This research aimed to examine the differences in play belief and teacher-child interaction according to the background variables of early childhood teachers and the relationship between play belief of early childhood teachers and teacher-child intera...
This research aimed to examine the differences in play belief and teacher-child interaction according to the background variables of early childhood teachers and the relationship between play belief of early childhood teachers and teacher-child interaction.
The following are the research questions set according to these research goals
1. What are the differences in play beliefs of early childhood teachers according to the background variables (educational career, final education, institutiontype, class age)?
2. What is the difference in teacher-child interaction according to the background variables of early childhood teachers (educational career, final education, institution type, class age)?
3. What is the relationship between early childhood teachers' play beliefs and teacher-child interaction?
In this study, a survey was conducted on 280 homeroom teachers of 3, 4, and 5-year-old classes and mixed-age classes working in kindergartens and day care centers in Seoul and Gyeonggi-do. To measure early childhood teachers' play beliefs, the play beliefs tool developed by Kim In-ae(2022) was used, and to measure teacher-child
interaction, the tool developed by Lee Jeong-suk(2003) was used. The data collected in this study were analyzed by frequency analysis, reliability analysis, independent t-test, one-way ANOVA, and correlation analysis.
The results of this study are summarized as follows.
First, the play belief from the background variables of the early childhood teachers showed a significant difference as pertheir educational career and institution type. As for the difference in play beliefs by the educational career of early childhood teachers, there were differences in “An infant is an exitance that needs to be
protected and taught”,“Teachers are support and supporters”, and “Teachers are supervisiors and planners”. In “Teachers are supervisiors and planners”, the average of kindergarten teachers was higher than the average of nursery teachers.
Second, As for the difference in teacher-child interaction by the teacher's teaching career, there was a difference in verbal interaction, and the group of teachers who graduated from graduate school or higher was higher in overall interaction by the teacher's academic background. There was a difference in emotional interaction by class age.
Third, in the sub-factors of teachers’ play belief, there was a notable correlation regarding to teacher-child interactionwhen “an infants is a competent existence to learn by themselves”, “the play itself is learning”, and “teachers are support and supporters”. However, among the sub-factors of teachers’ play belief, there was no significant correlation between the teacher-child interaction. It can be the results that there is a relationship between the teacher-child interaction and how the teachers understand themselves, the child, and the play in the child's play, and that the interaction between the teacher and the child is actively performed when the teachers clearly recognize their positions as a support and supporter.
The results of this study prove that early childhood teachers' appropriate play beliefs and teacher-child interaction are related, and it suggests that early childhood teachers' positive play beliefs play an important role in raising the level of teacher-child interaction in the field. Therefore, professional education for teachers and teachers' voluntary efforts are needed to help early childhood teachers form positive play beliefs and to support high-level interaction between teachers and children.