Content uploaded by Dawit Negassa
Author content
All content in this area was uploaded by Dawit Negassa on Feb 08, 2022
Content may be subject to copyright.
East African Scholars Journal of Psychology and Behavioural Sciences
Abbreviated Key Title:EAS J PsycholBehavSci
ISSN 2663-1865 (Print) | ISSN 2663-6751 (Online)
Published By East African Scholars Publisher, Kenya
Volume-3 | Issue-6 | Nov-Dec-2021 | DOI:10.36349/easjpbs.2021.v03i06.003
*Corresponding Author: Tesema Regassa 103
Original Research Article
Beliefs and Practices of Teachers about Developmental Appropriateness
of Early Childhood Care and Education Provisions in Selected Centers at
Adama Administrative Town
Tesema Regassa1*, Belay Tefera2, Dawit Negassa3, Firdissa Jebessa4
1Department of Special Needs and Inclusive Education, Haramaya University, Ethiopia
2PhD, Professor, School of Psychology, Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia
3PhD, Associate Professor, Department of Special Needs and Inclusive Education, Haramaya University, Ethiopia
4PhD, Associate Professor, Institute of Educational Research, Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia
Article History
Received: 17.10.2021
Accepted: 22.11.2021
Published: 26.12.2021
Journal homepage:
https://www.easpublisher.com
Quick Response Code
Abstract: The purpose of this study was to explore teachers‟ experiences
concerning teachers‟ beliefs and practices about DAP in their instructional
activities in Early Childhood Education programs in Adama Town. Qualitative
multiple case study was employed to collect data using unstructured interviews,
observations, and document scrutiny. The participants of the study were nine
early childhood care and education (ECCE) teachers purposefully selected in
this study (three each from private, faith-based, and government centers).
Interview records and observation field notes were transcribed, coded,
categorized, and developed into themes within and across cases. The findings
are presented under three overarching themes that reveal teachers‟ beliefs about
and execution of DAP in the preschools including teachers‟ beliefs guide
practice; Teaching strategies; and reflected upon challenges to DAP. The study
revealed that teachers had a moderate belief toward DAP but their classroom
practices were developmentally inappropriate/ inconsistent with their beliefs.
The teachers‟ classroom practices were influenced by environmental factors
than their beliefs such as high academic expectation from parents, the constraint
of teaching materials, play equipment, budget, lack of suitable learning
environment, limited knowledge and pedagogical skills, and stakeholders‟
collaboration. Lastly, the implications of this study for the ECCE stakeholders
were suggested.
Keywords: DAP, ECCE, Teachers‟ beliefs and practice.
Copyright © 2021 The Author(s): This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
License (CC BY-NC 4.0) which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium for non-commercial use provided the original
author and source are credited.
INTRODUCTION
The research revealed that teachers adhering to
a developmentally appropriate philosophy of teaching
and learning focus on the overall development of the
child and meeting the individual needs of the children
in the group. Developmentally appropriate classrooms
allow for many opportunities for child choice-making,
problem-based learning, and critical thinking activities.
Play is highly valued as an opportunity for learning in
the developmentally appropriate classroom. Curriculum
content is integrated throughout classroom activities
and small group activities are favored over whole group
instruction (McMullen, 1997).
The National Association for the Education of
Young Children, the world‟s largest organization
working on behalf of young children (2008), provides a
framework for describing the beliefs and practices of
early childhood educators. This framework, known as
Developmentally Appropriate Practice (DAP), is a set
of guidelines that can be used to help teachers make
decisions about the best way to teach young children
(Copple & Bredekamp, 2006).
Teachers‟ beliefs play a central role in
teachers‟ decisions, judgments, and behaviors in their
teaching process, influencing various aspects of
teaching, including pedagogical decision making; what
approaches, techniques, and classroom activities are
adopted; and how learners should be chosen and
evaluated (Birello, 2012; Ertmer, 2005; Pajares, 1992).
Teachers‟ beliefs are considered the strongest predictor
of teaching behavior (Pajares, 1992). Previous studies
have focused on what teachers believe and what
teachers do in their classroom practice, and revealed
Tesema Regassa et al., EAS J PsycholBehavSci; Vol-3, Iss-6 (Nov-Dec, 2021): 103-114
© East African Scholars Publisher, Kenya 104
both consistency and inconsistency between teachers‟
beliefs and their classroom practices (e.g., Phipps &
Borg, 2009; Thomas & Jessica, 2014). Many factors
have been reported to contribute to the variations of
teachers‟ beliefs, including teachers, learners, materials,
and contextual factors (Beets et al., 2008).
The Government of Ethiopia has shown a
growing interest in improving the quality of ECCE
programmes offered in early childhood education
centres. This is reflected in the government‟s Education
Sector Development Programme V (ESDP-V) MoE
(2015) and ECCE National Policy Framework, a
strategic, operational plan and guideline for ECCE
which the Ethiopian Ministry of Education (MoE)
developed in collaboration with the MoH and the
MoWA. The vision is to ensure that all children have a
healthy start in life, are nurtured in a safe, caring and
stimulating environment and develop to their fullest
potential (MoE, MoH & the MoWA, 2010).
This study is important for several reasons.
First, no research has been cited, about teachers‟ beliefs
and practices regarding DAP in ECCE settings in
Adama Town. This study may be considered the first to
research this topic in the area. Second, the majority of
ECCE teachers are a one-year certificate after tenth-
grade completion. As such, there is a need to explore
their beliefs and practices about DAP. In addition, there
is a need to identify the factors that influence their
classroom practices. Results of the study are assumed to
have significance for policy-makers and practitioners in
the field in Adama Town to inform decisions and
provide insight to undertake further related to the topic
in a broader context. The following questions guided
the study:
1. How do ECCE teachers describe their beliefs and
practices regarding developmentally appropriate
teaching practices in private, faith-based, and
government centers in terms of:
1.1. Planning the curriculum to attain important goals?
1.2. Teaching to enhance development and learning?
1.3. Assessing children‟s learning and development
2. What discouraging and/or encouraging factors are
there for ECCE teachers in implementing
developmentally appropriate beliefs in the centers?
