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The Relationship Between TeacherBeliefs and Practices, and Head StartClassroom QualityFrances McCarty , Martha Abbott-Shim & Richard LambertPublished online: 08 Jun 2010.

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225Early Education & Development

Volume 12, Number 2, April 2001

The Relationship Between Teacher Beliefs and Practices,and Head Start Classroom Quality

Frances McCarty

Emory University

Martha Abbott-Shim

Georgia State University

Richard Lambert

University of North Carolina at Charlotte

Correspondence regarding this paper can be sent to: Frances A. McCarty, Rollins School of Public Health,Emory University, 1518 Clifton Road, Atlanta, GA 30322 (Phone: (404) 727-2447; Fax: (404) 727-1369;E-Mail: fmccart@sph.emory.edu).

Funding for this effort was provided by the Agency for Children, Youth, and Families, U.S. Department ofHealth and Human Services, through a grant (Award No. 90YD001605) entitled Research Center on HeadStart Quality.

Within early childhood research considerable emphasis has been placed onexamining teachers’ beliefs about developmentally appropriate practices in theclassroom. The purpose of this study was to describe Head Start teacher beliefsand self-reported practices as they relate to classroom quality and examine thepotential differences in the beliefs of those teaching in high, average, and lowquality classrooms. Scores on two subscales, appropriate and inappropriate, forboth self-reported beliefs and practices were used as the dependent variables.Analysis of variance was used to examine differences between the self-reportedbeliefs and practices of teachers in classrooms of differing quality. The results forboth the appropriate beliefs and appropriate activities subscales were statisticallynonsignificant. However, the results for the two inappropriate subscales werestatistically significant. These results would seem to indicate that teachers in thelow quality group tended to respond more favorably to statements aboutinappropriate beliefs and practices than did those teachers in either the high oraverage quality classrooms. These findings provide important information aboutoffering professional development opportunities for Head Start teachers that focuson providing theoretical perspectives on children’s development and instructionalpractices aimed at changing beliefs about teaching practices.

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The Relationship between Teacher Beliefs and Practices,

and Head Start Classroom Quality

An understanding of teachers’ beliefs as they affect classroom practice is an importantaspect of improving both teacher training and teacher practices (Pajares, 1992). Spodek(1988), a frequently cited reference with regard to teachers’ beliefs, suggests that there is aneed to understand the role of teachers’ implicit theories, those ideas about instruction thatdevelop from personal experience and practical knowledge. In a review of research onteachers’ beliefs and classroom practice, Isenberg (1990) suggests that broadening the viewof teaching to include thoughts and beliefs as well as behaviors may lead to a betterunderstanding of the variations in practice seen across individual teachers as well as theincongruity seen when teachers do not consistently use recommended teaching behaviors.

Within early childhood research, considerable emphasis has been placed on examiningteachers’ beliefs about developmentally appropriate practices in the classroom. The NationalAssociation for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) introduced the concept ofdevelopmentally appropriate classroom practice in 1987 (Bredekamp, 1987). Both beforeand after the introduction of this concept by NAEYC, researchers have focused onoperationalizing the meaning of developmentally appropriate practices through classroomobservations (Bredekamp, 1986; Abbott-Shim & Sibley, 1987; Harms & Clifford, 1980;Hyson, Hirsh-Pasek & Rescorla, 1990).

Other researchers have focused on the assessment of teachers’ beliefs regardingdevelopmentally appropriate practices in early education settings. Research in this area hasfocused on how teacher beliefs relate to teacher training, program characteristics, administratorbeliefs, and child outcomes. With respect to training, Snider and Fu (1990) found that, fora sample of preschool teachers working in state licensed child care centers, knowledge ofappropriate practice was dependent on academic training in child development/earlychildhood education and supervised practical experience. In a more recent study, the beliefsof elementary education majors regarding developmentally appropriate practices wereexamined. The findings from this study suggest that those student teachers who receivedelementary preparation along with early childhood preparation showed a higher level ofendorsement of appropriate practices than student teachers with elementary preparation only(Smith, 1997).

