The purpose of this study was to examine children's perception of the communication style of their homeroom teachers, their self-efficacy, school adjustment and the intermediating role of self-efficacy between their communication with homeroom teacher...
The purpose of this study was to examine children's perception of the communication style of their homeroom teachers, their self-efficacy, school adjustment and the intermediating role of self-efficacy between their communication with homeroom teachers and school adjustment. And it's also meant to explore factors affecting their school adjustment and the relationship of the selected factors in an attempt to seek ways of teaching children to boost their self-efficacy and interchange with teachers.
The subjects in this study were 436 fourth and sixth graders in an elementary school located in the city of Gimhae, on whom a survey was conducted.
The major findings of the study were as follows:
First, as a result of comparing their communication level with home- room teachers, that was different according to gender, and the girls had a smoother communication than the boys. By grade, the fourth graders had a better communication than the sixth graders.
Their self-efficacy was above the average, and the fourth graders outdid the sixth graders in that regard. Gender made no significant differences to that.
Second, as for the intermediating effect of self-efficacy in the relation- ship between communication with homeroom teachers and school adjustment, that served as a medium to mediate communication and school adjustment irrespective of gender. By grade, that had the intermediating effect on the fourth graders, but not on the sixth graders, and that produced the intermediating effect in the four subfactors of school adjustment.
The findings of the study that confirmed the intermediating effects of self-efficacy lent credibility to the importance of the self-efficacy in association with school adjustment, and indicated in which path that affected school adjustment. Poor communication with homeroom teachers might result in undermining self-efficacy and eventually impeding school adjustment, though perceived communication with homeroom teachers had a firsthand impact on school adjustment.
This study found that self-efficacy served as a medium to mediate between perceived communication level with homeroom teachers and school adjustment, and more extensive research efforts should be directed into checking a wide variety of parameters to step up children's school adjustment.