Teacher Characteristics as Predictors of Emotion-Focused Teaching
Practices: A Study on Chinese Preschool Teachers
Abstract
Preschool teachers are regarded as important socializers for young
children’s social-emotional development. Moreover, preschool teachers’
emotion-focused teaching practices have gained increasing attention.
This study examined relations between three sets of teacher
characteristics (i.e., professional background, emotion-focused teaching
beliefs, and psychological skills) and teachers’ emotion-focused
teaching practices. Based on data collected from 287 Chinese preschool
teachers, this study revealed that teachers’ emotion-related teaching
beliefs and certain psychological skills (i.e., emotional intelligence
and self-efficacy) positively predicted their emotion-focused teaching
practices. However, having more years of teaching experience was related
to poorer emotion-focused teaching practices. The findings advance the
understanding of antecedent factors of emotion-focused teaching in the
Chinese preschool contexts by highlighting the significance of teachers’
emotion-focused beliefs, emotional intelligence, and self-efficacy in
promoting their teaching practices related to emotion socialization.
Professional development programs may endeavor to cultivate positive
emotion-oriented teaching beliefs and augment teachers’ emotional
intelligence and self-efficacy.