METHODS
For this research, a qualitative approach was
considered appropriate as it can enable a greater
understanding of how do ECCE teachers describe their
beliefs and practice regarding developmentally
appropriate teaching practices for children learning and
development. The multiple case studies were employed
to explore the experiences of teachers‟ beliefs and
practices about DAP in private, government, and faith-
based centers. Specifically, the purpose of this multiple
case study was to explore how nine ECCE teachers
reflected on their beliefs and practice about DAP in
three settings in Adama Town. In addition, it was
conducted to help gain a deeper knowledge about the
perceptions and experiences that teachers have when
they work to explore and understand the participants‟
current and active experiences and reflection of DAP
and how their beliefs and convictions are put into
teaching practice.
The study Area Context
The study was conducted in Adama Town,
formerly served as a capital city of Oromia regional
state, in nine ECCE centers that were selected via a
purposeful sampling strategy Creswell (2012) to include
three from private, three from government, and three
from faith-based settings. Specifically, three of the
selected private centers had more than 1000 children,
three of the government centers had about 500 children,
and three faith-based centers had more than 1000
children. All of the centers did not have a special needs
educator to provide services for children who have
special needs. Also, it did not have learning centers
such as computer lab, science area, library, art area,
drama area, and music centers. The centers‟ physical
characteristics also differed from one another in terms
of layout. Finally, the centers did not set their vision,
mission, value, and goals for children learning and
development.
The first case consisted of three private
settings, which were not formerly established for the
ECCE center, rather for another purpose. So, the indoor
and outdoor learning environments were not suitable for
children's freely movement during the individual, small
and whole-group activities. Two of the centers used the
Amharic language as the medium of instruction, but one
of the centers also used both Afan Oromo and Amharic
language as the media of instruction. The first and the
second centers had the only center that was providing
services for kindergarten-aged children. The third
setting was in the same center as a primary school with
the first cycle but separated by a fence. The program
was a full-day program.
The second case consisted of three faith-based
ECCE settings. The first, second and third centers were
run by Orthodox Church, Muslim Mosque and Catholic
Church respectively. The first and the second centers
had in the same center as a primary school but separated
by a fence. The third setting was the only center that
was providing services for kindergarten-aged children
and has a comfortable learning environment. Moreover,
it was used Amharic language as a medium of
instruction for children learning and development
except center two, which used Afan Oromo as a
medium of instruction. The program was a full-day
program.
The third case consisted of three government
ECCE settings. While the two centers had provided
services for children with age group 4-6 the so-called
normal. The third center was an inclusive setting which
Tesema Regassa et al., EAS J PsycholBehavSci; Vol-3, Iss-6 (Nov-Dec, 2021): 103-114
© East African Scholars Publisher, Kenya 105
provided services for children with special needs and
children without disability for their learning and
development. All of the three centers used both Afan
Oromo and Amharic language as a medium of
instruction for children learning and development. The
program was a half-day program.
Participants
A total of nine preschool teachers were
selected purposively from each of the three types of
ECE centers: private, faith-based, and government as
depicted in Table 1 below. The criteria used for
selecting the study participants included having at least
qualification of certificate in ECCE, availability of
children with special needs in the classroom, and
voluntary participation and consent.
Table 1: Demographic characteristics of the study participants
Type of Center
Number of centers
Teachers
No
Sex
Age
Work
Experience in years
Qualification in ECCE
Private
3
1
F
35
12
Certificate
1
F
28
6
Certificate
1
F
51
25
Certificate
Faith-based
3
1
F
50
21
Certificate
1
F
40
8
Certificate
1
F
33
9
Certificate
Government
3
1
F
22
3
Certificate
1
F
23
3
Certificate
1
F
24
3
Certificate
Data Analysis
Analysis of the qualitative data was started
immediately after the first interview was conducted and
all the recorded data were transcribed verbatim. Not to
expose the identities of the participants, pseudonyms
T1, T2, T3, etc were used. Then, the audio recordings
and observation field notes were carefully transcribed.
Then, the data were analyzed iteratively: first, the
transcribed data was read and re-read several times to
get a sense of the whole, meaning units and themes
were sought, compared, and contrasted across and
within cases. The qualitative data were examined for
relevance and meaningfulness of Dependability,
creditability, transformability, and crosschecked by the
researcher to maintained trustworthiness.
RESULTS
In line with this, the data was obtained through
the interview, observation, and documentary materials
to code, condense and categorize into themes and
subtheme to emerge the three themes such as teacher‟s
beliefs guide their practice, teaching strategies, and
reflection on the challenges of DAP and five
subthemes: planning the curriculum to attain important
goals, teaching to enhance learning and development,
assessing children‟s learning and development and
professional development/or training (see Table 2).
Table 2: Themes and subthemes of DAP beliefs and practice across the three cases
Themes
Sub-themes
Teachers‟ beliefs guide practice
-The objectives of ECCE(ECCE philosophy) -Teaching through play-based learning
Teaching Strategies
-Planning the curriculum to attain important goals -Teaching to enhance learning and development -Assessing children‟s learning and development -Professional development/or training
Reflected upon challenges to DAP
-Limited parental awareness -Limited teachers knowledge and pedagogical skills -No assistant teacher, a half-day program in government settings -Large size of the classroom
DISCUSSION
Teachers’ Beliefs Guide Practices
Under this theme, the objectives and focusing
on play-based learning were identified as sub-themes
that teachers‟ beliefs guide their practice in private,
faith-based, and government settings. Also, when two
or more teachers shared common beliefs, each one had
her way to practice that belief in the classroom. Even
teacher had their own specific beliefs that guided their
practice.
In private settings, the participants revealed
that teachers had limited knowledge and pedagogical
Tesema Regassa et al., EAS J PsycholBehavSci; Vol-3, Iss-6 (Nov-Dec, 2021): 103-114
© East African Scholars Publisher, Kenya 106
skills on how to plan the curriculum for whole child
development (cognitive, social, emotional, creative, and
physical) through child-initiated activities. Also, the
teachers had inadequate pre-service and in-service
training that affect the understandings of the theory
underpinning DAP which influences their beliefs and
practice. Furthermore, the teachers might have
influenced by school leaders and parents to focus in
their planning on academic skills through teachers
dominated approach to ready children for primary
school academic skills. The results of the study indicate
that those teachers who were working in private centers
were more tend to practice the contrast of DAP, which
means inconsistent beliefs and practices in their DAP.
In contrast to the previous studies were also revealed by
(Birello, 2012; Ertmer, 2005; Pajares, 1992).
