Career profile Preschool Teacher

Table of Contents

• What does a Preschool Teacher do?
• What is a typical salary for a Preschool Teacher?
• What personality traits are common among Preschool Teachers?
  • Career Interests
  • Values
  • Psychological Demands
• What education and training do Preschool Teachers need?
  • Typical educational degrees
  • Required knowledge and expertise
  • Important abilities
  • Critical skills

What does a Preschool Teacher do?

Preschool Teachers instruct preschool-aged students, following curricula or lesson plans, in activities designed to promote social, physical, and intellectual growth.

What kind of tasks does a Preschool Teacher perform regularly?

Preschool Teachers are often responsible for overseeing or executing some or all of the following tasks:

• Teach basic skills, such as color, shape, number and letter recognition, personal hygiene, or social skills, to preschool students with special needs.
• Adapt teaching methods and instructional materials to meet students' varying needs, abilities, and interests.
• Establish and enforce rules for behavior and procedures for maintaining order among students.
• Serve meals and snacks in accordance with nutritional guidelines.
• Provide a variety of materials and resources for children to explore, manipulate, and use, both in learning activities and in imaginative play.
• Attend to children's basic needs by feeding them, dressing them, or changing their diapers.
• Meet with parents and guardians to discuss their children's progress and to determine their priorities for their children.
• Organize and lead activities designed to promote physical, mental, and social development, such as games, arts and crafts, music, and storytelling.
• Identify children showing signs of emotional, developmental, or health-related problems and discuss them with supervisors, parents or guardians, and child development specialists.
• Maintain accurate and complete student records as required by administrative policy.
• Assimilate arriving children to the school environment by greeting them, helping them remove outerwear, and selecting activities of interest to them.
• Observe and evaluate children's performance, behavior, social development, and physical health.
• Prepare materials and classrooms for class activities.
• Read books to entire classes or to small groups.
• Establish clear objectives for all lessons, units, and projects, and communicate these objectives to students.
• Demonstrate activities to children.
• Arrange indoor and outdoor space to facilitate creative play, motor-skill activities, and safety.
• Teach proper eating habits and personal hygiene.
• Plan and conduct activities for a balanced program of instruction, demonstration, and work time that provides students with opportunities to observe, question, and investigate.
• Enforce all administration policies and rules governing students.
• Prepare and implement remedial programs for students requiring extra help.
• Confer with other staff members to plan and schedule lessons that promote learning, following approved curricula.
• Attend professional meetings, educational conferences, and teacher training workshops to maintain and improve professional competence.
• Organize and label materials and display students' work.
• Prepare reports on students and activities as required by administration.
• Collaborate with other teachers and administrators in the development, evaluation, and revision of secondary school programs.
• Plan and supervise class projects, field trips, visits by guest speakers, contests, or other experiential activities, and guide students in learning from those activities.
• Meet with other professionals to discuss individual students' needs and progress.
• Supervise, evaluate, and plan assignments for teacher assistants and volunteers.
• Select, store, order, issue, and inventory classroom equipment, materials, and supplies.
• Administer tests to help determine children's developmental levels, needs, or potential.
• Attend staff meetings and serve on committees, as required.

The above responsibilities are specific to Preschool Teachers. More generally, Preschool Teachers are involved in several broader types of activities:

What is a Preschool Teacher salary?

What personality traits are common among Preschool Teachers?

Interests

Career interests describe a person's preferences for different types of working environments and activities. When a person's interest match the demands of an occupation, people are usually more engaged and satisfied in that role.

Compared to most occupations, those who work as a Preschool Teacher are usually higher in their Social and Artistic interests.

Preschool Teachers typically have very strong Social interests. Social occupations frequently involve working with, communicating with, and teaching people. These occupations often involve helping or providing service to others.

Also, Preschool Teachers typically have strong Artistic interests. Artistic occupations frequently involve working with forms, designs and patterns. They often require self-expression and the work can be done without following a clear set of rules.

Values

People differ in their values, or what is most important to them for building job satisfaction and fulfillment.

Compared to most people, those working as a Preschool Teacher tend to value Relationships, Achievement, and Independence.

Most importantly, Preschool Teachers very strongly value Relationships. Occupations that satisfy this work value allow employees to provide service to others and work with co-workers in a friendly non-competitive environment.

Second, Preschool Teachers moderately value Achievement. Occupations that satisfy this work value are results oriented and allow employees to use their strongest abilities, giving them a feeling of accomplishment.

Lastly, Preschool Teachers moderately value Independence. Occupations that satisfy this work value allow employees to work on their own and make decisions.

Psychological Demands

Each occupation brings its own set of psychological demands, which describe the characteristics necessary to perform the job well.

In order to perform their job successfully, people who work as Preschool Teachers must consistently demonstrate qualities such as integrity, self-control, and dependability.

Below, you'll find a list of qualities typically required of Preschool Teachers, ranked by importance:

What education and training do Preschool Teachers need?

Preschool Teachers often have training in vocational schools, related on-the-job experience, or an associate's degree.

Preschool Teachers usually need one or two years of training involving both on-the-job experience and informal training with experienced workers. A recognized apprenticeship program may be associated with this occupation.

Educational degrees among Preschool Teachers

• 1.5% did not complete high school or secondary school
• 12.5% completed high school or secondary school
• 20.5% completed some college coursework
• 13.5% earned a Associate's degree
• 35.3% earned a Bachelor's degree
• 15.4% earned a Master's degree
• 1.2% earned a doctorate or professional degree

Knowledge and expertise required by Preschool Teachers

Important Abilities needed by Preschool Teachers

Preschool Teachers must develop a particular set of abilities to perform their job well. Abilities are individual capacities that influence a person's information processing, sensory perception, motor coordination, and physical strength or endurance. Individuals may naturally have certain abilities without explicit training, but most abilities can be sharpened somewhat through practice.

For example, Preschool Teachers need abilities such as oral comprehension, oral expression, and speech clarity in order to perform their job at a high level. The list below shows several important abilities for Preschool Teachers, ranked by their relative importance.

Critical Skills needed by Preschool Teachers

Skills are developed capacities that enable people to function effectively in real-world settings. Unlike abilities, skills are typically easier to build through practice and experience. Skills influence effectiveness in areas such as learning, working with others, design, troubleshooting, and more.

Preschool Teachers frequently use skills like speaking, instructing, and active listening to perform their job effectively. The list below shows several critical skills for Preschool Teachers, ranked by their relative importance.

What is the source of this information?

The information provided on this page is adapted from data and descriptions published by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration under the CC BY 4.0 license. TraitLab has modified some information for ease of use and reading, and the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment, and Training Administration has not approved, endorsed, or tested these modifications.

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