Young Children\'s Literacy Achievement: Effects of Teachers\' Beliefs and Behaviors (I)

Teachers who completed a college-level education in early childhood education indicated a constructivist perspective than teachers who completed less than five years of education. Teachers who teach mixed-age children and who work in public kindergartens are more likely to place less emphasis on all three domains of literacy-related curriculum goals and teaching strategies. Additionally, when teachers believed in a traditional literacy instruction, they were more likely to arrange literacy-related activities from a traditional approach.

Finally, based on the analysis of structural equation modeling, we found relationships between teachers’ beliefs and practices. The results suggest that the beliefs of teachers about early literacy instruction (a traditional or emergent literacy approach) and their perceptions of the important curriculum goals were correlated and together with their perceptions of teaching strategies contributed significantly to teachers’ practices.