Article Link: http://exchangepress.com/article/online-early-childhood-professional-development/5019184/
Early childhood professional development opportunities are expanding rapidly throughout the country. With nearly 12 million children under the age of 5 in some kind of early childhood setting, there is an effort to increase the quality of care and education. In fact, 97% of states require child care professionals to commit to ongoing professional development by completing annual training (Smith, 2006). Unfortunately, meeting that commitment is not easy. Have you ever struggled to locate and complete training for yourself? Barriers typically include inconvenient scheduling, location, costs, and access to child care for your own children (Bailey & Osborne, 1994; Copple, 1990; Gable & Halliburton, 2003; Whitebook, 1999).Recently, there has been a trend toward early childhood training online. We can learn a lot about this new trend by following the experiences of a group of individuals who have completed training online. Their stories provide a rich description of child care professionals’ feelings and attitudes towards online learning.
There are many factors that contribute to an educator’s decision to pursue online education: Personal motivation, convenience, a self-paced program, and a desire to learn.
Motivation for pursuing online education
Many would agree that motivation is important to learning. Motivation is frequently cited by professionals as ...