TITLE:
Empirical Study of Parents’ Perceptions of Preschool Teaching Competencies in China
AUTHORS:
Zhuo Cui, Martin Valcke, Ruben Vanderlinde
KEYWORDS:
Kindergarten Teacher, Parents, Preschool Education, Standards
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Social Sciences,
Vol.4 No.2,
February
23,
2016
ABSTRACT:
Parents play an important role
in children’s education. Parents’ expectations and evaluation of kindergarten
teachers could foster the collaboration between kindergarten teachers and
parents. However, parents’ voice has largely been ignored in empirical
research. The purpose of the present study is to reveal 3 - 6 years old children’s
parents’ perceptions about 1) the importance of new kindergarten teacher
standards and 2) their perceptions about kindergarten teachers’ mastery of
these standards. In this study, considering China’s new Kindergarten Teacher
Professional Standards (2012) has been defined and implemented recently. China
is used as a case based on a survey of 423 parents. The results show that
“respect” and “love” to children are the most important competencies. Parents
speak highly of teachers’ mastery levels. Both parental expectations to their
children and family involvements are significant impact factors to parents’
cognition and assessment of kindergarten teachers’ competencies.