Preschool teachers’ beliefs about their own competence in working with preschool children who show emotional and behavioural difficulties

Abstract

The central purpose of this paper is oriented toward determining the competence of preschool teachers in working with children who show emotional and behavioural difficulties.1 In the study, 82 teachers of preschool children participated. The data on the assessment of competence and the efficacy of preschool teachers in their work with children with whom BED are implied were acquired through a questionnaire that included modified versions of questionnaires on the self-assessment of competence (Teacher’s Sense of Teacher Efficacy Scale, conducted by Tschannen-Moran & Woolfolk Hoy, 2001) and their expectations about their own efficacy (Teacher Efficacy Scale, Gibson & Dembo, 1984). We have found that preschool teachers rate their efficacy at the medium stage of agreement regarding the expectations of their own efficacy in working with children who show BED. We have also found that higher levels of education coupled with less working experience result in higher self-assessment of competence. Furthermore, the results of the study have shown that experience in working with children who show BED positively affects one’s feeling of competence in working with these children. Besides this, the preschool teachers who rank their competence with children who show BED as higher also assess a higher level of competence in their efficacy of teaching children who show BED. In conclusion, we have also found that preschool teachers gain little knowledge during their initial education and training and more with independent work and additional training courses. The preschool teachers who rate the knowledge they have obtained through independent work also feel that their competence in working with children who show BED has grown as a result.