The children’s personalities are developed through
caring and education; however, in some private ECCE
centers, teachers directly focus on the academic skills
rather than giving attention to holistic development
since they overlook the care aspect from their ECCE
program…..PT3
In faith-based settings, school leaders and
board had limited awareness about how to set the
curriculum goals for children whole development. Even
though teachers had limited knowledge and skills in
setting ECCE goals, they were focused on both care and
academic skills which were implemented both child-
centered and teacher-directed teaching practice in their
classrooms. Also, they were more practice to nurture
the children's holistic development through play-based
learning using a variety of teaching strategies like store
telling, blocks, puzzles, and sing songs through play
using hands-on experiences. Nevertheless, there were
some variations among teachers in their practices
during classroom activities. Furthermore, some of the
teachers were motivated to practice the child-centered
teaching strategies for children's social, emotional,
cognitive, spiritual, and physical development. Hence,
the majority of them have used both child-centered and
teacher-directed teaching strategies for children
learning and development that seems a kind of an
integrated approach. These findings are comparable
with (Beets et al., 2008).
ECCE is introducing a child to the world of school, to
build each child’s self-esteem, to make friends, and to
have plenty of opportunities for social interaction...FT1
Children at this age are concrete learners who need to
see, touch, taste, smell, and hear everything.” She
believes that children learn by doing and that they need
to be active participants in the learning activities…FT3
In government ECCE centers, even though the
program was creating an opportunity for school
readiness for children whose families have low-income
economic status. It was very challenging to say the
teachers properly planned, organized, and set goals for
children all domain development. Since the program
was fragmented, teachers had limited knowledge and
pedagogical skills lacked teaching materials, limited
budget, and stakeholders‟ collaboration for children
learning and development through play-based learning
using hands-on experiences from locally available
materials. However, as much as possible the teachers
were trying their best to ready children for a primary
school in supporting the children to identify alphabet
letters, read, write, draw, and numeracy. The result
reported that the teachers were leaner towards
practicing DIP through teachers-dominated activities
using whole group instruction. The findings are
comparable with (Belay, 2018; McMullen et al., 2006;
Kim et al., 2005 and Tirussew et al., 2009).
The purpose of ECCE is to help our children’s school
readiness for primary school academic skills
development and to support them to understand their
environment…GT1, 2, & 3
Play-based Learning
In private centers, some of the teachers were
providing support for children in their holistic
development through play-based learning uses like
sing-song, store telling, puzzles, blocks, and create an
interactive environment to discipline and develop social
skills using the existing locally available teaching
materials. They were also trying their best to teach
children through play using different strategies, but
some of the centers have crowded indoor and outdoor
learning environment which was not formerly
established for children learning and development
through play-based learning using hands-on experience.
Moreover, they did not have learning centers,
playgrounds, and an interactive learning environment
for children free movement and small group and whole-
group activities to explore their environment. The
previous study was supported these findings by (Beets
et al., 2008).
On the other hand in faith-based centers, some
of them had a Montessori classroom, interactive
learning environment, and collaboration of stakeholders
for children learning and development through play-
based learning using hands-on experience. In addition,
teachers had been facilitating indoor and outdoor
activities through play-based learning for children free
movement, rolling, running, jumping, dramatic play,
dancing, small and whole-group activities. However,
teachers had limited knowledge and pedagogical skills
to understand the type of play and its benefit for
children's cognitive, social, emotional, spiritual, and
physical development. These results are comparable
with the findings of the previous studies which
indicated that DAP is (Bredekamp & Copple, 1997;
Copple & Bredekamp, 2009; Hegde & Cassidy, 2009;
Kim et al., 2005).
Teachers in the government ECCE centers had
limited knowledge and pedagogical skills for children
learning and development through play-based learning
Tesema Regassa et al., EAS J PsycholBehavSci; Vol-3, Iss-6 (Nov-Dec, 2021): 103-114
© East African Scholars Publisher, Kenya 107
using hands-on experience. They had also limited in-
service training, proportional class size, hands-on
experience teaching materials, play materials, budget,
and collaboration of stakeholders for children learning
and development through play-based learning. Even the
teachers had focused on academic skills through
teacher-directed activities using the whole class in
seating them on the desk for long periods. These
findings also in contrast with the research that supports
the use of DAP with young children (McMullen et al.,
2006).
Therefore, even if educators in private, faith-
based, and government ECCE centers had believed the
importance of play in their classroom practices, still
ECCE educators had limited knowledge and
pedagogical skills on how to make decision
intentionally in planning, implementing, and assessing
children‟s activities through play-based learning for
their all domain development. Also, some of the
teachers might have influenced by school leaders and
parents to focus in their planning the activities on
academic skills through teachers dominated approach to
ready children for primary school academic skills.
Some of the research findings were supported by
(Phipps & Borg, 2009; Thomas & Jessica, 2014).
Teaching strategies
Under this theme, some subtheme was
identified as teachers‟ teaching strategies: planning the
curriculum to achieve important goals, teaching to
enhance development and learning, assessing children‟s
learning and development, and teachers' development/or
training.
Planning the Curriculum to attain important Goals
In the private center, some teachers were
implementing the curriculum through play using sing
songs, puzzles, store telling, and flashcards for children
learning and development. In addition, the teachers
were implementing the curriculum considering the
children's developmental age for nursery, lower and
upper KG to make the lesson meaningful to them. But
they had limited knowledge and skills in considering
the children's interests and socio-cultural context in
setting appropriate goals through planning the
curriculum for promoting learning and development.
Moreover, the teachers were more intended on
academic skills such as reading, writing, drawing, and
numeracy to prepare children for primary school
readiness; even some centers had practice extra home
activities during the weekend using worksheets/or
workbooks. The parents were also pushing teachers to
focus on academic skills for children's school readiness.
These findings imply that the curriculum was more
intended for the teachers‟ initiated activities rather than
children initiated activities/or balanced between the two
approaches, which are highly focused on academic
skills. In addition, teachers had inadequate knowledge
and pedagogical skills on how to plan, schedule, and
organized the existing curriculum for promoting
children's social, emotional, creative, cognitive, and
physical development. Nevertheless, research noticed
that Curriculum needs to be “learner-generated and
learner-centered, yet teacher framed” (McMullen, 1999,
p. 217). Within this environment, the “location of
power” is shared between the teacher and the child
(Wien, 1995, p. 4).
