Assessing Mathematics Teaching Efficacy Profiles in Kindergarten: The impact of special educational needs, school climate, responsibility for student achievement, self-efficacy and locus of control

This study aims to gain insights into the heterogeneity of early childhood teachers’ mathematics teaching efficacy and seek evidence to build their specific profiles, following a person- oriented approach. This approach was chosen in order to provide combinations of attributes that shape high-risk groups of teachers who are globally unconfident / inefficacious in teaching mathematics. Moreover, we examined whether these profiles differed with regard to their sense of responsibility for students’ achievement, self-efficacy, locus of control, special educational needs and individual parameters / work-related characteristics, such as teacher’s gender, age, highest degree, educational experience, intention to work as a teacher (in years), monthly income, number of modules related to special education and seminar in special education (that teachers attended). The sample included 547 in-service typical and special education teachers working in kindergartens. Two cluster analyses (two-step) yielded different profiles for special education teachers, entitled: “Confident/ Efficacious in Teaching Mathematics”, “Moderately Confident/Efficacious in Teaching Mathematics”, and “Globally Unconfident/ Inefficacious in Teaching Mathematics” and typical education teachers, entitled: “Moderately Confident/Efficacious in Teaching Mathematics”, and “Globally Unconfident/ Inefficacious in Teaching Mathematics”. Findings are discussed for their implications to design training programs for teachers at risk.