Numerous studies have focused on the relationship between teacher beliefs and programcharacteristics. Generally, the results of these studies have found evidence to support theidea that teachers who endorse more developmentally appropriate beliefs tend to createmore developmentally appropriate classroom environments (Hyson, Hirsh-Pasek & Rescorla,1990; Charlesworth, Hart, Burts & Hernandez, 1991; Bryant, Clifford & Peisner, 1991;Stipek, Daniels, Galluzo & Milburn, 1992; Charlesworth, Hart, Burts, Mosley, & Fleege,1993; Bryant, Lau, Burchinal, & Sparling, 1994). However, research addressing therelationship between teacher beliefs and overall classroom quality has been more limited.Bryant, Clifford, & Peisner (1991) found that the beliefs about developmentally appropriatepractices of kindergarten teachers and the principals accounted for 18% of the variance inthe total classroom quality score on the Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale (Harms

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& Clifford, 1980). Hyson, Hirsh-Pasek, & Rescorla (1990) found a relationship betweenpreschool teachers education attitudes and the Classroom Practices Inventory quality score.

A few studies have examined the beliefs of both early childhood teachers andadministrators. Rusher, McGrevin, & Lambiotte (1992) found that kindergarten teacherstended to strongly agree with child-centered practices and disagree with a strong emphasison academics. Generally, principals held similar beliefs with the similarity being strongerbetween female principals and teachers. Additionally, teachers viewed their district as beingmore favorable toward academics and less favorable toward child-centered education. In anethnographic study looking at kindergarten philosophies and practices from multipleperspectives, Hatch and Freeman (1988) found that kindergarten programs had a moreacademic orientation and that individuals responsible for program implementation frequentlyexperienced conflicts, in that the reality of day-to-day activities was in direct conflict withprofessed beliefs about what young children need in a school environment.

Finally, the relationship between teacher beliefs and child outcomes has also beenexamined by several researchers. In a 1992 study investigating the effect of classroom typeon the stress behaviors of kindergarten children, a measure designed to assess teachers’self-reported beliefs and practices was used to classify a group of classrooms into two groups,developmentally appropriate and developmentally inappropriate. This classification wasverified by comparing teacher responses to the results of independent observations. Generally,the results of this study indicated that overall stress was less for children in developmentallyappropriate classrooms when compared to children in developmentally inappropriateclassrooms (Burts, Hart, Charlesworth, Fleege, Mosley, & Thomasson, 1992). In a similarstudy, it was found that first graders from more developmentally appropriate kindergartenclassrooms had higher reading test scores than children from less appropriate classrooms(Burts, Hart, Charlesworth, DeWolf, Ray, Mannal & Fleege, 1993). Also related to childoutcomes is a 1989 study by Wing which examined the influence of preschool teachers’beliefs on children’s conception of reading and writing. Based on interviews with two programdirectors and children from their programs, it was found that the children’s conceptions ofreading and writing reflected the instructional beliefs of the program in which they wereenrolled. The author suggests that teachers’ beliefs and instructional decisions may influencechildren’s orientation toward reading and writing, which may in turn influence how childrenapproach instructional experiences.

A vast majority of the above cited research has focused on the beliefs and practices ofkindergarten teachers with little focus on the beliefs and practices of teachers who servepreschool age children. With the increased availability and accessibility of preschoolprograms, such as state sponsored Pre-K programs and federally funded Head Start programs,it seems that an examination of the beliefs and practices of teachers in these programswould provide important insights aimed at increasing the quality of the experiences offeredin these programs. Therefore, the purpose of the present study is to describe Head Startteacher beliefs and self-reported practices as they relate to classroom quality, and to examinethe potential differences in the beliefs and self-reported practices of those teaching in high,average, and low quality classrooms. A secondary purpose is to explore the relationshipbetween self-reported beliefs and self-reported practices.