We do have a fixed schedule that was provided by our
center to all of us. I’m flexible in implementing the
activities according to the children’s interests and
learning situations. The curriculum is prepared by our
ECCE center and is considered the age, interest, and
culture of the children because they are learning the
contents of the curriculum without stress and they are
interesting to learn the contents of the curriculum
through play using locally available teaching materials
(PT2).
On the other hand, teachers in faith-based
centers were reflected that they had practiced the
curriculum through play using hands-on experience. In
addition, some faith-based centers had Montessori
classrooms for children learning through hands-on
experience, but some were not had such centers for
children learning and development. Rather the teachers
were focusing on academic skills for children learning
and development to prepare the children for school
readiness. These findings depicted that teachers had
limited knowledge and pedagogical skill on how to set
goals, plan child-initiated activities, and small group
activities for children's cognitive, social, emotional,
creativity, and physical development. On the contrary to
this fact the literature indicated that (McMullen, 1999).
We taught five subjects English, Mathematics, Afan
Oromo, Environmental sciences, and Art. Some of the
textbooks were brought from other private centers and
adapted according to our context. Our children could
learn at nursery level capital and small Afan Oromo
alphabet letters through oral using the flash card by
observing, touching, and identifying the shape and
sound awareness of each letter. In the case of lower
kindergarten they could learn how to construct simple
words from alphabet letters (for example a- aduu, b-
baala, c-caallee using a flashcard). Also, in the case of
upper KG, they could more construct words from
alphabet letters, for example with the letter “a” they
made at least three words a-aduu, a-arba, a-arraba,
and construct simple short sentences from the alphabet
letters. She more explained that they could learn voles
and consonant sounds in afan Oromo(dubbachiiftuu,
dubbifama, sagalee dheeraa, and gabaabaa) at the
upper KG level(FT1).
On the contrary to this in government ECCE
centers, there was nothing an organized curriculum for
children learning and development through play using
hands-on experience. Rather the teachers were trying
their best to ready children for primary school academic
skills through collecting some materials from
Tesema Regassa et al., EAS J PsycholBehavSci; Vol-3, Iss-6 (Nov-Dec, 2021): 103-114
© East African Scholars Publisher, Kenya 108
neighborhood private school or the old curriculum exist
in the centers. These findings indicated that teachers
lacked a national curriculum, hands-on experience
teaching materials, limited knowledge, and pedagogical
skills that affect their planning the curriculum to
achieve important goals for promoting all domain
development. These results are also comparable with
the findings of the previous studies which indicated that
DAP is (Bredekamp & Copple, 1997; Copple &
Bredekamp, 2009; Hegde & Cassidy, 2009; Kim et al.,
2005).
As per the investigator‟s observation, in
private, faith-based and government centers had not yet
clear, flexible, and whole child development goals;
rather it was primarily cognitive focused. It was also not
naturalistic experiences; rather it was an isolated skill
development. Moreover, it was not daily fine and gross
motor experiences, but limited gross motor
development. Furthermore, it has a subject-oriented
curriculum either organized on its own or borrowed
from somewhere else. Also, the curriculum was
organized in a subject-oriented manner such as English,
Mathematics, Environmental Science, and Art rather
than using an integrated curriculum. Moreover, the
centers varied in: comfortably of the learning
environment to explore, the number of teaching
materials provided, the accessibility learning
environment to all the children; the number of hands-on
experiences teaching materials provided, open-ended
manipulative and the amount of teacher-directed
activities. Nevertheless, when they were teaching one
concept, teachers could integrate different skills. For
example, when they taught the word “cat” they showed
the students a picture of a cat and said the words writing
on blackboard or flashcard, so they taught literacy,
numeracy, science, and art simultaneously as well.
Generally, the contents of the curriculum focused on
letter recognition, letter/sound identification, and
phonemic awareness, word recognition, number sense,
syllables, and short sentence structure. The previous
findings were also revealed by (Chan, 2016; Hegde &
Cassidy, 2009; Kim et al., 2005; Lee &Tseng, 2008)
Teaching to Enhance Learning and Development
In the private center, some of the teachers
reflected that teachers were used different teaching
strategies for children learning and development
through play, sing songs, puzzles, blocks, and locally
available teaching materials to provide whole child
development. The teachers were also more intended to
focus on the academic skills performing the same tasks
for the whole classroom to ready children for primary
school, particularly they focused on literacy phonetic
alphabet awareness, listening, speaking, reading, and
writing in the English language. Some of the private
learning centers were not formerly established for
children learning and development through play-based
learning using hands-on experience for individual and
small group activities. Rather, the center was crowded,
lack a playground, lack learning centers, limited hands-
on experience, and collaboration of stakeholders that
obstructed children‟s holistic development. Thus it may
possible to say that teachers were more intend to use
teacher-directed teaching strategies through rote
memorization and drill teaching academic skills. This is
in agreement with the findings of (Fantun, 2013; Parker
& Neuharth-Pritchett, 2006; Ray & Smith 2010;
Tirussew et al., 2009).
I think the play is a natural way through which our
children can learn so that nothing we taught children
without play in our daily activities; play is one of the
best strategies through which our children could learn
all the activities in our center…PT1
On the other hand, the faith-based centers were
used both child-centered and teachers-directed teaching
strategies for promoting learning and development
through play using hands-on experience. Even though
there were variations among teachers during the
classroom practice, most of the teachers were using
different teaching strategies through play-based
learning, sing songs, puzzle, store telling, and
flashcards for small and whole-group activities for
children learning and development. However, teachers
had limited knowledge and pedagogical skills to plan
the activities and organize the environment in
considering children's developmental characteristics,
unique individual interests, and socio-cultural context
for their learning and development. The findings of the
study revealed that teachers‟ beliefs and practices were
both developmentally appropriate/or inappropriate
practices, which seems an integrated approach for
children learning and development. Some of the
previous studies were also supported these findings
(Beets et al., 2008; Ray & Smith 2010).
Children can learn the contents of the curriculum
through play using sing songs, storytelling, and puzzle
and Montessori materials. For instance, she taught
numbers and literacy in connecting with their daily
experience, for example, zero(0)
እንቁላል
መሳይ
( it may
seem an egg),1 2 3..through sing songs
የልጆች
ቁርስ
ምሳ
እና
እራት
(that is, children’s breakfast, lunch, and
dinner) and after that she taught them to step by steps
zero, one, two, three... In other words, similarly, they
could learn Amharic alphabet letters as
ሀ
-
እንደ
ብርጭቆ
ናት
(it seems a glass),
ለ
-
ወንበር
ትመስላለች
(it
seems a chair),
ሐ
-
ሹካ
መሳይ
ናት
(it seems a fork),
መ
-
መነፅር
መሳይ
ናት
(it seems an eye glass),
ሠ
-
እግሮቿን
ሰቅላለች
(it holds up its legs),
ቀ
-
ወገቧን
ይዛለች
(it holds
its wrist),
ተ
-
እጇን
ዘርግታለች
(it stretch out its
hand),…the children show the action in motion and
easily identify the shape, phonic awareness and the
content of the letters. (FT3).
