacher-directed drill and practice of isolated academic skills. Children were expected to learn despite the fact that the pedagogy was ‘‘rigid, didactic, and geared to the attention levels of older children’’ (Olenick 1986).

Purpose of the Study

This study aimed at exploring kindergarten teachers’ beliefs towards developmentally appropriate practice and whether these beliefs differ according to their age, years of experience, level of education, and specialization. DAP was chosen as the belief system or philosophy to be examined in this study, because it is currently held by many early childhood professionals to be emblematic of ‘‘best practices’’ in the field (McMullen 1999). The researchers deeply felt that there must be an interest in qualifying teachers, enriching their experiences, deepening their understanding in children’ characteristics, and their developmental needs as well as training teachers to take these requirements into consideration and adopting the psychological theory related to children’s development.

The major objective of this study was to examine Jordanian kindergarten teachers’ beliefs toward developmentally appropriate practices. More specifically, this study tried to answer the following questions: What are the general beliefs of Jordanian kindergarten teachers towards developmentally appropriate practice? Do the beliefs of Jordanian kindergarten teachers towards the developmentally appropriate practice differ according to their age, years of experience, level of education, and specialization?

Significance of the Study

This study is significant due to the fact that it introduces some new variables that were not utilized in previous research studies in Jordan, such as teachers’ years of experience and their level of education. The results of the study will provide useful data that may help in planning kindergartens’ learning activities and designing appropriate preparation and training programs for Jordanian kindergarten teachers. The study also may lead to an instrument to explore teachers’ aptitude and other suitable tools to select efficient and proficient teachers, which makes this stage distinctive from other educational stages. In addition, the results may help Jordanian kindergarten decision-makers and principals in preparing pre- and in-service kindergarten teachers and to pay more attention to teachers’ training needs to carry out the developmentally appropriate curriculum.

Finally, this study is considered important due to the fact that the Arabic education and psychological literature are lacking research studies that investigate the beliefs of kindergarten teachers towards developmentally appropriate practice. Therefore this study will cover some of the gaps in this area.

Variables

(a) Age. This variable can be divided into three groups:

(1) 20–29 (2) 30–39 (3) 40-and up.

(b) Kindergarten teachers’ years of experience: This

variable can be divided into three levels:

(1) 3 years or less (2) 4–6 years (3) 7 years or more

(c) Teacher specialization: This variable can be divided

into the following levels:

(1) Education (2) Other than education

(d) Level of education: This variable can be divided into

the following levels:

(1) Associate degree (2) B.A. (3) Graduate studies

The dependent variable of this study was: Jordanian kindergarten teachers’ beliefs toward developmentally appropriate practice.

Methods and Procedures

Population and Sample

The population of the study was all the 1907 female Jordanian teachers working at 40 kindergartens in the third district in the governorate of Amman, Jordan (Ministry of Education 2006). The sample of this study consisted of 285 teachers (15%) randomly selected from the 1907 Jordanian public and private kindergarten teachers in Amman. Of the 285 teachers included in the study sample, 129 (45.3%) aged 20–29 years, 109 (38.2%) aged 30–39 years, and 47 (16.5%) were over 40 years old. Regarding the years of experience, 130 (45.6%) teachers had 5 years of experience or less in teaching at kindergartens, 85 (29.8%) teachers had 10 years of experience or more, while 70

(24.6%) had 6–10 years of experience. Out of the 285 teachers, 185 (64.9%) had a bachelor’s degree, 75 (26.3%)had associate degree, and 25 (8.6%) had a master’s degree. Concerning their specialization, 185 (64.9%) were specialized in various areas of education, while 100 (35.1%) were specialized in non-education majors.

