Early Childhood Teachers’ Pedagogical Reasoning About How Children Learn During Language and Literacy Instruction

The knowledge that teachers hold about children’s learning is important to teachers’ practice. Few studies have examined how early childhood teachers use such knowledge during moment-to-moment instruction for language and literacy learning. This study employed a phenomenological approach to understand the knowledge that eight early childhood teachers used to inform their pedagogical reasoning during language and literacy activities. Stimulated recall interviews about practice were conducted with the prekindergarten teachers. Results indicated that the teachers used multiple sources of knowledge to inform their pedagogical reasoning that included: conceptions about how children learn; knowledge about specific children and the learning goals for these children; factors related to the school context; and ideas about themselves as teachers. The analyses revealed that the teachers’ various sources of knowledge functioned together to influence their enacted practice. Implications for professional learning and policy are discussed. © 2017, Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht.