The Effect of Early Childhood Teacher’s Play Teaching Efficacy, Emotional Expressiveness and Teacher-Parent Partnership on the Teacher-Child Interaction

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship and relative influence of early childhood teacher’s play teaching efficacy, emotional expressiveness, and teacher-parent partnership that affect teacher-child interaction. The subjects for this study were 352 children aged 4,5 and Early childhood teachers in kindergartens and daycare centers in Busan and Gyeongsangnam-do. The collected data were analyzed through correlation analysis and stepwise multiple regression analysis using the SPSS 25.0 program. As a result of the study, first, there was a positive correlation between early childhood teacher’s play teaching efficacy, emotional expressiveness, teacher-parent partnership, and teacher-child interaction. Second, as a result of the relative influence on teacher-child interaction, belief in the efficacy of play teaching, a sub-factor of play teaching efficacy, was a significant positive predictor that predicted the greatest influence on all teacher-child interaction and sub-variables and seeking information, a sub-factor of teacher-parent partnership was second. In conclusion, this study is significant in that it analyzes teacher’s internal and external variables that affect teacher-child interaction together and this suggests that it can serve as basic data for developing measures to improve the quality level of teacher-child interaction.