ERIC Number: ED433123
Record Type: Non-Journal
Publication Date: 1999
Pages: 374
Abstractor: N/A
ISBN: ISBN-1-57379-078-8
ISSN: N/A
EISSN: N/A
Available Date: N/A
What Should Young Children Learn? Teacher and Parent Views in 15 Countries. The IEA Preprimary Project, Phase 2.
Weikart, David P., Ed.
This monograph reports on Phase 2 of the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement Preprimary Project, focusing on the quality of life experienced by four-year-olds in major early childhood settings. This monograph highlights results from a questionnaire completed by over 1,600 teachers and over 4,800 parents in 15 countries about what they expect preschool-aged children to learn, how each views the other's priorities and responsibilities, how well they communicate, and how they form their beliefs about what is important for children. Participating countries were Belgium, China, Finland, Greece, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Nigeria, Poland, Romania, Slovenia, Spain, Thailand, and the United States. Among the important findings of the study is that there is general across-country agreement among teachers regarding their priorities for young children's learning. Social skills with peers, language skills, and self-sufficiency skills were considered most important. Preacademic, self-assessment, and social skills with adults were considered least important. Parents showed less cross-country agreement than did teachers, but most considered language, self-sufficiency, and social skills with peers most important and self-assessment and self-expression skills the least important. In eight countries there was a significant correlation between parents' and teachers' rank-orderings of skill categories. In most countries, teachers understood what parents expect children to learn, but parents were less accurate than teachers in their understanding of teachers' expectations. There was considerable agreement among parents and teachers regarding each other's responsibilities. (Seven appendices include the Expectations Questionnaire and supplementary data tables. Contains 69 references.) (KB)
Descriptors: Cross Cultural Studies, Educational Attitudes, Family School Relationship, Foreign Countries, Parent Attitudes, Parent Responsibility, Parent Role, Parent School Relationship, Parent Teacher Cooperation, Preschool Education, Preschool Teachers, Questionnaires, Tables (Data), Teacher Attitudes, Teacher Expectations of Students, Teacher Responsibility, Teacher Role, Young Children
High/Scope Press, High/Scope Educational Research Foundation, 600 N. River St., Ypsilanti, MI 48198-2898; Tel: 800-407-7377 (Toll Free); Fax: 800-442-4329 (Toll Free); e-mail: press@highscope.org
Publication Type: Books; Reports - Research; Tests/Questionnaires
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: High/Scope Educational Research Foundation, Ypsilanti, MI.
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Author Affiliations: N/A