Date of Conferral

4-15-2024

Date of Award

April 2024

Degree

Ph.D.

School

Education

Advisor

James Bailey

Abstract

The Early Childhood Commission (ECC) is an agency of the Ministry of Education and Youth in Jamaica responsible for early childhood development. It has been proposed that Early Childhood Practitioners (ECPs) should engage in more child friendly and age-appropriate teaching practices. This is especially critical as they use the Jamaica Early Childhood Curriculum (JECC). This basic qualitative research was conducted to explore ECPs’ beliefs regarding children’s development and learning and the influence on the implementation of the JECC. The research questions that guided the study address the beliefs of Jamaican ECPs regarding children’s development and learning and the influence of their beliefs on the implementation of the JECC. The conceptual framework based on Pajares’s teacher belief theory postulates beliefs as an unobservable construct. Data were collected using semistructured interviews from nine practitioners with a minimum of a Bachelor of Education degree employed full time at an early childhood institution and using the JECC. After transcription the data were analyzed manually to identify emerging codes and the information arranged according to wording similarities. The first set of codes were identified using focused coding and then further categorized based on the most frequent themes and concepts emerging. The study’s results confirm that ECPs’ beliefs however formed, influence their practice within the learning environment. The findings also revealed that, ECPs believed that their beliefs are in alignment with the curriculum. The adoption of the findings will influence the ECC in implementing strategies to engage ECPs in adequately implementing the curriculum while ensuring developmentally appropriate practices in the learning environment.

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