Teacher Beliefs and Practices, and Head Start Classroom Quality

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Method

Participants

The Georgia State University Research Center on Head Start Quality is working inpartnership with three Head Start programs in the southeast to address the influences onquality and the impact of quality on children and families. During the fall of 1996, classroomobservations were made in 190 classrooms, and a survey packet was distributed to eachteacher. These 190 classrooms represent all of the Head Start classrooms in the threeparticipating sites. Demographic information, including years of Head Start teachingexperience, highest level of formal education completed, and possession of the ChildDevelopment Associate (CDA) credential, was collected. A majority (56%) of the teachersreported having five or fewer years of Head Start teaching experience. Approximately 18%reported having between 5.5 and 10 years of Head Start teaching experience; 11% reportedhaving between 11 and 20 years of experience; and 7% reported having between 21 and 27years of experience. There was a small number of teachers who did not respond to thisquestion, accounting for 8% of the total number of teachers. The majority (63%) of teachersreported having attended either technical school or some college. Approximately 22% ofthe teachers reported having a college degree or higher. Those reporting either a high schooldiploma or a GED as their highest level of education accounted for approximately 13% ofthe total. Three individuals did not respond to this question accounting for approximately2% of the total. Seventy-three percent of the teachers reported having received the CDAcredential. In addition, approximately 10% reported being currently enrolled in CDA training;15% reported not having the CDA credential as well as not being currently enrolled; andapproximately 2% did not respond to the item.

Measures

The Assessment Profile for Early Childhood Programs: Research Version (AssessmentProfile) (Abbott-Shim & Sibley, 1992) was used to observe and quantify the quality ofclassroom teaching practices. The instrument is an observation checklist with dichotomousitems and includes five subscales: Learning Environment, Scheduling, Curriculum,Interacting, and Individualizing. The instrument was developed using item response theory(IRT). Therefore, the scale score estimates are transformations of ability scores associatedwith the use of an IRT model. Both content and criterion related validity have beendemonstrated for this instrument. Content validity was documented through a review of theinstrument by a wide range of early childhood professionals and a cross reference of theitems with the Accreditation Criteria of the National Association for the Education of YoungChildren (NAEYC, 1984). Concurrent validity was established by examining the relationshipof the Assessment Profile to the Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale (Harms &Clifford, 1980). Two studies have found significant correlations between the two instrumentswith correlations of r = .64, p < .01 (Wilkes, 1989) and r = .74, p < .01 (Abbott-Shim, 1991).The reliability of the five scales has been demonstrated with KR-20 and Spearman-Browncorrected split-half reliability coefficients ranging from .79 to .98 and .81 to .98, respectively.The IRT based reliability coefficients for the five scales range from .83 to .91.

The Teacher Beliefs Scale (Burts, 1991a) is a survey asking teachers to rate the degreeto which they believe statements related to curriculum goals, teaching strategies, guidance

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of socioemotional development, language and literacy development, cognitive development,physical development, aesthetic development, motivation and assessment are important.This scale consists of six subscales with the reliability (Cronbach’s alpha) of these subscalesranging from .58 to .84 (Charlesworth, et al., 1993). The subscales of this instrument include:Inappropriate Activities and Materials (10 items), Inappropriate Structure (2 items),Appropriate Social (4 items), Appropriate Individualization (3 items), Appropriate LiteracyActivities (2 items), and Appropriate Integrated Curriculum Beliefs (4 items). A companionsurvey, the Instructional Activities Scale (Burts, 1991b) describes classroom activities, andteachers are asked to indicate the frequency of implementation for each activity in his/herclassroom. This survey consists of eight subscales with the reliabilities (Cronbach’s alpha)of these subscales ranging from .56 to .79 (Charlesworth, et al., 1993). This scale consistsof the following subscales: Inappropriate Literacy Activities (five items), InappropriateLearning (three items), Inappropriate Management and Guidance Techniques (three items),Inappropriate Transitional Activities (two items), Appropriate Activities (five items),Appropriate Creative Exploratory Learning (five items), Appropriate Integrated CurriculumPractices (four items), and Appropriate Planned Multi-Cultural and Outdoor Activities (twoitems). Both of these instruments were developed based on the NAEYC position paper ondevelopmentally appropriate practice for four- and five-year-olds (Charlesworth, et al., 1991).

