Do Preschool Teachers Professional Qualifications Play a Role in Enhancing their Understanding of ECCE Training?

Preschool teachers’ professional development and professional qualifications are crucial in enhancing the quality of children’s education. Studies related to the quality of preschool education and preschool teachers’ professional qualifications are very limited in Malaysia. As such, this study embarks on finding the effects of ECCE teachers’ professional qualifications on their understanding of overall ECCE training, perceptions of the quality of ECCE training, understanding of ECCE curriculum, and their understanding of the teaching and learning process. This study employed the descriptive research design using questionnaires to collect the data. The sample of the study consists of 296 preschool teachers from West Malaysia. The findings indicate that the ECCE teachers’ professional qualifications have a significant effect on their understanding of the ECCE training. The results also show that ECCE teachers with higher professional qualifications have better perceptions of the quality of ECCE training compared with their counterparts with lower professional qualifications. The findings affirmed that the ECCE teachers with higher professional qualifications have a significantly better understanding of the ECCE curriculum compared to those with lower professional qualifications. These findings have crucial theoretical, pedagogical and practical implications in early childhood education.