Turkish early childhood educators' sense of teacher efficacy

Introduction. The current study explores the level of Turkish prospective and current early childhood teachers' sense of teacher efficacy. Method. One hundred and six prospective, 243 early childhood teachers and a total of 389 participants were involved in the study. Participants responded to the Turkish version of Teacher Sense of Efficacy Scale (TTSES). TTSES also contains Student Engagement (SE), Instructional Strategies (IS) and Classroom Management (CM) subscales. Results. Findings from the study revealed that participants obtained moderately high scores on SE, IS, CM subscales and whole sense of teacher efficacy. It was also found that practicing teachers have a significantly higher sense of teacher efficacy than prospective teachers. Discussion and Conclusion. Findings revealed that Turkish early chilhood prospective and experienced teachers have a moderately high sense of teacher efficacy. All experienced teachers receive significantly higher scores from teacher sense of efficacy scale than prospective teachers. This finding is consistent with the literature however steady increase in teacher efficacy with the years of teaching experience seems inconsistent with several studies. Therefore, conducing a teacher efficacy scale study which is specifically developed for early childhood educators, can provide better data.