Structural relationship among early childhood teachers' grit, professionalism, and teaching efficacy

Objectives The purpose of this study was to examine the mediating effect of expertise in the relationship between grit and teaching efficacy of early childhood teachers by examining the structural relationship among early childhood teachers' grit, professionalism, and teaching efficacy. Methods In order to achieve the purpose of this study, a survey was conducted targeting 430 early childhood teachers working in kindergartens and daycare centers located in Busan & Ulsan. For data processing and analysis, SPSS 26.0 & AMOS 26.0 were used to verify the structural equation model. Results First, as a result of descriptive statistical analysis to look at the general tendency of the measurement variables used in this study, grit appeared the highest, followed by professionalism and teaching efficacy. Second, as a result of conducting Pearson's moment-rate correlation analysis to examine the correlation between the measurement variables used in this study, it was found that there was a statistically significant static correlation among grit, professionalism, and teaching efficacy. Third, as a result of examining the structural relationship between grit, professionalism, and teaching efficacy through the final model, it was found that grit affects teaching efficacy completely mediated by professionalism. Conclusions Through the results of this study, it is expected to provide basic data for preparing measures to increase the teaching efficacy of early childhood teachers by identifying the relationship between grit and professionalism, which are factors that affect early childhood teachers' teaching efficacy.