(Abstract)
This study was carried out to identify the stages of teacher development according to early childhood teachers' concerns, based on Katz's stages of teacher development. Also it aims to examine the relationship of the early childhood teac...
(Abstract)
This study was carried out to identify the stages of teacher development according to early childhood teachers' concerns, based on Katz's stages of teacher development. Also it aims to examine the relationship of the early childhood teacher's sense of efficacy according to the stage of teacher development through career, type of kindergarten teacher's certificate, education, and typeof early childhood education institute. The subject of this study was set as 'is there the difference of early childhood teacher's sense of efficacy according to the stage of teacher development and personal variables of early childhood teachers, such as career, type of kindergarten teacher's certificate, education, and type of early childhood education institute?'. The stages of teacher development are defined as the following: survival, consolidation, renewal, and maturity. The career of a teacher is divided between more than one year and less than three years, more than three years and less then six years, and more than six years. The type of teacher's certificate is divided into the first grade teacher's certificate for kindergarten and the second grade teacher's certificate for kindergarten. The education institutes for early childhood are public kindergarten, private kindergarten, and day care center.
The experiment targeted 153 teachers in a kindergarten and a day care center. For the testing tool for the stages of teacher's development, the Kindergarten Teacher Concerns Rating Scale (KTCRS) of Tsai (1990) was used, which Jang, Sun Hwa (1994) modified and complemented according to Korean conditions. For the tool for examining the early childhood teacher's sense of efficacy, preceded studies (Kwon Kui Yeom, 2002; Kim, Shin Duk, 2000; and Shin, Se Ni, 2000) which were translated, modified, and a complemented Science Teaching Efficacy Belief Instrument (STEBI) of Enoch and Riggs (1990), were referred and conducted. The experimental procedure for the stage of teacher's development was to check the questionnaires and assorted into survival, consolidation, renewal, and maturity. For early childhood teacher's sense of efficacy, the average and standard deviation of its questionnaires were calculated, and then the ANOVA and Sheffe tests were conducted.
The results of this study indicates that higher stages of teacher's development achieved high scores on the teacher's general sense of efficacy, the teacher's personal; sense of efficacy, and the total teacher's sense of efficacy. Career, one of the variables related to early childhood teachers, didn't have an effect on the teacher's sense of efficacy. The type of teacher's certificate and education influenced the teacher's personal sense of efficacy and had interaction with the stage of teacher's development, but indicated no effects on the teacher's general sense of efficacy. Teachers with a second grade certificate had a higher personal sense of efficacy and early childhood teacher's sense of efficacy than those with a first grade certificate. Also, teachers who were college graduates had a higher personal sense of efficacy and early childhood teacher's sense of efficacy than 4 year university graduates. Among variables related to the early childhood teacher, the stage of teacher's development and educational institute type influenced the teacher's general and personal senses of efficacy respectively, as well as interaction effects with the stage of teacher's development. Kindergarten teachers indicated a higher sense of efficacy than teachers in a day care center. For the teacher's general sense of efficacy, teachers in a public kindergarten showed high efficacy, and for a teacher's personal sense of efficacy, teachers in a private kindergarten represented high efficacy.
The results of this study are as follows;
First, a higher stage of teacher's development indicated a higher early childhood teacher's sense of efficacy which was cultivated before or during the career and affected by various internal and external personal factors. Second, the reason why teachers with a second grade teacher's certificate or were college graduates showed a higher teacher's sense of efficacy than those with first grade teacher certificate or a 4 year university education, is that first grade teacher certificate training and more education leads teachers to be strict in terms of evaluation of themselves. Third, kindergarten teachers had a higher early childhood teacher's sense of efficacy than those in a daycare center because kindergarten belongs to the ministry of education, and human resources development is more focused on education, while teachers in a day care center belong to the ministry of gender equality, which concentrates on nurturing. Therefore, extensive and systematic research of the effects of organizational properties on early childhood teacher's sense of efficacy at day care centers and kindergartens is required in the future.