The Level of Efficacy of Private Kindergarten Teachers in Classroom Teaching Implementation Based on Professional Qualification Status

Abstract

A survey was conducted to determine the efficacy of private kindergarten teachers in the classroom based on their professional qualifications in Early Childhood Education (ECE). A set of printed questionnaires that were modified from previous studies were physically distributed to 250 private kindergarten teachers in Kota Bharu, Kelantan, Malaysia, who were selected through convenience sampling. The study sample consisted of 228 people. Findings showed the level of teacher efficacy for both groups of teachers to be high. However, the mean value for teachers without ECE qualifications is higher than the mean value for teachers with ECE qualifications for the aspects of teaching strategies and student engagement. In addition, there is no significant mean difference in teacher efficacy based on professional qualifications. The contributions of this study are it can help ECE practitioners and responsible agencies to learn more about the current efficacy level among private kindergarten teachers, to re-examine the quality of ECE teacher education training programs, and to evaluate the effectiveness of teacher professional development programs implemented.