The Importance of Early Childcare Teachers’ Self- Efficacy Expectations for the Quality of Supportive Teacher-Child Interactions and the Frequency of Mathematical Activities
Keywords:
Early childcare teachers, Interaction quality, Self-efficacy expectations, MathematicsAbstract
Dispositional characteristics of early childcare teachers, such as self-efficacy expectations (SE), play an important role in realizing effective teacher-child interactions, which in turn are related to child development. However, the findings for children in daycare centers are sparse, especially about the importance of domain-specific SE. This study therefore investigated relationships between global and domain-specific SE and the realization of global interaction quality as well as the frequency of domain-specific mathematical activities. As part of the EarlyMath study, 92 educational professionals were rated on their interaction quality. In addition, they were asked about the frequency of mathematical activities and their pedagogical and mathematical SE. A positive relationship between mathematical SE and the frequency of mathematical activities was found. The implications of these findings are discussed.
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