The Effects of Teaching Personality and Counseling Self-Efficacy on Inclusive Education Competence of Child Care Teachers for Handicapped Infants and Toddlers

The purpose of this study is to examine the effect of the teaching personality and counseling self-effi-cacy on inclusive education competence of child care teachers for handicapped infants and Toddlers. For this purpose, an online survey was conducted among 249 childcare teachers of infants and toddlers with disabilities working in integrated child care centers in Seoul and Gyeonggi-do. For the collected data, frequency analysis, Cronbach's α coefficient calculation, descriptive statistics, correlation analysis, and hierarchical regression analysis were conducted according to research problems using the SPSS 29.0 program. The main research results are as follows. First, the teaching personality, counseling self-efficacy, and ability to conduct integrated education of childcare teachers with disabilities were all above the median value. Second, as a result of analyzing the correlation between the teaching personality, counseling self-efficacy, and ability to perform integrated education of childcare teachers with disabilities, significant positive (+) correlations were found between the teaching personality, counseling self-efficacy, overall ability to perform integrated education, and each sub-variable. Third, the teaching personality and coun-seling self-efficacy of childcare teachers with disabilities positively affect the ability to perform integrated education, and among the teaching personality of infants with disabilities, the sense of vocation, passion for students, educational belief, and counseling self-efficacy were found to have a significant influence on the ability to perform integrated education. This study suggests the importance of developing the teaching personality and self-efficacy of childcare teachers of infants and toddlers with disabilities in order to improve their ability to provide integrated education. Based on the results of this study, it is expected that a systematic teacher training program will be developed to support the performance of integrated education for childcare teachers for infants and young children with disabilities.