Preschool teachers' beliefs and practices on early literacy instruction

Abstract

This study examined 96 preschool teachers' self-report on literacy beliefs and practices. Participants comprised government and private preschool teachers in a southern state of Peninsular Malaysia. Using a Preschool Literacy Practices Questionnaire, the study investigated the practices of literacy instruction in Malaysian preschools on the choice of literacy content focus, instructional strategies, and teachers' perceived opportunities and challenges in literacy instruction. Findings revealed that most teachers appeared to hold conventional literacy beliefs and practices, lacked variety of developmentally appropriate instructional strategies and faced challenges of time constraint and inadequate linguistic and pedagogical knowledge and skills. Limitation of research design and future research directions are also discussed.