As the informants pointed out that in
government centers, teachers were facing many
challenges which might have influenced their teaching
Tesema Regassa et al., EAS J PsycholBehavSci; Vol-3, Iss-6 (Nov-Dec, 2021): 103-114
© East African Scholars Publisher, Kenya 109
strategies to make a child-centered approach. Teachers
were also indicated some of the challenges such as
limited knowledge and pedagogical skills, lack of
assistant teachers, shortage of classrooms, hands-on
experience teaching materials, budget, and stakeholders
collaboration for children learning and development.
Even the teachers were teaching children with age
groups 4, 5, and 6 in the same classroom in rote
memorization using chalk and talk. Hence, teachers
have dominated the whole classroom activities during
the teaching-learning process through teacher-directed
instruction. They were also teaching on blackboard
arranging children on the desk for a long period through
rote memorization academic skills such as alphabet
awareness, reading, writing, and numeracy. The result
of the findings indicates that teachers‟ beliefs and
practices were intended to developmentally
inappropriate practice for children learning and
development. The research findings also supported
these findings (Buchanan et al., 1998; Tirussew et al.,
2009).
To provide experiences for one letter of the alphabet,
the children are playing, painting, talking, singing, and
listening to and tell stories. She may have engaged
children in math, science, art, and literacy. It is
enjoyable for the children and at the same time, they
are learning and building gross and fine motor skills,
social skills, creativity, and problem-solving skills for
their development of all domains (FT1).
The investigator observed that teachers were
using different strategies for children‟s learning and
development through play-based learning during the
indoor and outdoor activities at private, faith-based and
government centers. Also, some of them were
facilitating, guiding, and observing the children learning
and development, but some were monitoring,
controlling, supervising, and managing their learning.
Moreover, some of them were searching for the right
answer rather than encouraging a variety of open-ended
responses, used primarily whole group instruction
rather than flexible grouping, used primarily teacher-
directed instruction rather than child-centered
instruction, used competition, and grades rather than
community-building experiences, used more formal,
business-like relationship with children rather than a
more informal, caring relationship with children and
used activities personally irrelevant, too easy or too
difficult rather than activities challenging yet attainable.
In addition, some of them were managing children
behavior by threats, punishments, and external rewards
rather than managing their behavior through redirection,
guidance, and problem-solving, Even some used
teacher-developed rules rather than class developed
rules, some of them used unclear, limits, and
inconsistent accountability rather than clear rules
consistent accountability. Previous studies have also
described by (Birello, 2012; Ertmer, 2005; Pajares,
1992).
Assessing Children’s Learning and Development
In private ECCE center, even though, there
was variation among teachers in their assessment
strategies, most of the teachers were using the
traditional way of assessment which was focusing on
academic skills using paper and pencil test like
matching, test, fill in the black space the missing
alphabet letters and order the arrangement of letters to
make meaningful words. But, a few informants noticed
that they were using observation and a kind of checklist
for their assessment strategies for children's holistic
development rather than on pen and pencil tests. On the
contrary to this most of the teachers did not clearly
understand how to use an assessment strategy like
authentic assessment such as observation, checklist,
portfolio, and project to assess the children's holistic
development (cognitive, language, social-emotional,
creativity, and physical). These findings revealed that
teachers had limited awareness about formative/or
ongoing authentic assessment strategies rather than
focused on summative assessment for children learning
and development. Therefore, teachers in private settings
were used developmentally inappropriate assessment
practices for children learning and development. In
contrast to these findings, the literatures were also
revealed by (Charlesworth, 1998; Copple &
Bredekamp, 2009).
I’m evaluating every activity of my children from
September to January. Also, I’m observing what they
are doing and bring a significant change in each month,
for instance in writing, reading, and expressing
themselves, storytelling, social skills, emotional and
physical development. I’m more trying to include
parent’s suggestions for children learning and
development. However, some parents had limited
awareness about their children learning and
development, so they did not give much emphasis to
ECCE, and they do not have shared their responsibility
rather they had left everything for teachers (PT3).
In the case of the faith-based ECCE center, the
informants described that an assessment was very
essential for teachers to get feedback, decision making
and to report the overall performance of children to
stakeholders about children learning and development.
Even if there was a variation among teachers in their
assessment strategies for children learning and
development, as the participants noticed that some of
the teachers were more focused on academic skills
using pen and pencil test such as continuous test,
matching, fill in the blanks space the missing letter and
order the arrangement of letters. However, a few
teacher informants revealed that a few of them were
using an observation, checklist, and sample of children's
performance to assess their children's learning and
development which seemed DAP. In addition, they also
considered the feedback of their parents in their
assessment strategies to make them relevant to their
learning context. The findings depicted that teachers
lacked adequate pre-service and in-service training that
Tesema Regassa et al., EAS J PsycholBehavSci; Vol-3, Iss-6 (Nov-Dec, 2021): 103-114
© East African Scholars Publisher, Kenya 110
limited their knowledge and pedagogical skills on how
to assess through authentic assessment strategies. Thus,
teachers in faith-based settings were used
developmentally inappropriate assessment practices for
children learning and development. The previous
research was also found that (Chan, 2016; Phipps &
Borg, 2009; Thomas & Jessica, 2014).
All learning activities may have their mechanisms of
assessment strategies for children’s learning and
development. For example, we may assess our
children's physical development during outdoor
activities, particularly their gross motor development.
And we can also assess our children's language
development through vocabulary, storytelling,
matching, fill-in-the-blank space the missed letter,
reading, writing, and sound awareness (FT3).
