The Role of Teachers in Supporting Kindergarten Children’s Self-Efficacy in Play

• In Event: Saturday Roundtable Session 3:05 pm
  In Roundtable Session: Multiple Approaches to Play Research (Table 5)

Abstract

Children’s self-efficacy development has important implications for academic achievement, resilience, and overall development (Supervía et al., 2022). In kindergarten, play-based learning environments have been shown to encourage the development of self-efficacy (Velten, 2022). Using Bandura’s (1997) theory of self-efficacy development, this study explored the teacher’s role in supporting children’s self-efficacy in play-based kindergarten classrooms. Through qualitative analysis of video observations, results demonstrated that teachers use multiple strategies to support children’s self-efficacy in play-based learning contexts. Of the strategies observed, mastery experiences, through problem-solving, non-verbal cues, questioning, and social persuasion were the most observed actions taken by the teachers. These results provide support for the crucial context that play provides for self-efficacy development.

Authors

• Tiffany Dao, University of Toronto

• Ellen Fesseha, University of Toronto

• Xiaohan Wang, University of Toronto

• Angela Pyle, University of Toronto - OISE