Measures

A questionnaire with two sections was constructed to answer the study questions. The first section included

general information such as kindergarten teachers’ age, years of experience, teacher specialization, and their level

of education, whereas the second section included items to measure teachers’ beliefs toward developmentally appropriate practices. The items distributed into the five dimensions of early childhood professional practice, published by NAEYC (Bredekamp 1987). The dimensions are:

(1) Creating a caring community of learners: this dimension measures the developmentally appropriate practices that occur within the context that supports the development of relationships between adults and children, among children, among teachers, and between teachers and families;

(2) Teaching to enhance development and learning: this dimension measures children’s healthy development andlearning;

(3) Constructing an appropriate curriculum: this dimension measures the content of the early childhood curriculum including the subject matter of the disciplines, social or cultural values, and parental input;

(4) Assessing children’s development and learning; and

(5) Establishing reciprocal relationships with families: this dimension measures the reciprocal relationships between teachers and families that require mutual respect, cooperation, shared responsibility, and negotiation of conflicts, etc.

Questionnaire Construction

The questionnaire was constructed based on the following stages:

Stage one: Specifying the behavioral domains: In order to determine the behavioral domains, the researchers reviewed the literature related to the developmentally appropriate practices and selected those related to the previous dimensions, and modified them to make them more meaningful and useful in the context of Jordan. Based on this review, the researchers put a list of 50 items as a primary version for the questionnaire.

Stage two: The primary version of the questionnaire was reviewed by a sample of faculty members specialized in the field of early childhood education, educational psychology, and kindergartens’ administrative officials at the MoE in Jordan.

Stage three: Pilot study: In order to have psychometric indicators for the items of the primary version of the

questionnaire, it was administered to a sample of (40) kindergarten teachers that were selected randomly from the study population (not included in the study sample). The results showed that the correlations between the performance on the items and the total scores (Rix) were ranged between (.37–.70). To obtain the questionnaire reliability, it was administered twice in a 3 week period interval to this sample. A correlation coefficient between the two scores obtained by the subjects was computed. The test–retest reliability coefficient were (0.77), (0.68), (0.64), (0.63), (0.68), and (0.86) for creating a caring community of learners, teaching to enhance development and learning, constructing appropriate curriculum, assessing children’s development and learning, establishing reciprocal relationships with families, and for the questionnaire as a whole, respectively. This was considered acceptable for the purpose of the study.

The questionnaire consisted of (44) items to measure the skills of the above five dimensions. Teachers were

asked to rate their agreement with the 44 items on a Likert-type scale ranging from 5 (strongly agree) to 1(strongly disagree). The statements for the items with high score indicate more favorable attitudes toward using developmentally appropriate practices (DAP), whereas items with low scores indicate more favorable attitudes toward developmentally inappropriate practices (DIP). The following classification was considered to determine the directions of the items taking into consideration that the range between the highest score (strongly agree) 5 and lowest score (strongly disagree) 1 equals 4 divided by 3 (to have three categories DAP, mixture of DAP and DIP) the range is 1.33 for every category. Means ranging from 3.68 to 5 indicate DAP attitudes (Child-centered approach) and the means ranging from 2.34 to 3.67 indicate a mixture of DAP and DIP attitudes, whereas the means ranging from 1.00 to 2.33 indicate DIP attitudes (Teacher-directed approach).

The questionnaire was pilot-tested to disclose any possible inaccuracies or ambiguities and to enable the necessary refinements. It was also administered to fifteen kindergarten teachers who were randomly selected from the population for the pilot test. Data received from the pilot test were reviewed and changes were made.

Statistical Analysis

Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics. Independent T-test and analysis of variance (ANOVA) followed by post hoc comparison were also used to determine whether kindergarten teachers’ beliefs in Jordan differ towards the developmentally appropriate practices due to the study variables: teachers’ age, years of experience, level of education, and specialization.

