Cognitive, educational and psychological determinants of prospective preschool teachers’ beliefs

Figures & data

Table 1. Sample size.

Type of institution	Vocational school	Pedagogical college	Overall
Program stage
First year	594 (32%)	287 (15%)	881 (47%)
Last year	774 (42%)	196 (11%)	970 (53%)
Overall	1,368 (74%)	483 (26%)	1,851 (100%)

Table 2. Descriptive statistics of the sample by subgroup.

	First year vocational school	Last year vocational school	First year pedagogical college	Last year pedagogical college
Age in years (Range)	22 (17–53)	24 (18–54)	22 (18–47)	26 (19–53)
Gender (female)	85%	83%	90%	90%
German language background (always spoken at home)	88%	89%	83%	86%
No. of books at home (> 200)	23%	24%	41%	44%
Mother’s education (at least a high-school degree)	17%	16%	32%	27%
Participant’s own education (at least a high-school degree)	36%	44%	99%	99%
No. of years of mathematics in school (≤ 10)	47%	48%	2%	5%

Table 3. Descriptive statistics of the predictors.

Variable	Mean	Minimum	Maximum
MCK	50.00	20.1	78.7
MPCK	50.00	14.5	74.1
GPK	50.00	19.9	75.7
OTL in mathematics	2.04	1.0	4.0
OTL in mathematics pedagogy	2.13	1.0	4.0
OTL in general pedagogy	3.06	1.0	4.0
Flexibility	3.35	1.0	6.0
Self-reflection	5.51	3.2	6.0

Note. MCK = mathematics content knowledge, MPCK = mathematics pedagogical content knowledge, GPK = general pedagogical knowledge, OTL = opportunities to learn.

Table 4. Fit of four- and one-dimensional belief models.

	Chi-Square	df	CFI	RMSEA
Four dimensions	710.4^a	161	.96	.04
One dimension	5,487.6^a	167	.61	.13

Note. df = degrees of freedom, CFI = comparative fit index, RMSEA = root mean square error of approximation.

^ap < .01.

Table 5. Correlation matrix of the four belief scales (latent correlations, standard error).

	Relevance	Dynamic Nature	Gender Stereotypes
Dynamic Nature	0.66 (0.02)^a
Gender Stereotypes	−0.19 (0.03)^a	−0.15 (0.04)^a
Enjoyment	0.59 (0.03)^a	0.52 (0.03)^a	−0.20 (0.03)^a

^ap < .01.

Table 6. Descriptive statistics for prospective preschool teachers’ beliefs by subgroup.

Beliefs	Start Vocational School	End Vocational School	Start College	End College
Relevance	−0.77 (0.09)	−0.47 (0.09)	−0.50 (0.12)	0.00 (0.00)
Dynamic Nature	−0.55 (0.12)	−0.35 (0.13)	−0.33 (0.15)	0.00 (0.00)
Gender Stereotypes	0.24 (0.13)	0.22 (0.12)	0.14 (0.14)	0.00 (0.00)
Enjoyment	−0.53 (0.12)	−0.34 (0.12)	−0.37 (0.14)	0.00 (0.00)

Table 7. Effects of cognitive, educational and psychological determinants on prospective preschool teachers’ beliefs (standardized estimates).

	Knowledge			OTL in			Personality
Beliefs	MCK	MPCK	GPK	Mathe-matics	Math pedagogy	General pedagogy	Flexibility	Self-reflection
REL	.15 (.03)^a	.20 (.03)^a	.05 (.03)	.08 (.03)^a	.24 (.03)^a	−.03 (.03)	−.16 (.03)^a	.21 (.02)^a
DYN	.15 (.03)^a	.14 (.03)^a	.06 (.03)	.07 (.03)^a	.18 (.04)^a	−.01 (.03)	−.12 (.03)^a	.15 (.03)^a
GEN	−.10 (.03)^a	−.06 (.03)	−.04 (.03)	.01 (.04)	−.08 (.03)^a	.01 (.03)	.15 (.02)^a	−.09 (.02)^a
JOY	.28 (.03)^a	.11 (.03)^a	−.01 (.03)	.09 (.03)^a	.19 (.04)^a	−.03 (.03)	−.19 (.03)^a	.08 (.02)^a

Note. MCK = mathematics content knowledge, MPCK = mathematics pedagogical content knowledge, GPK = general pedagogical knowledge; OTL = opportunities to learn; REL = relevance, DYN = dynamic nature, JOY = enjoyment of mathematics, GEN = gender-stereotypes. Higher values on the flexibility scale indicate lower flexibility (see Appendix).

