THE EFFECT OF EDUCATION ON CHILD-CARE TEACHERS BELIEFS AND CLASSROOM QUALITY - YEAR ONE EVALUATION OF THE TEACH EARLY-CHILDHOOD ASSOCIATE DEGREE SCHOLARSHIP PROGRAM

This study examined the effect of community college coursework on the beliefs and on the classroom practices of teachers in child care cente rs. Thirty-four teachers participated; 19 were teachers who had receiv ed scholarships to attend community college programs in child developm ent and in early childhood education, and 15 were comparison teachers. At the time of pretesting, all participants had high school diplomas and some inservice training. At posttest, the scholarship teachers had completed at feast 12-20 credit hr of community college coursework. R esults revealed that the classrooms of the program participants had ma de significant gains on the Early Childhood Environment Rating Scales (ECERS) or the Infant-Toddler Environment Rating Scales (ITERS) and th e Teacher Belief Scale between the pre-and posttest and were also more developmentally appropriate, as measured by the ECERS or the ITERS, t han the comparison teachers at the time of posttest. The findings are discussed in relation to professional development in the early childho od field.