Results and Discussion           

In order to answer the first question related to the general beliefs of kindergarten teachers towards DAP, means, standard deviations, ranks, and level of importance according to the five dimensions of teachers’ beliefs towards DAP were found. The findings show that the overall mean score for all dimensions of kindergarten teachers’ beliefs toward DAP was 4.08, which indicates high beliefs toward DAP. In addition, the means for all dimensions show that kindergarten teachers were DAP oriented on all domains except for the establishing reciprocal relationships with families domain. These results indicate that teachers’ beliefs were mixed between both DAP and Didactic practices (DIP) approaches, which also means that teachers are using both approaches in their teaching. It also showed that creating a caring community of learners’ domain ranked as #1 with a 4.53 mean, whereas the curriculum domain ranked as # 2 with a mean of 4.27. In general, this may be attributed to the fact that teachers believe that students benefit more from the DAP child-centered approach, more than DIP teacher-centered approach, and teachers viewed the child as primary source of the curriculum and recognized children’s unique characteristics. This is in agreement with the findings of Burts et al. (1993), Charlesworth (1998), Marcon (1992).

The followings show the analysis of each domain separately.

Creating a Caring Community of Learners

Means, standard deviations, and ranks of teachers’ beliefs towards DAP for the domain ‘‘creating a caring community of learners’’, were found. The overall mean score for the items was 4.53, indicating beliefs toward DAP. All scores on all items in this domain support the DAP approach. The item ‘‘sensory materials are necessary to help children build their own experiences’’ ranked as # 1 with a mean of 4.82, whereas the item ‘‘teacher should learn about the child life outside kindergarten through his/her relationship with the family’’ ranked last with a mean average of 4.12. This result is expected since DAP provide a variety of materials and opportunities for children to have firsthand, meaningful experiences. They also occur within a context that supports the development of relationships between adults and children, among children, among teachers, and between teachers and families. In addition, interacting with other children in small groups provides a context for children to operate on the edge of their developing capacities. In these environments, teachers’ roles are facultative, responsive, supportive, and informative. The results are in agreement with the findings of Bredekamp and Copple (2009) and Weikart (1988) in which they emphasized that teachers are expected to provide a learning environment with multi-sensory materials and encourage children to make discoveries by exploring their interests.

Teaching to Enhance Development and Learning

Means, standard deviations, and ranks of teachers’ beliefs towards DAP for the domain items of ‘‘teaching to enhance development and learning’’ were found. The overall mean score for all the items related to the domain of ‘‘teaching to enhance development and learning’’ was 3.96. This indicates that teachers in general lean more toward DAP. The scores for teachers’ beliefs on the items of development and learning were mixed between DAP and DIP, where the item ‘‘The teacher must provide children with a variety of experiences and ideas to research and explore and to stimulate their interests more than teaching’’ ranked as # 1 with a mean 4.72 and the item ‘‘drill and practice are not good teaching practices’’ ranked last with a mean average of 2.35.

This may be true for teachers’ beliefs on most items since children are active learners who engage in selfinitiated activities to explore their environment and make sense out of their daily experiences (Flavell et al. 1993). This also compared favorably with the research that supports the use of DAP with young children (Burts et al. 1993; Charlesworth 1998; Marcon 1992). It is also in line with the NAEYC recommendation that teachers strive to achieve an optimal balance between children’s self-initiated learning and adult guidance and support. On the other hand, teachers’ beliefs were shown as mixed. This may be attributed to external factors that influencetheir beliefs. There is often a discrepancy between what the research indicates and the philosophies of early childhood educators, which tend to be developmentally inappropriate for young children (Charlesworth et al. 1993). In addition, teachers often hold misconceptions about the actual attributes of developmentally appropriate and didactic practices and the usefulness of both in early childhood classrooms (Neuharth-Pritchett and Parker 2006).

