Greek pre-service kindergarten teachers’ beliefs and intensions about the importance of teacher–child interactions

Abstract

The experiences children have and the attachments they form early in life have a decisive, long-lasting impact on their later development and learning. The present study aims at exploring the continuum of the beliefs reported by Greek pre-service kindergarten teachers and how those beliefs relate to their intensions about the importance of teacher–child interactions. When examining how teaching beliefs influence the way in which teachers interact with children, it may be potentially important to assess teaching intensions as well. Though a vast amount of research has explored the association between teachers’ beliefs and practices, scarce research has examined the relationship between beliefs and intensions. This study is designed to examine Greek pre-service kindergarten teachers’ self-reported beliefs and intensions on aspects of early childhood educators–children interaction. Research results indicate that participants favour sensitive and appropriate caregiving in both their beliefs and intensions. Yet, data reveal that participants’ beliefs are more developmentally appropriate than are their intensions. Correlation analysis shows that pre-service kindergarten teachers’ beliefs do not correlate with their intension.

Keywords:

• pre-service kindergarten teachers
• beliefs
• intensions
• teacher–child interactions