Helping teachers move toward more developmentally appropriate practice in classrooms for young children is a major goal of the early childhood educational profession. However, little is known about factors likely to result in more developmentally appropriate practice (DAP). This study examined the relationship between preschool teachers' engagement in developmentally appropriate practice and teachers' education/academic background, content of their early childhood teacher training, supervised practical experiences, years of employment in child care/education, and perceptions of reflective practices and the most predictive combination of the above variables in meeting NAEYC standards. The sample consisted of 64 teachers of 3-, 4-, and 5-year-olds from 20 licensed child care centers in western New York. The data included teacher scores on the Teacher Information Report and Reflective Teaching Instrument and the scores of teachers' classroom practices as measured by the NAEYC Classroom Observation Scale. Correlation of all identified variables listed above with the dependent variable of DAP were tested using the Pearson-Product moment correlation coefficient. Forward multiple regression procedures were used to determine which of the variables and which combination of those identified predictors contributed most extensively to DAP scores. Findings indicated that teachers' use of reflection, amount of supervised experiences, and content of early childhood teacher training were significantly related to DAP ratings. Among the three predictor variables, teachers' use of reflective teaching was the strongest predictor of DAP. The combination of teachers' use of reflection with the amount of supervised experience maximized the prediction of greater DAP. (Contains 28 references.) (Author/KB)