Early childhood teachers' self-reported beliefs and practices about play

This study examined early childhood teachers' self-reported beliefs and practices about play. Three instruments were administered to 98 preschool teachers (58 in Study I and 40 in Study II) and 60 parents: The Preschool Teacher's Beliefs and Practices about Play, The Modified Classroom Practices Inventory (CPI), and The Pre-K Survey of Beliefs and Practices. Study I was a pilot study in which test administration procedures and test construction of The Preschool Teachers' Beliefs and Practices about Play were adjusted. In Study II, The Preschool Teachers' Beliefs and Practices about Play was found to be reliable (internal consistency of the subscales ranged from . 72 to .95) and valid ( concurrent validity with Pre-K Survey of Beliefs and Practices, r = .87). Scores on the CPI were not correlated with the other instruments. Teachers' beliefs and practices about play were highly correlated; parents' beliefs about DAP were not significantly different from teachers' beliefs about DAP. Interestingly, teachers' beliefs about constructive play were significantly more teacher-directed than their beliefs about manipulative and pretend play; but there were no significant differences in their practices in the three categories of play. Teachers did not appear to value play as a way to promote the development of children's thinking skills. These findings were congruent with responses to specific questions on the CPI where both parents and teachers indicated a belief in "inappropriate practices" ( e.g., the need for planned activities in specific academic content areas). The findings were discussed with regard to best practices in the field of early childhood education about how to balance teacher-directed and non-directed approaches to play-based preschool curricula.