Procedures

As stated previously, data were collected in the fall of 1996. The quality of classroomteaching practices was collected by observing for 15 minute cycles across the morning ineach classroom for a total of one hour per classroom using the Assessment Profile for EarlyChildhood Programs: Research Version (Abbott-Shim & Sibley, 1992). The classroomquality assessments were completed by trained observers who had passed both an initialreliability check following training and a second reliability check after completingapproximately half of the observations. All raters achieved at least 90% agreement. Itemresponse theory (IRT) based scores were then obtained for each of the five scales. Theteachers completed a packet that consisted of a demographic information sheet, the TeacherBeliefs Scale (Burts, 1991a) and the Instructional Activities Scale (Burts, 1991b). Both theclassroom observations and the teacher information were obtained within the same two-month period. Ultimately, a small number of both classrooms and teachers were excludedfrom the final analyses because of missing data. Missing data were primarily representativeof the situation where the original teacher for a particular classroom was no longer presentand, therefore, did not complete the packet, resulting in a total sample of 181 teachers anda response rate for the completion of the teacher packet of 95%.

In order to address the primary purpose of this study, classrooms were first classified aseither high, average, or low quality based on a composite score obtained by averaging thefive scales of the Assessment Profile (Abbott-Shim & Sibley, 1992). The cut scores used toclassify the classrooms were obtained by creating a 95% confidence interval around thegroup mean composite score which was obtained by averaging across the five group meanscale scores. The standard deviation and the reliability of the composite score was calculatedusing the inter scale variance-covariance matrix. In turn, the standard error of measurementfor the composite score was calculated using the above mentioned standard deviation andreliability estimates. The upper limit of the confidence interval was used to define high

Teacher Beliefs and Practices, and Head Start Classroom Quality

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quality classrooms, and the lower limit was used to define low quality classrooms. Use ofthis method to establish the cut scores necessary to form the quality groups allows us to be95 % confident that the high and low quality groups are clearly distinct groups. Thoseclassrooms having total scores falling within the bounds of the upper and lower limits wereclassified as being of average quality.

As stated previously, both the Teacher Beliefs Scale (Burts, 1991a) and the InstructionalActivities Scales (Burts, 1991b) are made up of subscales. Several of the subscales consistof four or fewer items and tend to have at best moderate reliabilities. In an effort to beparsimonious and address the reliability issue, four measures of appropriate and inappropriatebeliefs and practices were created by averaging across the appropriate items and inappropriateitems for the respective instruments. During the initial development of these two instruments,the researchers formed similar scores for use in their analyses (Charlesworth, et al., 1991).In this study, the following scores served as the dependent variables: Appropriate Beliefs,Inappropriate Beliefs, Appropriate Activities, and Inappropriate Activities. A sample ofitems from each of the above scales can be found in Table 1. Items are scored such that ahigher score on the Appropriate scales and a lower score on the Inappropriate scales wouldbe indicative of more developmentally appropriate beliefs and/or practices. Reliabilitycoefficients (Cronbach’s alpha) for all subscales including the four above were computedand are reported in the results section.

Descriptive statistics and ANOVA were used to address the first question pertaining todifferences in the self-reported beliefs and practices of Head Start teachers whose classroomsare of differing quality. Analysis of variance was chosen because of the interest in examiningeach scale separately. Use of a multivariate approach would address a different questionrelated to whether or not the groups differed on a linear combination of the scales. Becausefour different hypotheses were tested, a Bonferroni adjustment was made and significancewas tested with a more conservative alpha (.0125). The second question concerning therelationship between self-reported beliefs and practices was addressed via correlationalanalysis. In addition, a Chi-square analysis and ANOVA were used to examine the equivalenceof the three groups with respect to three relevant demographic variables.

