The Effects of Early Childhood Teachers’ Playfulness and Development of Professionalism on Their Play Support Practices

Abstract

Objectives This study was conducted to examine the effects of early childhood teacher’s playfulness and the development of professionalism on their play support practices. Methods The subjects of this study were 250 early childhood teachers working in kindergartens located in G city and J province. The playfulness, development of their professionalism, and play support practice were evaluated directly by the early childhood teachers. The Pearson correlation analysis and multiple regression analysis on the data collected were conducted by using SPSS WIN 29.0. Results First, the early childhood teachers’ playfulness and development of the professionalism were major fators to explain their play support practice. Second, the early childhood teachers’ playfulness and their development of the professionalism explained their play support practice. Third, based on analysis of relative effects of the teachers’ playfulness and development of the professionalism on their play support practice, their play support practice were explained 54% by the development of the professionalism while the teachers’ playfulness did not have effect. Conclusions The playfulness and development of the professionalism were major factors that explained the teachers’ play support practice. Especially the teachers’ development of the professionalism had much greater effect on their play support practice. This study suggests that development of professionalism of early childhood teachers might be a way to enhance the teachers’ competence for play support practice in early childhood classes.