Proper

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the differences between importance levels and performance levels that pre-service early childhood teachers perceived by themselves on vocational basic competencies and job performance competencies of day care center teachers. The subjects were 180 pre-service early childhood teachers, who are majoring in Early Childhood Education at 3-year junior colleges. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and paired t-tests. The results of this study were as follows. First, pre-service early childhood teachers perceived that vocational ethics, problem-solving abilities, communication abilities were more important, and their performance levels were relatively high on vocational ethics, system apprehension abilities, and technical abilities among 10 vocational basic competences. Second, pre-service early childhood teachers perceived that abilities related to teaching-learning among duty units and subcategories of duty units are more important. In addition, they perceived importance levels relatively higher than performance levels on duty units and subcategories of duty units except for teaching eating habits. The results of this study suggested some directions of curricula in early childhood teacher training programs. Moreover, it suggested that future studies based on the differences between importance levels and performance levels are necessary for further information to improve teacher training programs.