Preschool teachers’ science practices: associations with teachers’ qualifications and their self-efficacy beliefs in science

ABSTRACT

Regular science practices in preschool are crucial for children’s learning in science. Yet, preschool teachers may only offer science learning opportunities if they are and feel sufficiently qualified to teach early science. The present study investigates the relation between teachers’ qualifications, their self-efficacy beliefs in science and the frequency of teachers’ science practices based on 348 German preschool teachers. Regression results showed that teachers’ practices were associated with their science-specific educational training and their participation in professional development in science, but not with their general educational degree. Furthermore, results from structural equation modelling revealed that the relation between professional development and teachers’ science practices was mediated by their self-efficacy beliefs in science. These results underline the relevance of teachers’ science-specific qualifications as well as teachers’ self-efficacy beliefs for their science practices.

KEYWORDS:

• Preschool teacher qualification
• early science education
• self-efficacy
• instructional practices
• professional development
• teacher education

Acknowledgements

This research was funded by the “Little Scientists’ House” Foundation together with the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 The German ‘Diplom’ is equivalent to a master’s degree.

Additional information

Funding

This research was funded by the “Little Scientists’ House” Foundation together with the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research.

Notes on contributors

Elisa Oppermann

Elisa Oppermann, Ph.D., is a postdoctoral researcher at the Department for Early Childhood Education and Care at Freie Universität Berlin, Germany, which is headed by Prof. Dr. Yvonne Anders. She received her B.A. in Educational Science from Freie Universität Berlin in 2011 and her Masters in Educational Science from Humboldt-University Berlin in 2013. Pursuing her interest in early childhood education, she started working with Prof. Dr. Yvonne Anders in 2013. As a predoctoral fellow she worked in several projects on early math and science education at Freie Universität Berlin and was also part of the International Max Planck Research School on the Life Course (LIFE). Elisa Oppermann completed her Ph.D. in psychology in 2018 with the title ‘The role of motivation in early mathematics and science education’. Her current research projects focus on (1) the quality of early science education, (2) teachers’ competencies and practices in math and science as well as (3) young children’s motivation.

Theresia Hummel

Theresia Hummel is a predoctoral fellow at the Department for Early Childhood Education and Care at Freie Universität Berlin, Germany, which is headed by Prof. Dr. Yvonne Anders. She received her B.A. in Educational Science and Social Sciences from Humboldt-University Berlin in 2014 and her Masters in Educational Science from Freie Universität Berlin in 2017. She started working with Dr. Yvonne Anders in 2017. She worked in several empirical research projects on science and language education in daycare centres as well as early educational inequalities at Freie Universität Berlin. Her Ph.D. focuses on the growing relevance of family-preschool partnership and family education as quality dimension of Early Childhood Education and Care.

Yvonne Anders

Yvonne Anders, Ph.D., is a Professor of Education and head of the Department for Early Childhood Education and Care at Freie Universität Berlin, Germany. She received her Ph.D. in Psychology and Sociology in 2003 from the University of Munster. Between 2003 and 2012 she worked as a senior researcher for the Effective Provision of Pre- and Primary Education Project (EPPE3-11) at the University of London, for the Max-Planck-Institute in Berlin as well as the University of Bamberg. In addition to her scholarship, she served as advisor for the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research. As of 2012, Yvonne Anders joined the Freie Universität Berlin as a Professor of Education and was appointed as a research professor at the German Institute for Economic Research (DIW). Her research focuses on professional competencies of (early childhood) education professionals, the effects of the quality of early childhood education, and international comparison analyses as well as evaluation research.