In the government ECCE center, despite the
importance of an assessment for children learning and
development, the teachers did not aware of the
importance of assessment for children learning and
development. Some of the informants indicated that
teachers varied in their understanding, beliefs, and
practice based on their training, teaching materials
available, and the collaboration of stakeholders for
children learning and development. In addition, some
teachers said that there were limited teaching materials,
trained teachers, play materials, and support from
stakeholders for children learning and development
which was influence the assessment strategies. Even the
assessment strategies were disorganized, some of the
teachers used a kind of pen and pencil test, but some of
them used an observation for assessing the children's
development and learning and the other were not assess
their children properly for their learning and
development. Therefore, teachers in government
settings lacked knowledge and pedagogical skills on
how to use comprehensive assessment strategies for
children learning and development. These results also
supported by (Hegde & Cassidy, 2009; Rose & Rogers,
2012).
They can assess their children through testing, oral
question, demonstrating, testing, asking a question,
matching, reading, writing, fill the blank space the
missed letter, and sometimes they could also observe
their performance during the indoor and outdoor
activities to evaluate their overall performance(FT1,
T2, T3).
Teacher’s Development/or Training
In a private center, some of the informants
reported that the teachers were lacking competence in
the area of ECCE philosophy, child-centered methods,
plan to set appropriate goals and objectives for
children‟s social, emotional, creativity, spiritual,
cognitive, and physical development. In addition, the
school leaders and parents also lacked awareness about
the ECCE philosophy, curriculum, child-centered
teaching methods, and parental reciprocal relationship
for children learning and development, rather they push
them towards high academic skills. Moreover, they
reflected that the opportunities for continuous
professional development were very less. Even as some
informants revealed that the government was neglecting
them from opportunities for continuous professional
development through a summer program. Moreover,
some informants reflected that the attitude of parents
and community were less towards ECCE professionals
just as simple routine work which might be everybody
joins the profession without appropriate training for
children learning and development. These results were
also confirmed by (Hegde & Cassidy, 2009; Rose &
Rogers, 2012).
The recently in-service training has been given for
ECCE teachers could be focused on theoretical
orientation rather than focusing on practical
orientation for a child’s learning and development. For
example, instead of training us on teaching approach/or
pedagogical skills, they are focused on standardization,
the size of the classroom, rules, and regulation without
considering the reality of our centers (PT1, 2,& 3).
In faith-based centers even though the teachers
had similar beliefs about children learning and
development, they were varied in their practice during
the implementation due to some environmental and
personal factors. In addition, they indicated that some
teachers were effective in their profession due to their
pre-service training, in-service training, the passion they
have, teaching materials available, play materials
available, proportional class size, existing curriculum,
the comfortably of learning environment, and the
collaboration of stakeholders for children learning and
development. Some of the teachers indicated that they
had limited opportunities for continuous professional
development and the government was also neglecting
them in providing an opportunity in a summer program
to improve their beliefs and practice for children
learning and development. The previous research
findings were also confirmed by (McMullen, 1999;
Parker & Neuharth-Pritchett, 2006; Vartuli, 2005).
I believe that teachers should also get appropriate pre-
service and in-service training for their professional
development to properly support their children learning
and development according to their developmental age,
individual interest, and socio-cultural context. The
government has paid attention to teachers’ professional
development whether they are working in private, faith-
based, and government ECCE centers, for they are
working for nation-building through nurturing their
youngsters(FT1).
On the other hand, the government ECCE
teachers reflected that teachers who had ECCE
certificates have an opportunity to continue professional
development in the summer program, but the training
was not relevant to the real situation going on for
children learning and development at the ECCE
settings. In addition, those teachers who did not have an
ECCE certificate had limited opportunities for
Tesema Regassa et al., EAS J PsycholBehavSci; Vol-3, Iss-6 (Nov-Dec, 2021): 103-114
© East African Scholars Publisher, Kenya 111
continuous professional development to improve their
knowledge and pedagogical skills. Moreover, the
informants reported that the government did not deploy
trained special needs educators for children learning
and development according to their developmental age,
individual interest, and socio-cultural context. Since
regular teachers were limited knowledge and skills
about how to support children with special needs
according to their interests and needs. In addition,
teachers also lacked training about how to plan,
implement and evaluate individualized educational
plans (IEP) for children with special needs learning and
development in an inclusive setting. These findings are
comparable with (Abu Jaber et al., 2010; Heisner &
Lederberg, 2011; Kim, J., Kim, S., & Maslak, M. A.
2005).
I had trained at diploma level (10+3) in Civic and
Ethical Education to teach primary school children
during the pre-service training. So, I’m not an
appropriate teacher for children’s learning and
development at the ECCE center, because she has
limited knowledge and pedagogical skills on what,
when, and how children can learn in the ECCE center.
In addition, I have limited experience on how to
enhance children learning and development,
particularly on how to create teamwork with parents
and teachers to create a caring community of learner
(GT2).
4.6.4. The Major Challenges of ECCE Teachers
Faced in Applying Developmentally Appropriate
Beliefs into Practices
Even though the ECCE centers were creating
many opportunities for children learning and
development, teachers were faced some challenges in
promoting children‟s social, emotional, creativity,
cognitive and physical development through play-based
learning. The challenges were varied according to the
type of centers and the beliefs and practices they held
for ECCE.
In private ECCE centers, the informants
reflected that there were some challenges raised about
the implementation of DAP in their centers. Some of
the challenges pointed out as crowded learning
environment, lack of trained special needs educators,
limited in-service training opportunities, limited hands-
on experience, lack of learning centers, limited
awareness of families about children holistic
development, limited use of technology, limited
knowledge, and pedagogical skills for children learning
and development through play using DAP strategies
according to their developmental characteristics, unique
individual interest and socio-cultural context that made
inconsistence in teachers‟ beliefs and practices. In
contrast to these findings, the literature is reflected
by(NAEYC, 2009).
On the other hand, the informants from faith-
based noticed that even though some of them had their
interactive learning environment and hands-on learning
experiences for children learning and development.
Some of the centers had limited in-service training,
learning materials, hands-on experience, playground,
use of technology, and lack of special needs educators
for children learning according to their interest and
needs. In addition, there was the incompatibility of
curriculum between KG and grade one primary school,
limited awareness of parents about children's holistic
development, and limited collaboration of stakeholders
for children learning and development. On the contrary
to these findings the previous findings indicated by
(Chan, 2016).
As the informants noticed that the government
ECCE centers had limited teaching materials, play
materials, hands-on experience, support from the
stakeholders, and less parental engagement for children
learning and development. In addition, the participants
reflected that there was a lack of assistant teachers,
limited parental awareness about children learning and
development, limited knowledge and skills, and
shortage of classrooms for children learning and
development, even due to the shortage of trained
teachers and classrooms children with lower and upper
KG were learning in the same classroom by one teacher
without any assistance for the half-day program.
