The impact of early childhood teachers’ professionalism, play beliefs, and play teaching efficacy on play support capabilities.

Objectives In this study, the relationship between early childhood teachers' professional perception, play belief, play teaching efficacy, and play support capabilities was identified, and the effect of early childhood teachers' professional perception, play belief, and play teaching efficacy on play support capabilities was analyzed. Methods Data on the scale of professionalism perception, play belief, play teaching efficacy, and play support capability were collected from 166 infant teachers working at daycare centers located in A and S cities in Chungcheongnam-do. The collected data were subjected to frequency analysis, descriptive statistics, reliability tests, correlation analysis, and hierarchical regression analysis using the SPSS ver. 22.0 program. Results First, there was a significant positive correlation between early childhood teachers' professional perception, play belief, play teaching efficacy, and play support competency. Second, when examining the influence of early childhood teachers' professional perception, play belief, and play teaching efficacy on play support competency, it was found that play belief and play teaching efficacy had a significant effect on play support competency, but professional awareness did not significantly affect play support competency. Conclusions The results of this study suggest the necessity of developing a systematic educational program to develop professionalism awareness, play beliefs, and play teaching efficacy in order to develop the play support capabilities of early childhood teachers.