Varhaiskasvatuksen opettajan pedagogista asiantuntijuutta rakentamassa
Keywords:
Early childhood teacher education, pedagogical expertise, support and feedback, self-efficacy, motivationAbstract
Through cross-sectional data, the article examines if student self-efficacy and feedback and support received during early childhood education (ECE) teacher studies are associated with early-career pedagogical expertise. Second, the article studies the connection between motivation for ECE teacher studies and pedagogical expertise, and thirdly, whether the potential connections to pedagogical expertise differ between teachers with no work experience in early childhood education and care before teacher studies and those with previous work experience in the field. The research data consists of a survey conducted in the Commitment to early childhood education teacher studies and profession (SIMO) -research project (n = 541) and addressed to ECE teachers with a bachelor´s degree in education who had started teacher training in 2018 or 2019. The analysis method was hierarchical regression. The self-efficacy and the support and feedback during ECE teacher studies were positively connected to the respondents’ pedagogical expertise. The stronger the respondents reported their self-efficacy and the more adequate the support and feedback during their studies, the higher they assessed their pedagogical expertise. The results also showed that previous work experience in the field affected the connection between age and pedagogical expertise. The article points out the importance of supporting student self-efficacy and providing other support and feedback during ECE teacher studies to promote students’ pedagogical expertise and commitment to the field at an early career phase.
