Abstract:

The aim of this research was to examine the relationship between pre-school teachers' self-efficacy perceptions and their love for children. In this descriptive research, a relational screening model was used. The working group of the research consists of 204 pre-school teachers working in the center and districts of Yozgat Province. In the research, the Self-Efficacy Beliefs Scale of Preschool Teachers developed by Tepe and Demir (2012) and the Barnett Child Liking Scale adapted to Turkish by Duyan and Gelbal (2008) were used as data collection tools. Simple linear regression analysis and multinominal logistic regression analysis (MLR) were conducted to analyze the data. As a result of the research, the average of teachers' perceptions of love for children was "very high," and their self-efficacy perceptions were "totally sufficient." According to the simple linear regression results, love for children was a significant predictor of the self-efficacy level of pre-school teachers and explained 12% of the total variance related to self-efficacy. As a result of MLR, when the "high self-efficacy" category was taken as the reference value, the love for children variable in the medium self-efficacy category was found significant. In the low self-efficacy category, the variables of love for children, following publications related to the field, and being a teacher of children aged 0-3 years were found to be significant in the perception of self-efficacy. It was seen that the variables of the socio-economic level of the students, type of school, professional experience of the teacher, graduated school, place of duty, age group of the students, the duration of the education in the class, and the participation of the teacher in the in-service training were not significant predictors of the self-efficacy perceptions of the pre-school teachers.

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