A Study On American Early Childhood Teacher Standards

Early childhood teacher professional standard is the premise for improving early childhood teachers'professional status and is the important evidence of evaluating early childhood teachers'caring and teaching quality. Therefore, the study on the foreign early childhood teacher standards is of great significance in developing our country's early childhood teacher standard.This dissertation mainly adopts documentary and comparative approach to analyze American early childhood teacher standards from the following four aspects:Firstly, the author made an analysis of the stages of "Standards" development and its background.80-90 years of the 20th century is the initial development stage. Educational professional organizations initially established and a few states started to develop professional standard for early childhood teachers. This stage is in the background of the economic and technological competition, declining quality of basic education, and the concern of early childhood education. The development and improvement stage is since the beginning of the 21st century. More and more educational professional organizations and local areas focus on the development and revision of "Standards". And more and more "Standards" reach a consensus on early childhood teachers'core knowledge and ability. This phrase is in the background of United States Government's strong support, the standardization of teaching and teacher education, and the further reform of early childhood education.Secondly, an elaboration is made on the main contents from the perspective of an overview of national and local "Standards". The national "Standards" issued by The National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) and The National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS) and the "local standards" enacted by the states of Indiana, Oklahoma and Michigan are analyzed in the background, framework and the core content respectively.Thirdly, an in-depth analysis of standards'basic elements, supporting philosophy and the main features is made by the author. Through research, there are three basic elements, namely, professional knowledge, professional competence and professionalism. The philosophy supporting the standards are "life-long education", "child-centered", "reflective teacher education", "cooperation" and "inclusive education" and so on. The main features of the standards are democracy, macro-and microstructure, continuity, responsiveness and maneuverability.Finally, the author made an analysis of the status of our country's early childhood teacher standard and got inspiration from the American "Standards":establish the educational professional organizations for drawing up "standards"; emphasize the levels and the integrity of the "standards"; integrate the advanced and scientific ideas of education into the "Standards"; focus on early childhood teachers'practice.