Cross-national perspectives on developmentally appropriate practices for early childhood programs

Administrators of preschool programs, preschool teachers, and parents of preschool children from four countries (Finland, the United States, China, and Ecuador) provided their views of what constitutes developmentally appropriate classroom practices for children ages 3–5. Their beliefs were surveyed with an instrument adapted from the list of developmentally appropriate professional standards for preschool programming published in the United States by the National Association for the Education of Young Children (Bredekamp, 1987).In general, respondents from Finland scored very high on all survey items. Administrators and teachers from the United States scored higher than U.S. parents. Parents in the United States were in favor of more straightforward teaching approaches, use of workbooks and textbooks for instruction, and weekly formal assessment. Respondents from China and Ecuador scored high on some items, and low on others, indicating a considerable variance. Preschool programs in both China and Ecuador appeared to be organized like many primary schools, with structured learning experiences for language and mathematics and use of more formalized assessment. Neither years of experience nor level of education had a consistent effect on the response patterns of teachers and administrators. Implications for differences across countries are discussed, along with some directions for future research.