Moreover, the informants revealed that there was a lack
of special needs educators to support children with
special needs according to their needs and interest.
Even the teachers had limited knowledge and skills on
how to plan, implement and evaluate individualized
educational plans (IEP) for their learning and
development. These results were also confirmed by
(McMullen et al., 2006; Ray & Smith, 2010).
The major opportunities that Encourage Teachers to
Put Developmentally Appropriate Beliefs into
Practices
Even though there were some challenges to
implement DAP for children learning and development,
there would be some opportunities to encourage the
implementation of DAP in private, faith-based, and
government centers. Some of the opportunities the
participants revealed that there have been some attempt
to encourage the implementation of DAP such as ECCE
policy, the beginning of to nationalize the curriculum,
the beginning of training teachers at diploma and degree
program at college and university level, teachers
commitment, the beginning of allocating budget for
ECCE, the improvement of stakeholders collaboration,
the experience existed in private and faith-based
centers, the recent attention of researchers to ECCE and
the recently paid attention of the government for
children learning and development throughout the
country, even if it was lacking the quality for promoting
children‟s social, emotional, creativity, cognitive,
spiritual and physical development. These findings also
supported by previous research studies (McMullen,
1999; Ray & Smith, 2010).
Tesema Regassa et al., EAS J PsycholBehavSci; Vol-3, Iss-6 (Nov-Dec, 2021): 103-114
© East African Scholars Publisher, Kenya 112
Limitation
This study has some limitations. First, only the
researcher observed the classroom as a none-
participator and there was no cross-checking between
observers. Second, only nine teachers from three
private, three government, and three faith-based centers
were interviewed and observed. An expanded study
could therefore usefully compare more teachers at a
wider range of school types; therefore add considerable
depth to the findings.
CONCLUSION
Even though the teachers had some variation
among private, faith-based, and government and even
within the same type of ECCE centers in their beliefs
and practice, still teachers had limited knowledge and
pedagogical skills about ECCE philosophy to set the
goals properly what, when, and on how to plan,
organize, implement and assess the indoor and outdoor
activities for children learning and development. In
addition, they had limited knowledge about theories
underpin DAP and the pedagogical skills on how to
make their teaching strategies child-centered to meet
the children's developmental characteristics, individual
interest, and socio-cultural context for promoting
children social, emotional, creativity, cognitive, and
physical development. Moreover, they had limited
knowledge and skills on how to plan, implement and
evaluate individualized educational plans (IEP) for
children with special educational needs learning and
development.
However, teachers were used the traditional
way of teaching approach through teachers-directed
instruction in planning, implementing, and assessing the
same activities for the whole group. In addition, they
were used to manage their children's behavior through
reinforcement, rewarding, ignoring, and punishing them
instead of facilitating an opportunity to solve their
problems. Therefore, teachers were not fully recognized
of DAP meanings, beliefs, and practices for children's
social, cognitive, emotional, creativity, spiritual, and
physical development. Also, the government should
extend pre-service training from certificate level to
degree level to improve teachers‟ developmentally
appropriate beliefs and practice for children learning
and development.
Implications
This section presents the implications of the
findings from the current study for teachers, school
principals, teacher education programs, and the
Ministry of Education (MoE). Recognizing ECCE
teachers‟ developmentally appropriate beliefs and
practices help teachers, ECCE leaders, parents, experts,
and policymakers plan, organize, design, coordinate,
implement and evaluate best practice for children
social, emotional, creativity, spiritual and physical
development. The following are some suggested
implications that were derived from this study:
Teachers also need more information and
continuous professional development on how to use
their personal beliefs and how to become advocates for
DAP. In addition, they need guidance in negotiating the
conflict between DAP and environmental influence.
Moreover, they need administration and stakeholders‟
collaboration to improve teachers‟ practices and the
classroom environment. Even, they need to have
structural support, like educational aids, materials and
supplies, small class sizes, and flexible scheduling, and
administrators need to provide opportunities for
teachers to plan together, to observe one another, to
visit other settings sites, and to attend related early
childhood workshops. Finally, ongoing dialogue needs
to exist between teachers, administrators, school board
members, and parents about developmentally
appropriate practices and their importance for young
children.
ECCE teachers have to be encouraged to work
closely with the leaders of the centers, special needs
educators, parents, and stakeholders to implement DAP
strategies. Also, they can develop their knowledge and
pedagogical skills through participation in pre-service
training, in-service training, summer program,
conferences, and workshops, and reading current
research journals related to developmentally appropriate
practice. Moreover, the center leaders, school boards,
Adama education office, OEB, and MoE should
facilitate the structural and process quality of ECCE for
children learning and development, which affect the
implementation of DAP.
There are a variety of difficulties that teachers
expressed in government ECCE centers which provide
some practical implications for early childhood
educators moving forward. MoE and other
policymakers must consider the time constraint which
teachers find themselves facing challenges during the
classroom practices in government centers. Since the
government centers had planned the program for half-
day which was influenced the teacher's DAP
implementation in their classroom practices. In nature,
DAP needs an extended time for children learning and
development to explore their environment through
hands-on experiences.
Lastly, there are some implications for OEB
and MoE. When the reasons for the participant
teachers‟ actual practices are considered, those such as
physical conditions of classrooms, policy, curriculum,
training teachers, training special needs educators,
training ECCE leaders, standards, and a high number of
children to teachers‟ ratio is directly related to OEB and
MoE. Although the aim of MoE to increase the
schooling rate of ECCE is valuable, inappropriate
physical conditions and the number of children to each
educator increasing in government schools is
counterproductive. Therefore, the structural quality
characteristics of new ECCE institutions should be
Tesema Regassa et al., EAS J PsycholBehavSci; Vol-3, Iss-6 (Nov-Dec, 2021): 103-114
© East African Scholars Publisher, Kenya 113
considered by OEB and MoE. In addition, the
curriculum, hands-on experience teaching materials,
and furniture should be DAP, and accreditation criteria
could be set properly in considering children's
developmental appropriate age, unique individual
interest, and socio-cultural context for their learning and
development.
REFERENCES
Abu-jaber, M., Al-Shawareb, A., & Gheith, E.
