Student Teachers Beliefs About Developmentally Appropriate Practice

In another study done by Kenneth E. Smith entitled, “Student Teachers’ Beliefs About Developmentally Appropriate Practice: Pattern, Stability, and the Influence of Locus of Control”, examined the belief student teachers have towards Developmentally Appropriate Practice. Smith picked student teachers versus teachers because there have been prior studies done on teachers but none on student teachers. Student teachers go through at least a year of going in and out of different schools. They examine how each teacher works and how each classroom is run, therefore what better way to analyze what student teachers beliefs in DAP. The student teacher beliefs can be influence by various ways; such as, institutional socialization pressures, locus control,

This implies that as prior to becoming a student teacher, the individual has beliefs of the whole concept of teaching, however, once placed into a setting as a student teacher their beliefs starts to develop differently. “Locus Control is the extent to which an individual expects reinforcement for one’s behavior to be under personal (i.e., internal) vs. impersonal (i.e., external) control (Lefcourt, 1982). Locus control was incorporated in this study as a factor because it could be a factor in the contribution of development and maintenance of student teacher beliefs. Lastly, the biggest factor in the contribution of the student teachers beliefs is the influence the cooperating teacher has over that. Cooperating teachers influence student teachers attitudes and beliefs more often than their college or universities professors. With cooperating teachers, student teachers learn how to manage a classroom, or a particular child, and this is where the student teacher is influenced in what kind of style they want to

In Taiwan since 2012 replaced their Kindergarten Curriculum Standard with a Curriculum Guide that adopts the concept of DAP. The purpose of this study is to fully understand students social environment and social interaction while being taught a music lesson in a DAP classroom; which includes, how the teacher in the classroom directs the individuality of the student development, needs, interests and cultural contexts. The participant in this study was required to be certified kindergarten teacher, who believed in DAP, that could fulfil the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) DAP guidelines in the classroom and incorporating teaching music. The participant was found through Classrooms Practices Inventory and pilot studies. The classroom was located in a public kindergarten in Southern Taiwan. It consisted of 30 children aged five with two generalist teachers, Ms. Chen and Ms.Lee, teaching the class. They both assist each other in class, however, Ms. Chen is in charge of music