Preschool Teachers’ Teacher-Child Communication Skills: The Role of Self-Efficacy Beliefs and Some Demographics

Abstract

This study aims to investigate to what extent self-efficacy beliefs and some demographics (years of experience and type of the institution) predict preschool teachers' teacher-child communication skills. Another purpose of this study is to examine whether preschool teachers' teacher-child communication skills change according to their educational level. Data were collected from in-service preschool teachers (N=304) working at 78 different schools in Ankara by using two different questionnaires and analyzed by using One-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) and multiple regression analysis. Findings indicated that preschool teachers' self-efficacy beliefs were positively and strongly correlated with their communication skills. Preschool teachers' self-efficacy beliefs also a significant predictor of their teacher-child communication skills, while years of experience and the type of institutions did not make a significant contribution to preschool teachers' teacher-child communication skills. Findings also revealed that preschool teachers' teacher-child communication skills did not change with respect to their educational level.