Josh's Second Anotated Bibliography Entry

Hindman, Annemarie H, and Barbara A.Wasik. Head Start teachers’ beliefs about language and literacy instruction. University of Michigan. Early Childhood Research Quarterly. Volume 23, Issue 4, 4^th Quarter 2008, Pages 479-492. Article. 3, March 2011.

Annemarie Hindman explains to us in this article the different beliefs and approaches that Head Start teachers take when teaching. She explains that there were three main points in her research study; One objective is to pilot a self-report questionnaire tapping Head Start teachers’ beliefs regarding language and literacy development and instruction, and to examine the congruence of these beliefs with evidence-based best practices in the field of early childhood. The second is to determine the degree to which teacher background variables including education and experience are linked to these beliefs. The third is to draw implications for future research that might refine and extendwork on this questionnaire or other measures of teachers’ knowledge and beliefs about early literacy (479). Hindman goes on to explain that teacher's backgrounds have a big role in how they teach their students. She tells us that a major reason children come out of the Head Start program at different cognitive and literacy levels is because of the way the teacher taught. She explains that there was a teacher's beliefs questionnaire that 28 teachers from Head Start had to complete. This questionnaire acted as a model for her to see which styles of beliefs had the greatest impact (488). This study consisted of questions about the teachers teaching style, what they believed the children's abilities to learn were, how best to teach children, and so on (489). Annemarie Hindman, like Carol hammer from my previous bibliography entry, used many very creditable sources, one of which was the Administration for Children and Families. Hindman stikes up a very interesting topic for discussion. A lot of people, including myself, look at education from the child's perspective. We sometimes think that if the child didn't do well, that was his or her fault. I myself have found that teachers can be a huge influence for the best or the worst. I haven't ever thought about the teacher's beliefs as a player in the Head Start program. This has definitely help my research further itself.