Taiwan's Early Childhood Preservice Teachers' Professional Beliefs

The study examined, through six open-ended questions, the patterns of 298 Taiwanese early childhood preservice teachers' professional beliefs about teaching and learning. Content analysis and the grounded theory method were the predominant modes of data analysis. The data suggest that preservice teachers' beliefs can be categorized and organized systematically to construct useful patterns of interrelationships among belief components, such as teachers' roles, images of classroom practice, ways children learn, the reasons for schooling, children's needs, and student-teacher relationships.