Results

The means and standard deviations for the total sample along with reliability coefficientsfor the Teacher Beliefs Scale (Burts,1991a) and the Instructional Activities Scale(Burts,1991b) can be found in Table 2. For the Teacher Beliefs Scale the reliability coefficientsfor the original subscales ranged from .56 for Inappropriate Structure to .74 for InappropriateActivities and Materials. The two new subscales used in the subsequent analyses, AppropriateBeliefs and Inappropriate Beliefs, had reliability coefficients equal to .79 and .76, respectively.The Instructional Activities subscales had considerably lower reliability coefficients rangingfrom .19 for Appropriate Planned Multi-cultural and Outdoor Activities to .71 forInappropriate Literacy Activities. Once again, the Appropriate Activities and InappropriateActivities subscales showed much greater reliability than the individual subscales withreliability coefficients of .69 and .74, respectively.

The demographic variables previously reported for the entire sample have been reportedin Table 3 for the three quality groups. The highest education level completed has beenreported using four categories: high school diploma or GED, some college or technicalschool, technical school diploma or certificate, and college degree (undergraduate or

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231Teacher Beliefs and Practices, and Head Start Classroom Quality

graduate). A nonsignificant Chi-Square test (p >.05) indicated that there was not a statisticallysignificant relationship between classroom quality and highest education level based on thecategorization mentioned above. In terms of those holding a CDA credential, a nonsignificantChi-Square test (p > .05) suggested that the percentage of individuals in each group holdinga CDA was not statistically different. However, it should be noted that a smaller percentageof the teachers in the low quality group reported having received the CDA credential whencompared to the other two groups. The final demographic variable reported for the threequality groups is years of Head Start teaching experience. The results of a one-way analysisof variance suggested that there was a difference in the average years of Head Start teachingexperience for the three quality groups (F =6.47, p =.002). Further post hoc analysisemploying Tukey’s procedure indicated that teachers in both the high and average qualitygroups had fewer years of Head Start teaching experience than did those in the low qualitygroup. It is important to note that there is considerably more variability in the low qualitygroup when compared to the other two groups. However, the minimum and maximum valuesfor the three groups are relatively similar.

Table 1.

Sample Items from the Appropriate Beliefs, Inappropriate Beliefs,

Appropriate Activities, and Inappropriate Activities Scales

APPROPRIATE BELIEFS

Indicate personal beliefs about theimportance of items using 1 (not at all)to 5 (extremely)

Sample Items

1. It is ____ for children in head Start classroomsto learn through active exploration.

2. It is ____ to provide many opportunities todevelop social skills with peers in the class-room.

3. In the classroom, it is ____ for the child to beexposed to Multicultural and non-sexistactivities.

1. It is ___ that each curriculum area be taught asseparate subjects at separate times.

2. It is ___ for students to work silently and aloneon seatwork.

3. It is ___ for children to be instructed inrecognizing the single letters of the alphabetisolated from words.

1. Children selecting centers(Home, books, math, science, writing, etc.)

2. Playing with games and puzzles

3. Creative movement

1. Coloring and/or cutting pre-drawn forms

2. Rote counting

3. Waiting for longer than 5 minutes betweenactivities

Scale

INAPPROPRIATE BELIEFS

Indicate personal beliefs about theimportance of items using 1 (not at all)to 5 (extremely)

APPROPRIATE ACTIVITIES

Indicate how often your childrenparticipate in the following activities using1 (almost never) to 5 (very often)

INAPPROPRIATE ACTIVITIES

Indicate how often your childrenparticipate in the following activities using1 (almost never) to 5 (very often)

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232 McCarty, Abbott-Shim, & Lambert

Table 2.