(2010). Preschool teachers‟ beliefs towards
developmentally appropriate practice in Jordan.
Early Childhood Journal, 38, 65–74. Retrieved
from http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10643-010-0379-z
Belay, T. (2018). Early childhood care and
education (ECCE) in Ethiopia: developments,
research, and implications. Eastern Africa Social
Science Research Review. Volume XXXIV No. 1
January 2018, 171-206.
Birello, M. (2012). Teacher cognition and language
teacher education: Beliefs and practice. A
conversation with Simon Borg. Bellaterra Journal
of Teaching & Learning Language & Literature,
5(2), 88–94.
Bredekamp, S., & Copple, C. (1997).
Developmentally appropriate practice in early
childhood programs (Rev. ed). Washington, DC:
National Association for the Education of Young
Children.
Buchanan, T. K., Burts, D. C., Bidner, J., White, V.
F., & Charlesworth, R. (1998). Predictors of the
developmental appropriateness of the beliefs and
practices of first, second, and third grade teachers.
Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 13(3), 459-
483.
Charlesworth, R. (1998). Developmentally
appropriate practice is for everyone. Childhood
Education, 74(5), 274-282.
Chan, W. L. (2016). The discrepancy between
teachers‟ beliefs and practices: A study of
kindergarten teachers in Hong Kong. Teacher
Development, 20(3), 417-433. doi:
10.1080/13664530.2016.1161658
Copple, C., & Bredekamp, S. (2009).
Developmentally Appropriate Practice in Early
Childhood Programs Serving Children from Birth
Through Age 8 (3rd ed). Washington, DC:
NAEYC.
Creswell, J. W. (2012). Research design:
qualitative, quantitative and mixed methods
approaches. Fourth edition. Thousand Oaks, CA:
Sage.
Ertmer, P. A. (2005). Teacher pedagogical beliefs:
The final frontier in our quest for technology
integration? Educational Technology Research &
Development, 53(4), 25–39.
Fantahun, A. (2013). Quality of early childhood
education, parental factors and cognitive ability of
preschool children. A Multilevel Analysis. PhD
Dissertation.
Farrell, T. S. C., & Ives, J. (2014). Exploring
teacher beliefs and classroom practices through
reflective practice: A case study. Language
Teaching Research, 19(5), 594–610. https://doi.
org/10.1177/1362168814541722
Kim, J., Kim, S., & Maslak, M. A. (2005). Toward
an integrative „Educare‟ system: An investigation
of teachers‟ understanding and uses of
developmentally appropriate practices for young
children in Korea. Journal of Research in
Childhood Education, 20(1), 49–56.
McMullen, M. B. (1999). Characteristics of
teachers who talk the DAP talk and walk the DAP
walk. Journal of Research in Childhood Education,
13(2), 216-230.
McMullen, M. (1997). The effects of early
childhood teacher education on self-perceptions
and beliefs about developmentally appropriate
practices. Journal of Early Childhood Teacher
Education, 18(3), 55-68.
McMullen, M. B., Elicker, J., & Goetze, G. (2006).
Using collaborative assessment to examine the
relationship between self-Reported beliefs and the
documentable practices of preschool teachers.
Early Childhood Education Journal, 34(1), 81-91.
doi: 10.1007/s10643-006-0081-3
MoE. (2010). ESDP, Education Sector
Development Programme IV (2010/2011‐
2014/2015), Programme Action Plan /PAP, Addis
Ababa, Ethiopia.
MoE, MoWA, & MoH. (2010). National policy
framework for early childhood care and education
(ECCE) in Ethiopia, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
NAEYC. (2009). Developmentally appropriate
practice in early childhood education programs
serving children from birth through age 8. A
position statement of the National Association for
the Education of Young Children. Retrieved from
http://www.naeyc.org/files/naeyc/file/positions/PS
DAP.pdf
NAEYC. (2015). Developmentally Appropriate
Practice and the Common Core State Standards:
Framing the Issues. Research brief. Washington,
DC: NAEYC.
Pajares, M. F. (1992). Teachers‟ beliefs and
educational research: Cleaning up a messy
construct. Review of Educational Research, 62,
301-332.
Parker, A., & Neuharth-Pritchett, S. (2006).
Developmentally appropriate practice in
kindergarten: Factors Shaping Teacher Beliefs and
Practice. Journal of Research in Childhood
Education, 21, 65-78. Retrieved from http://dx.doi.
org/10.1080/02568540609594579
Phipps, S., & Borg, S. (2009). Exploring tensions
between teachers‟ grammar teaching beliefs and
Tesema Regassa et al., EAS J PsycholBehavSci; Vol-3, Iss-6 (Nov-Dec, 2021): 103-114
© East African Scholars Publisher, Kenya 114
practices. System, 37(3), 380–390.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.system.2009.03.002
Ray, K., & Smith, M. C. (2010). The kindergarten
child: What teachers and administrators need to
know to promote academic success in all children.
Early Childhood Education Journal, 38, 5–18. doi:
10.1007/s10643-010-0383-3
Rose, J., & Rogers, S. (2012). Principles under
pressure: Student teachers‟ perspectives on final
teaching practice in early childhood classrooms.
International Journal of Early Years Education,
20(1), 43-58. doi:10.1080/09669760.2012.664472
Tirussew, T., Teka, Z., Belay, T., Belay, H., &
Demeke, G. (2009). Status of childhood care and
education in Ethiopia. In Tirussew Tefera, Aklilu
Dalelo, and Mekasha Kassaye (eds.), First
International Conference on Educational Research
for Development: Vol. I. (pp. 188-223). Addis
Ababa: Addis Ababa University Press.
Thomas, S. C. F., & Jessica, I. (2014). Exploring
teacher beliefs and classroom practices through
reflective practice: A case study. Language
Teaching Research, 19(5), 594–610. https://
doi.org/10.1177/1362168814541722
Vartuli, S. (2005). Beliefs: The heart of teaching.
Young Children, 60(5), 76-86.
Wen, X., Elicker, J. G., & McMullen, M. B.
(2011). Early childhood teachers' curriculum
beliefs: Are they consistent with observed
classroom practices?. Early Education &
Development, 22(6), 945-969.
Cite This Article: Tesema Regassa et al (2021). Beliefs and Practices of Teachers about Developmental Appropriateness
of Early Childhood Care and Education Provisions in Selected Centers at Adama Administrative Town. EAS J
PsycholBehavSci, 3(6), 103-114.
