A qualitative study examining teachers' beliefs regarding developmentally appropriate practices was conducted in the city of Mumbai, India. Twelve kindergarten teachers were interviewed for this study, and a constant comparative method was used to analyze the interviews. Six themes were identified within this study. The themes highlighted distinct differences between American and Indian cultures, as well as striking similarities, and pinpoint the importance of culture as the foundation for classroom practices. Themes included a focus on academics vs. play, the importance of worksheets, the importance of groups for socialization, and the difficulties of implementing a play-based curriculum. The description of these themes and its implication for the early childhood care and education of India are discussed in detail.

Abstract:The purpose of the current study was to examine the psychometric properties of the Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale-Revised (ECERS-R) with a large sample (1313 classrooms). We explored both the seven subscales and the possibility of fewer distinct aspects of quality being measured by the scale. The large sample size allowed both exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses to be performed. The results showed two distinct factors, Activities/Materials (nine items) and Language/Interaction (seven items), which accounted for 69% of the variance. High internal consistency scores, a moderate correlation between the factorbased scales, and a strong correlation between the combined factor-based scales and the overall ECERS-R score suggested these were distinct factors that could serve as a proxy for the larger scale. Structural aspects of quality and teacher education were examined in relation to the new factor-based scales and the overall score. Implications for practitioners and future research suggestions are provided Keywords: Preschool | Activities/Materials | Language/Interaction | Early Childhood | Teacher Education Article:The Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale-Revised (ECERS-R) (Harms, Clifford, & Cryer, 1998) is perhaps the most frequently used measure of global quality in early childhood settings. As Scarr et al. have argued, instruments, such as the ECERS-R, have multiple purposes including regulatory, research, and consultative (Scarr, Eisenberg, & Deater-Deckard, 1994). Desirable properties of such instruments vary with the purpose. For research purposes, a streamlined, easier to administer measure is most preferable while for regulatory and consultative purposes a more detailed, longer scale may be more appropriate. Certainly, when a scale, such as the ECERS-R, is used for regulatory purposes, it is critical that the breadth of quality be examined in as comprehensive a manner as possible. When using the scale for research there are advantages in efficiency to having fewer items. The time to obtain inter-observer reliability and to administer the scale may be shortened. The use of factor analysis techniques to reduce the scale can also provide insight into underlying unique dimensions of quality rather than a single global indicator. Several factor analyses have been completed on the both the original ECERS (Harms & Clifford, 1980;Howes, Phillips, & Whitebook, 1992; Phillipsen, Bruchinal, Howes, & Cryer, 1997;Scarr et al., 1994) and the revised version (Holloway, Kagan, Fuller, Tsou, & Carroll, 2001;Perlman, Zellman, & Le, 2004;Sakai, Whitebook, Wishard, & Howes, 2003) with different results. Limited sample sizes in these past studies have not permitted both exploratory and confirmatory factor analytic techniques to be used. The large sample size in the current study allowed for a more statistically rigorous approach to determine if there are underlying distinct constructs of quality in the ECERS-R and if a shorter version of scale can be reliably used in research studies. Previous ...

Abstract:The study assessed kindergarten teachers' beliefs, stated practices and actual practices regarding developmentally appropriate practices (DAP) in India. Forty kindergarten teachers from the urban city of Mumbai (India) participated in the study. Overall, the results indicated that teachers' beliefs were more developmentally appropriate than their stated practices or actual practices in the classroom. Further, teachers congruent in their developmentally appropriate beliefs and stated practices had classrooms with higher scores on actual practices. Lastly, group size was a significant predictor of teachers' actual practices. The implications of these results for the early childhood education system of India are discussed in detail.

The day-today reality of teacher turnover in preschool classrooms: An analysis of classroom context and teacher, director, and parent perspectives.

While child care quality has been examined in numerous studies, the definition of quality and specifically, the concepts of structural and process quality, have not been adequately explored. In this qualitative analysis of the constructs of process and structural quality, a content analysis of the Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale-Revised (ECERS-R), a commonly used measure of process quality, was conducted to investigate its use as a measure of process quality. Through constant comparative analysis of the ECERS-R at the indicator level, definitions of structure and process were formulated. Results show that over half of the indicators of the ECERS-R are measuring structural quality rather than process quality. Further examination of quality as a dynamic exchange between individuals and context is needed to advance research in the area of early childhood program quality.