Two aspects of preschool teaching, teacher role and teacher style, are discussed in this paper. Teacher role refers to a teacher's behavior concerning the duties, responsibilities, and functions expected of the teacher by her clients and herself. Teacher style refers to the way in which individual teachers perform their roles. Teachers have had…

Discusses maternal, therapeutic and instructional teacher role models and effects of teaching styles on preschool children. Suggests need for preschool educators to be more sensitive to parents' goals, which may be more instructional and control oriented than the teacher's. (NH)

The purpose of this essay is to present some principles, assumptions, and techniques that might be useful for inservice teacher educators or prospective teachers. Teacher educators should try first of all to focus on teachers' understandings of situations in order to help make those understandings more appropriate, more accurate, deeper, and more…

To compare the effectiveness of the traditional and the experimental approaches to Head Start classrooms, 68 children and six teachers in San Francisco participated in an educational experiment. The traditional approach emphasizes the children's internal motivation resulting from spontaneous free play and warm, accepting teachers, while the…

This paper questions the widely held assumption that acquiring knowledge of child development is an essential part of teacher preparation and teaching competence, especially among teachers of young children. After discussing the influence of culture, parenting style, and teaching style on developmental expectations and outcomes, the paper asserts…

Explores some widely held assumptions concerning the role of child development knowledge in teaching young children. Issues explored include What does the term "development" mean? What child development knowledge should be learned? Can we agree on a body of child development knowledge and principles? Why has the role of child development knowledge…