Means, Standard Deviations, and Reliability Coefficients for the

Teacher Beliefs Scale and the Instructional Activities Scale (n = 181)

TEACHER BELIEFS

Inappropriate activites & materials

Inappropriate structure

Total Inappropriate

Appropriate social

Appropriate individualization

Appropriate integrated curriculum beliefs

Appropriate literacy activities

Total Appropriate

INSTRUCTIONAL ACTIVITIES

Inappropriate literacy activities

Inappropriate learning

Inappropriate management & guidancetechniques

Inappropriate transitional activities

Total Inappropriate

Appropriate activities

Appropriate creative exploratory learning

Appropriate integrated curriculum practices

Appropriate planned multi-culturaland outdoor activities

Total Appropriate

MeanInstrument w/ Subscales SD Chronbach's alpha

1.85

2.19

1.90

4.39

4.69

4.61

4.27

4.51

1.36

2.72

1.52

1.19

1.68

4.89

4.49

4.68

4.53

4.67

.52

1.11

.55

.56

.45

.42

.88

.39

.60

.93

.74

.44

.51

.22

.49

.40

.55

.28

.74

.56

.76

.69

.68

.59

.68

.79

.71

.30

.57

.53

.74

.53

.58

.38

.19

.69

A one-way analysis of variance was used to examine differences between the beliefsand practices of teachers in classrooms of differing quality. As stated previously, the groupingvariable was quality (low, average, high) and the dependent variables were AppropriateBeliefs, Inappropriate Beliefs, Appropriate Activities, and Inappropriate Activities. Becausefour different hypotheses were being tested, a Bonferroni adjustment was made andsignificance was tested with a more conservative alpha (.0125). The ANOVA results forboth the Appropriate Beliefs and the Appropriate Activities subscales were statisticallynonsignificant. However, the results for both Inappropriate subscales were statisticallysignificant. The ANOVA results along with group means, standard deviations, and 95%confidence intervals can be found in Table 4. These significant results were followed upusing the Scheffe test which indicated that for both Inappropriate Beliefs and InappropriateActivities the low quality group was significantly different from both the high and averagegroups. In both cases the low quality group had higher scores indicating that this group ofteachers tended to respond more favorably to statements about inappropriate beliefs andpractices than did those teachers in either the high or average quality classrooms.

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233Teacher Beliefs and Practices, and Head Start Classroom Quality

Table 3.

Education Level, CDA Credential and Years of Head Start Teaching

Experience by Quality Group

HIGHEST LEVEL OF EDUCATION(% in each category by group)

High School Diploma/GED

Some Technical School or College

Technical School Certificate or Diploma

College Degree (undergraduate degree)

CDA CREDENTIAL(% holding credential by group)

YEARS OF HEAD START EXPERIENCE

N

Mean

SD

95% C.I.

Minimum–Maximum

HighDemographic Variable Average Low

10.9

57.8

7.8

23.4

36.1

61

5.5

4.5

4.3 - 6.7

1.0 - 22.0

Classroom Quality

12.7

59.2

5.6

22.5

39.8

64

6.5

5.2

5.2 - 7.8

.5 - 25.0

15.9

47.7

18.2

18.2

24.1

43

9.9

9.1

7.1 - 12.7

1.0 - 27.0

Appropriate Beliefs

Inappropriate Beliefs

Appropriate Activities

Inappropriate Activities

FSubscale p Group

Table 4.

Group Means, Standard Deviations, 95% Confidence Intervals, and ANOVAResults for the Appropriate and Inappropriate Subscales of the Teacher Beliefs

Scale and the Instructional Activities Scale

High (n =64), Average (n = 70), Low (n = 47)

