This study explores Saudi teachers’ beliefs about STEAM education in early childhood education settings. The study sample consisted of 245 teachers working in kindergartens. The participants completed a survey comprising twelve items to elaborate teachers’ beliefs toward implementing STEAM practices in their classrooms, as well as four close-ended questions to evaluate teachers’ knowledge of and familiarity with the terminology of STEAM education and their professional training in STEAM-related content. The findings reveal overall positive beliefs toward STEAM education for young children and rather moderate beliefs regarding the implementation of STEAM practices. The results also reveal that teachers were somewhat familiar with the term STEAM; however, they reported limited knowledge of the integration process and basic strategies and skills needed for its implementation. The results also demonstrate that the majority of the Saudi teachers participating in this study believed they needed additional professional development and training regarding STEAM implementation. A chi-square test indicated statistically significant associations between teachers’ knowledge of STEAM education and their beliefs and between teachers’ previous professional training in STEAM education and their beliefs. The implications and future recommendations are also discussed.
BackgroundThere has been a widespread interest in the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) framework for Developmentally Appropriate Practice (DAP). Since the release of DAP in 1987, the framework was quickly criticized with reference to DAP ignoring the importance of children's social and cultural backgrounds and a focus on development as a universal goal (Delpit 1988;Jipson 1991;Kessler 1991). Although Bredekamp (1993) stated that some of the criticism (e.g., Fowell and Lawton 1993) of DAP are based on misinterpretations of the statement, changes to the second and third position statements have been seen by many to address major issues concerning diversity and cultural background, second-language learners, and special needs children (Copple and Bredekamp 2009). More recently, variations in cultural practices have been shown to be consistent with DAP and researchers have explored how teachers respond to DAP when there are clear contrasts with their own beliefs and values. For example, Sanders et al. (2007) have explored African American teacher's perceptions of DAP in the 'hood; AbstractSince the first release of NAEYC's guidelines, DAP has received a lot of attention from childhood professionals in the United States. Internationally, many countries have also shown a growing interest regarding DAP, yet interest in DAP is new to the Saudi educators. Thus, the purpose of this study was to explore preschool teachers' subjective beliefs toward NAEYC's guidelines of DAP in Saudi Arabia, one of the most conservative Middle Eastern countries. Q Methodology, as a mixed methods approach, was used to study 37 preschool teachers randomly selected from five preschools in Mecca city. The participants sorted 50 cards with examples of DAP and developmentally inappropriate practice (DIP) or "In Contrast" statements which represented perceived importance of the practice to the sorter. To analyze the data, a Principal Component Analysis (PCA) with Varimax rotation indicated four main components regarding the beliefs of Saudi preschool teachers as they relate to DAP's guidelines. Each component represents a unique perspective (viewpoint) on how Saudi preschool teachers view DAP and contrasting items based on their subjective points of view. The four main perspectives that emerged from the analysis show a dominance consensus among perspectives that fit equitably within the DAP framework regarding the best practice of early childhood education. Findings from this study provide evidence that many aspects of developmentally appropriate practice can be appropriate in different cultures and countries. Open Access© The Author(s) 2019. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creat iveco mmons .org/licen ses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if chan...
The outbreak of Covid-19 and consequent school closures created a considerable challenge for educational systems around the world. Many countries have shifted to online learning and other digital alternatives to ensure continuity in education. Within this global and historical context of the Covid 19 pandemic, the present study aimed to explore teachers’ attitudes towards the use of online learning for young children in Saudi Arabia. A total of 346 early childhood teachers were surveyed during school closures and the concomitant shift to online learning and teaching. The teachers who participated were recruited from public and private kindergartens and early childhood centers. The respondents completed a survey consisting of two scales developed for the purposes of this study. The first scale explored teachers’ general attitudes towards using online learning strategies with young children (10 items). The second scale explored teachers’ attitudes towards using online learning with young children based on their professional experience during the Covid-19 pandemic (10 items). The findings indicated that the majority of the respondents held positive attitudes about the use of online learning as an alternative to regular schooling. However, some beliefs varied among respondents, for example, whether online learning is developmentally and educationally appropriate for young children, and whether it creates or lacks a learning atmosphere. In addition, chi-square test results for both scales indicated statistically significant associations between teacher attitudes towards using online learning and years of teaching experience. However, no statistically significant associations were found for both scales between teacher attitudes and geographic area (urban/rural) or school type (public/private). Implications for teaching during and beyond the pandemic are discussed.
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