Constructing Appropriate Curriculum

Means, standard deviations, and ranks of teachers’ beliefs towards DAP for the domain items of ‘‘teaching to enhance development and learning’’ were found. The overall mean score for all the items related to the domain of ‘‘constructing appropriate curriculum’’ was 4.27, which indicates that teachers support developmentally appropriate practices more than developmentally inappropriate practices. The scores of teachers’ beliefs toward all items in this domain were DAP oriented. The item ‘‘good curriculum provides opportunities to support children’s culture and language’’ ranked as # 1 with a mean of 4.52, while the item ‘‘Curriculum must be built upon what children already know and are able to do (activating prior knowledge)’’ came last with a mean of 3.82. The findings are consistent with the trend that the content of the early childhood curriculum is determined by many factors, including the subject matter of the disciplines, social, or cultural values and of course parental input. Curricula should be constructed to meet the needs of children. They can use NAEYC suggestions to guide their planning. Also, DAP provides children with choices that allow for individual differences and ensure success for all. Thus, teachers who benefit of a certain curriculum model should continue on using it. That is why NAEYC does not endorse any specific curricula. Oversimplified curriculum leaves many children unchallenged, bored, disinterested, or unmotivated. On the other hand, impoverished curricula underestimate the true competence of children.

The findings are comparable with (Charlesworth et al. 1993) results which indicated that a developmentally

appropriate curriculum promotes equity in developmental outcomes. Furthermore, educators and curriculum developers ‘‘must address not only considerations of child development but also those matters that are culture—and language specific’’ (Escobedo 1993).

Assessing Children’s Development and Learning

Means, standard deviations, and ranks of teachers’ beliefs towards DAP for the domain items of ‘‘teaching to enhance development and learning’’ were found. The overall mean score for the items related to ‘‘assessing children’s development and learning’’ domain was 4.10, indicating that teachers believe in developmentally appropriate practices. The scores of teachers beliefs toward all items in this domain were DAP oriented except for the item ‘‘it is preferable to use international criteria to assess children’’ which ranked as mixed between DAP and DIP with an average of 3.43. This may be attributed to the fact that each group or country desires to have their own input in the assessment of their children. Teachers form beliefs during their own schooling that create filters through which they process subsequent educational and teaching experiences (Lortie 2002).

Establishing Reciprocal Relationships with Families

Means, standard deviations, ranks of teachers’ beliefs towards DAP for the domain items of ‘‘Establishing

Reciprocal Relationships with Families’’ show that the overall mean score for the items was 3.50, indicating that teachers tend to support the mixed approach practices between DAP and DIP. The scores of teachers’ beliefs on most items in this domain were mixed between DAP and DIP, except for the two items ‘‘collaborative partnerships with the families must be established and followed to assess children’s development’’, and ‘‘Teachers should help children increase their self-control’’. The scores of teachers’ beliefs toward those two items were DAP oriented with means 4.12 and 3.94, respectively. The item ‘‘It is preferable that parents participate in writing the program’’ ranked last with a mean average of 2.94.

One explanation for this is that teachers are still relatively new to working with DAP and are concerned that parents might exert too much influence over program content, thereby causing practitioners to do what families prefer even if they disagree with it as early childhood professionals. Nevertheless, teachers can have strong beliefs about the importance of collaborative relationships with children’s parents.

Generally speaking, the findings imply that Jordanian teachers in early childhood education hold developmentally appropriate beliefs. It appears that teachers are more child-centered and away from the previous subject-centered curriculum designed solely to prepare children for primary grades. This also appears to align Jordanian teachers and the early education system more closely with the major tenets of NAEYC’s DAP guidelines.

Although teachers appear to be moving toward a more child-centered approach, it can be noticed that DAP may not be the general trend in early childhood programs in kindergartens in Jordan. This may due partly to the fact that teachers often have some difficulty with parents’ expectations about the role of kindergartens. Therefore, professional preparation and training designed to help teachers implement DAP are needed and can be quite beneficial. In addition, working on parents’ expectations about the role of kindergartens might be beneficial.