Means SD 95% CI

.46

13.50

1.51

19.50

.63

.00

.22

.00

HighAverage

Low

HighAverage

Low

HighAverage

Low

HighAverage

Low

4.544.504.47

1.731.852.23

4.654.714.63

1.501.622.04

.41

.38

.40

.37

.44

.74

.30

.24

.30

.31

.47

.60

4.44 - 4.644.41 - 4.594.35 - 4.59

1.64 - 1.821.74 - 1.952.01 - 2.45

4.57 -4.724.66 - 4.774.54 - 4.72

1.43 - 1.581.51 - 1.731.86 - 2.22

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Additionally, in interpreting the analyses for the Inappropriate subscales, it is importantto note that there may be a problem in terms of meeting the assumption of homogeneity ofvariances. The results of the Levene test for homogeneity of variances indicated that thevariances for the three groups were not equal in this sample. However, if group sizes areapproximately equal (largest/smallest < 1.5), then the F statistic is robust to unequal variances(Stevens, 1990). According to the previously stated criteria, the group sizes in this studymay be considered to be approximately equal (70/47 = 1.49). Stevens (1990) further suggeststhat there is only need for concern when both the group sizes are sharply unequal and astatistical test shows that the variances are unequal. However, given that the equal groupsize criteria is barely met, it should be noted that the largest variance is associated with thesmallest group size, suggesting that the F statistic may be somewhat liberal.

In order to provide more information regarding group differences, Hedges’ and Olkin’s(1985) unbiased effect size was computed for the high-low and average-low comparisonsfor inappropriate beliefs and inappropriate activities. The computation of this effect sizeinvolves dividing the difference between two means by a pooled (group 1 and group 2)standard deviation and then multiplying by a correction factor to arrive at an unbiased estimateof the effect size. It should be noted that when N is large, the effect of the correction factoris negligible. A measure of effect size is a standardized or scale free indication of the meandifference and is commonly used to represent the magnitude of an effect and to compareeffects across outcome measures. According to Cohen (1988), an effect size of at least .8represents a large effect, and an effect size of at least .5 represents a medium effect. Forinappropriate beliefs, an effect size of .89 was obtained for the high-low comparison and aneffect size of .65 was obtained for the average-low comparison. For inappropriate activities,an effect size of 1.18 was obtained for the high-low comparison and an effect size of .79 wasobtained for the average-low comparison.

The correlations between self-reported beliefs and practices for both the Appropriateand Inappropriate subscales can be found in Table 5. The correlations among the foursubscales were low to moderate with all but one being statistically significant at p <.01. Inaddition, all correlations were in the expected direction with Inappropriate and Appropriatesubscales being negatively correlated, while the appropriate beliefs and activities subscalesand the inappropriate beliefs and activities subscales were positively correlated.

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Appropriate Appropriate Inappropriate Beliefs Activities Beliefs

Appropriate Beliefs –

Appropriate Activities .44** –

Inappropriate Beliefs -.19* -.23* –

Inappropriate Activities -.12 -.21* .57**

** p < .001; * p < .01

Table 5.

Pearson Correlations for the Appropriate and Inappropriate Subscales for the

Teacher Beliefs Scale and the Instructional Activities Scale (n = 181)

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235Teacher Beliefs and Practices, and Head Start Classroom Quality

Discussion

This study provides a description of the self-reported beliefs and practices of HeadStart teachers in high, average, and low quality classrooms. In looking at the results it seemsimportant to note that there were no differences between the three quality groups for eitherAppropriate Beliefs or Appropriate Activities subscales. One explanation for this findingmay be that, in general, it is easier to agree with statements that are indicative of “appropriate”beliefs or activities. In other words, it may be easier for teachers to definitively identify bothappropriate beliefs and activities. Given that appropriate practices have been well describedand that recognition of these practices is somewhat intuitive, it may not be surprising thatteachers in classrooms of differing quality did not differ in terms of their endorsement ofappropriate beliefs and practices. At the same time, the significant findings related toInappropriate Beliefs and Inappropriate Activities seem to indicate that those classrooms inthe low quality group were taught by teachers who tended to give more favorable ratings to“inappropriate” beliefs or activities. This may indicate that, while teachers in these classroomscan identify appropriate practices, they cannot discriminate them well from inappropriatepractices which may contribute to a lower quality learning environment.

