Perceptions of Early Childhood Preservice Teachers on Early Childhood Education Undergraduate Program Courses

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to find out the contribution of general culture (GC), pedagogical knowledge (PK), and content knowledge (CK) courses to the professional development of preservice teachers in early childhood education programs. As a part of a mix-method research study, this survey uses a rank-order judgment methodology. Using a two-stage-cluster and random sampling - 432 students from 35 universities participated in the study during the 2018-2019 academic year. Data were gathered using an “Early Childhood Education Undergraduate Program Course Evaluation Form” and analyzed using pairwise comparison. With reference to the results, “Effective Communication” was chosen as the most beneficial one among the GC courses, and “Statistics” was selected as the least beneficial course. In addition, among the PK courses, “Teaching Practice I” was the most beneficial one, and “Assessment and Evaluation” was the least helpful course related to student perceptions. While the “Introduction to Early Childhood Education” course was the most beneficial course among the CK, “Research Project II” was listed as the least beneficial course. It was found that students’ opinions about courses did not change concerning their gender, academic achievement, and the type of high school they had attended.