In order to answer the second question: ‘‘Do the beliefs of kindergarten teachers in Jordan differ towards the developmentally appropriate practice according to age, years of experience, level of education, and specialization?’’, means and standard deviations were computed for each domain of teachers’ beliefs and for the total score according to teachers’ level of education, years of experience, teacher specialization, and teacher’s age. T-test and one way analysis of variance (ANOVA) were conducted to determine whether there were significant differences in teachers’ beliefs according to each variable. Table 1 below summarizes the results of ANOVA and T-test according to the five domains.

Level of Education

Means and standard deviations were computed for each domain of teachers’ beliefs and for the total scoreaccording to the level of education. The findings show that there are differences between the means of teachers’ beliefs toward teaching children according to teacher’s level of education, and in order to determine whether these differences are significant, ANOVA was used. The findings showed that there are no significant differences between the means of teachers’ beliefs toward DAP at a B 0.05 except in assessing children’s development and learning domain where the F-value was 3.49. Results of a Tukey post hoc comparison test indicated that the source of differences was between teachers holding associate degree and those who held BA. This maybe expected since teachers holding BA degrees have had more practice, training, and courses in early childhood education than those holding an associate degree. The theories and concepts of early childhood education become more meaningful to them. This supports the NAEYC guidelines (Bredekamp and Copple 2009).

Years of Experience

Means and standard deviations showed that there are differences between the means of teachers’ beliefs toward teaching children according to years of experience, and in order to determine whether these differences are significant, ANOVA was used. The findings showed that there are no significant differences between the means of teachers’ beliefs toward teaching children at a B 0.05 except in caring community of learners domain F = 5.265, and the development and learning domain F = 4.407. Results of Post Hoc comparison Tukey test indicated that the differences between teachers who have 5 years of experience and less and teachers means who have more than 10 years of experience was significant, whereas the mean of the teachers with 5 years of experience and less and for teachers with more than 10 years was also significant at a B 0.05. As teachers gain more experience, their beliefs become stronger, these beliefs help teachers determine what information is pertinent for their self-construction of new knowledge (Goodman 1988).

Teacher Specialization

Means and standard deviations were computed for each domain of teachers’ beliefs and for the total score according to teacher specialization. T-test was also run to determine whether there were significant differences in teachers’ beliefs according to teachers’ specialization.

The findings show that there were significant differences between the means of teachers’ beliefs for those who specialized in education and those who specialized in other areas toward DAP at (a = B 0.05). Results of t-test indicated differences between teachers’ beliefs scores toward most domains of developmentally appropriate practices except in the appropriate curriculum domain, and assessing development and learning domains. It was also shown that means of teachers specialized in education, were higher than the beliefs of teachers who did not specialize in education on these domains. These results agree with the findings of the previous studies which indicated that DAP are influenced by teacher education programs, and teachers who majored in education scored significantly higher on developmentally appropriate practice than teachers who did not (Bredekamp and Copple 2009; McMullen 1999; Smith 1997). Also NAEYC recommended that teachers of pre-K and kindergarten children should have college-level training in early childhood education or child development as well as supervised experience with this age group (Bredekamp and Copple 2009).

Age

Means and standard deviations were computed for each domain of teachers’ beliefs and for the total score according to teacher’s age. The findings indicated that there are no significant differences between the means of teachers’ beliefs toward DAP at (a B 0.05). And in order to determine whether there are significant differences in teachers’ beliefs according to age, Analysis of Variance was used. Results of ANOVA indicated no significant differences in teachers’ beliefs toward most of the dimensions, except in the caring community of learners’ domain. Results of Post Hoc Comparison Tukey test indicated that differences between teachers in the age category 20–29 years and teachers more than 40 years of age were significant. The findings showed that as teachers become older, their beliefs become more developmentally appropriate than younger teachers. Studies have indicated that as age increases the teachers’ beliefs are formulated as a result of their knowledge. Other studies have also indicated that older teachers who were taught traditional practices have a difficult time using current developmentally appropriate practices (Morrison et al. 1999).