Summary:

In chapter 5 of Professionalism in Early Childhood Education, the author

introduces five key terms to help us better understand personal attributes. The first key
term is what personal attributes are desirable. With personal attributes comes
personality and behaviors. Being an early childhood educator requires lots of good
personality traits, and good behavior. Researchers had found that attributes of good
teachers include a positive outlook, energy, physical strength, a sense of humor,
flexibility, self-understanding, emotional stability, emotional warmth, and sensitivity (Pg.
75, Professionalism in Early Childhood Education). A woman named Laura Colker had
43 early childhood practitioners take a survey and made an analysis from their answers.
Based on this analysis she identified 12 characteristics of effective teachers: passion,
perseverance, risk taking, pragmatism, patience, flexibility, respect, creativity,
authenticity, love of learning, high energy, and a sense of humor (Pg 75,
Professionalism in Early Childhood Education). All of these characteristics are very
important to have as early childhood educators.
The second key term is What Educators Bring into the World. Three big things
that educators bring into the world are, temperament, multiple intelligences, and
physical attributes. The most important thing about temperament in early childhood
education is keeping a positive attitude which sets the mood up to be positive as well.
Thomas and Chesss made a dimension chart that includes nine of the most important
things about temperament which was also adapted by Burks and Rubenstein to help
early childhood teachers keep positivity in the classroom. The nine important domains
that they listed are, activity level, regularity, distractibility, approach-withdrawal,

adaptability, physical sensitivity, intensity of reaction, persistence/attention span, and

quality of mood. And like I said these nine things help the early childhood teachers to
keep their classroom positive, and safe. Another important thing is multiple intelligences.
An intelligence is a computational capacity- a capacity to process certain kinds of
information that originates in human biology and human psychology (Pg. 77,
Professional Issues in Early Childhood Education, Gardner). Gardner came up with
eight important intelligences that both children and adults go through. The eight
intelligences are, musical, bodily kinesthetic, logical-mathematical, linguistic, visualspatial, interpersonal, intrapersonal, and naturalistic intelligence. Reflecting on
intelligences is another way for teachers to learn about themselves and assess the
impact of who they are on their work with children and families (Pg. 78, Professional
Issues in Early Childhood Education). Good physical attributes of teachers in early
childhood is another important thing to know about. Knowing how have good physical
attributes is a very important part of being an early childhood teacher because this sets
the children up with trusting you, and learning many positive things from watching you.
The third key term is What Educators are like as People. Psychological wellbeing and personality are two things that stand out a lot in early childhood. If the teacher
has a positive personality and well-being than the child has a positive experience in the
classroom which than sets the child up for success rather than them not learning from
encountering a bad experience from a teacher. Children remember a lot more than we
think they do. They will remember both a negative and positive experience, and both of
these affect them in both positive and negative ways. If they encounter a negative
experience in the classroom this can make them not want to come back, shut down, or

become very upset. Whereas if they encounter a positive experience than they will want
to come back, they will want to learn, play, and interact with both the teacher and the
other children which helps them develop in a very positive way.
The fourth key term is What Educators bring to the Workplace. This is a very big
thing that affects the environment of a classroom. A teacher needs to know the capacity
for intellectual development. Such as having an open mind, a receptivity to new ideas,
being able to solve problems professionally, and presenting creativity in the classroom.
A teacher also needs to have passion for their job, and present commitment towards
their job. If they dont than they will not enjoy their job which will cause them not to have
commitment. This will then cause not only the children, but also the other teachers in
this environment to become unhappy. This can cause the children to become upset, and
not want to learn, which will affect them in a very negative way.
The fifth and final key term is Self-Knowledge. Self-Knowledge is the
understanding of oneself or one's own motives or character.In early childhood this
causes the teachers to look at themselves in the same objective way that they observe
children (Pg. 82, Professional Issues in Early Childhood Education). When teachers
examine their practice and use the feedback they receive from children and parents this
improves their practice, and skills dramatically (Pg. 83, Professional Issues in Early
Childhood Education).
Connect:
In this field you always have to adjust to different settings, and different ways of
doing things. You also have to always think and act positive when being around children
so that they can learn from you, and have a positive environment to be in. You are also

not only learning new things about children, but also about yourself. You should always
act professional in this field, not matter the situation you are in. Because you are not
only showing people who you are, but the children always learn from you no matter
what age they are. It is also very important that you make sure you treat everyone with
equal respect.Treat people how you want to be treated. And this is exactly what I will
take with me when I enter this field.
Reflect:
I learned many things from this chapter. Such as, how important it is to think and
act positive, and all the positive things that happen when you continue to do this. When
teachers continue to think and act positive it provides the children with a safe, and
positive environment. This teachers the children trust, and positivity. This also makes
the children want to stay and learn, and play and interact with the other children which
helps them develop in a very positive way. And I will apply these important things to the
profession I choose to pursue.