Korean Pre-service Teachers’ Perceptions of Parent-Teacher Partnerships: The Effects of Motivation and Teaching Beliefs

Abstract

This chapter examined early childhood pre-service teachers’ perceptions of the parent-teacher partnership, especially for the interaction effect between motivation and teaching beliefs on the parent-teacher partnership among Korean early childhood pre-service teachers. The participants for this study included 265 pre-service teachers in two different types of childhood teacher education programs (early childhood education and elementary education) in Seoul, Kyunggi, and Busan in Korea. The results from t-tests and ANOVA showed that pre-service teachers’ perceptions of the parent-teacher partnership were differentiated by student status in the teacher education program with discrete differences depending on subfactors. Constructivist teaching beliefs were the most significant variable to predict the pre-service teachers’ perceptions of the parent-teacher partnership. Even though there were no statistically meaningful interaction effects between intrinsic motivation and constructivist teaching beliefs, two-way interaction plots implied interaction effects between these two predictors. Based on the results, we discussed the implications of the results in regard to curriculum development and educational policy for future endeavors to enhance teacher education quality and educational effectiveness.