^ap < .05.

Table 8. Full model of belief determinants (standardized estimates).

	Knowledge		OTL in		Personality
	MCK	MPCK	Mathematics	Math pedagogy	Flexibility	Self-reflection
REL	.15 (.03)^a	.14 (.03)^a	.08 (.03)^a	.18 (.03)^a	−.10 (.02)^a	.16 (.02)^a
DYN	.15 (.03)^a	.10 (.03)^a	.07 (.03)^a	.14 (.03)^a	−.07 (.03)^a	.11 (.03)^a
GEN	−.09 (.03)^a	−.04 (.03)	.01 (.03)	−.05 (.03)	.13 (.02)^a	−.07 (.03)^a
JOY	.27 (.03)^a	.04 (.03)	.09 (.03)^a	.15 (.03)^a	−.12 (.02)^a	.05 (.02)^a

^ap < .05.

Table A1. Items (translated), standardized factor loadings, standard errors (SE) and p-values.

Relevance of mathematics (REL)	Loading	SE	p
Mathematics helps solving everyday problems and tasks.	0.80	0.01	0.00
Everyday situations offer the possibility to make practical experiences with mathematics.	0.77	0.01	0.00
Mathematics helps to understand everyday tasks in a better way.	0.73	0.02	0.00
Mathematics is an important part of our culture.	0.67	0.02	0.00
Many aspects of mathematics are of practical relevance.	0.66	0.02	0.00
Mathematical concepts are of low practical relevance for everyday tasks (R).	0.55	0.03	0.00
Dynamic nature of mathematics (DYN)
Mathematics means creativity and new ideas.	0.78	0.02	0.00
Mathematical activity is inventing and reinventing mathematics.	0.75	0.02	0.00
In mathematics many things can be discovered and tried out by oneself.	0.71	0.02	0.00
Mathematics is an activity involving thinking about problems and gaining insight.	0.63	0.02	0.00
Gender stereotypes regarding mathematics (GENDER)
Girls need more support in mathematics than boys.	0.92	0.01	0.00
Boys are more competent in mathematics than girls.	0.82	0.01	0.00
Boys have a mathematical mind.	0.78	0.02	0.00
Girls and boys are able to solve mathematical problems to the same extent (R).	0.74	0.02	0.00
Mathematics is the favorite subject of boys rather than girls.	0.58	0.02	0.00
Enjoyment of mathematics (JOY)
Mathematics is enjoyable.	0.93	0.01	0.00
It is hard to enjoy mathematics (R).	0.81	0.02	0.00
Mathematics is boring (R).	0.77	0.02	0.00
Mathematics leads to enjoyable experiences.	0.76	0.02	0.00
Mathematics offers the possibility to enjoy discoveries.	0.70	0.02	0.00

Note. (R) = recoded.

Table A2. Personality characteristics: items (translated), standardized factor loadings, standard errors (SE) and p-values.

Flexibility	Loading	SE	p
It is desirable that everything at the job functions as usual.	0.74	0.02	0.00
It is important not to deviate from one’s daily routines.	0.61	0.03	0.00
It is desirable that one can plan a working day beforehand.	0.56	0.02	0.00
Job requirements should be limited to clearly defined tasks.	0.47	0.03	0.00
One should be skeptical towards new situations.	0.39	0.03	0.00
SELF-REFLECTION
It is important to pay attention to one’s own behavior also in challenging situations with preschool children.	0.67	0.03	0.00
It is important to reflect about how to improve one’s own work with preschool children.	0.63	0.03	0.00
It is necessary to spend time on reflections about one’s own work with preschool children.	0.59	0.03	0.00
If one knows oneself well, one is able to address preschool children’s needs in a better way.	0.50	0.03	0.00
One should reflect about criticism targeting the work in one’s own preschool group.	0.46	0.03	0.00

Table A3. Fit of models that predict prospective preschool teachers beliefs.

Beliefs on	X^2	df	CFI	RMSEA
Knowledge	888.0^a	209	.95	.04
OTL	787.4^a	209	.96	.04
Personality characteristics	803.1^a	193	.96	.04
Full model	960.1^a	257	.95	.04

^ap < .01.