The demographic characteristics of the three quality groups may also contribute to theunderstanding and interpretation of the results. First, it is important to note that the educationlevel across the three groups takes on a similar pattern, with approximately 65% in eachgroup indicating that they have received some instruction beyond high school but not acollege degree. The percentages for the other two categories, high school diploma/GEDand college degree, are similar for the three groups with the high and average quality groupshaving a slight educational edge over the low quality group. While the chi-square analysison the CDA variable did not indicate a statistically significant difference among the groups,with respect to the percentage holding the CDA credential, it is useful to note that about 14% more of the teachers in the high and average quality groups reported holding a CDAcredential when compared to teachers in the low quality group. As reported previously,there was a statistically significant difference between the three groups for years of HeadStart teaching experience. This is a particularly interesting finding in that teachers in thehigh and average quality groups had fewer years of Head Start teaching experience whencompared to the teachers in the low quality group. Again, this finding needs to be consideredin light of the differences in variability among the three groups.

This demographic information may provide further insight into the differences foundbetween the groups in terms of self-reported beliefs and practices. If education level andCDA credential are considered simultaneously, it is worthwhile to note that the teachers inthe high and average quality classrooms tend to have more training than those in the lowquality classrooms. This difference in overall training may have some impact on a teacher’sability to distinguish between appropriate and inappropriate practices. The finding regardingyears of Head Start teaching experience taken with the findings about inappropriate beliefsand practices may suggest that teachers who have been teaching for a longer period of timemay hold on to more traditional views, with those views impacting their classroom practices.

These results also need to be considered in terms of their practical significance. Indoing this, it is important to note that the ratings have been placed on a 1 to 5 continuum forboth the Teacher Beliefs Scale (Burts,1991a) and the Instructional Activities Scale

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236 McCarty, Abbott-Shim, & Lambert

(Burts,1991b). In both cases, one would like to see low scores (at or approaching 1) on theInappropriate subscales and high scores on the Appropriate scales (at or approaching 5).While the difference between the highest and lowest mean on the Inappropriate subscales isapproximately .5 points, in general, all three groups seem to be giving fairly low ratings toinappropriate beliefs and activities. However, an examination of the effect sizes wouldindicate that the magnitude of the difference between the mean ratings of the teachers inhigh quality classrooms and low quality classrooms is quite large. The magnitude of thedifference between the mean ratings for teachers in average quality classrooms and lowquality classrooms is less, but would still be considered a moderate effect.

In addition to looking at mean differences, it seems important to address the issue ofunequal group variances for the two Inappropriate subscales. In general, there seems to bemuch more variability in the low quality group than in either the high or average qualitygroups. At least for this sample, the teachers in the high and average quality groups seem tobe more homogeneous in terms of their beliefs and practices than do the teachers in the lowquality group. In other words, teachers in the high and average quality groups tended toshow more agreement regarding identification of inappropriate beliefs and practices thandid teachers in the low quality group.

The findings of the correlational analysis are similar to those reported in Charlesworth,et al. (1991) and Charlesworth, et al. (1993) where moderate correlations were found betweenappropriate beliefs and practices as well as between inappropriate beliefs and practices. Inaddition, this study provides reliability information based on the responses of a sample ofHead Start teachers. From a measurement perspective, more reliable measures may beobtained by using total Appropriate and Inappropriate scores.

These findings provide an important description and analysis of self-reported beliefsand practices of a relatively large sample of Head Start teachers. This study would seem tosuggest that there is a relationship between self-reported beliefs and self-reported practices,as well as the classroom teaching practices observed by an independent observer. Thisfinding supports previous research that has found a similar relationship between self-reportedbeliefs and practices and measures of classroom quality. Further, these findings haveimplications with regards to the professional development opportunities for Head Startteachers. As teachers advance their formal education, the courses in associate and teacherdegree programs should provide theoretical perspectives on children’s development andinstructional practices aimed at influencing a teacher’s beliefs regarding developmentallyappropriate practices. These findings also imply that it is important for Head Start programadministrators to evaluate the effectiveness of training and classroom supervision with respectto the extent to which it leads teachers to changes in their beliefs, which in turn may bereflected in the overall quality of the classroom environment created by an individual teacher.

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