Explanation of Learning-Teaching Approaches and Suitable evaluation for Professional Development Curricula of Preschool Teachers

Abstract

This research was conducted with the aim of explanation of learning approaches and suitable evaluation for professional development curricula of pre-school teachers. This research was both quantitative and qualitative approach, the qualitative approach, content analysis and in quantitative approach, descriptive method were used. Statistical society includes members of scientific board of universities, Ph.D. students, and mentors of psychology, curriculum and preschool teachers. Sampling method in the qualitative section was targeted and networking and in order to select teachers random classification method was used. Data was collected by the semi-structured interview and a researcher made questionnaire. To estimate validity of the interview and questionnaire, the content validity, and to estimate reliability of the questionnaire, the Cronbach's alpha coefficient was used. Qualitative findings were categorized based on content analysis and qualitative findings were analyzed by the inferential and descriptive statistics. Friedman’s test results showed that according to viewpoint of teachers on learning -teaching approaches of professional development, using creative teaching method is more important and performing simulated methods have the lowest importance. To evaluate capabilities of teachers, functional tests in terms of importance are very important and combination of 4-items and descriptive questions has the lowest importance.

Keywords

• preschool
• teachers’ professional development
• Curriculum
• learning-teaching approaches
• Evaluation