The impact of childcare teachers' reflective thinking and teacher-infant interaction on play support capabilities

Objectives The purpose of this study is to investigate the influence of childcare teachers' reflective thinking and teacher-infant interaction on play support capabilities. Methods TA survey was conducted on 400 childcare teachers for children ages 0 to 5 working at daycare centers located in Gwangju Metropolitan City and Jeollanam-do, and 355 copies were selected, excluding insincere questionnaires. The collected questionnaires were analyzed using SPSS 24.0 program, and frequency, percentage, Cronbach's α coefficient, mean, standard deviation, skewness, and kurtosis were calculated. In addition, t-test, one-way analysis of variance, and post hoc test were conducted, and data were processed through Pearson's product moment correlation analysis and multiple regression analysis. Results As a result of the study, first, as a result of analyzing the mean, standard deviation, skewness, and kurtosis of the research variables, all of them satisfied normality. Second, a positive correlation was found between childcare teachers' reflective thinking, teacher-child interaction, and play support capabilities. third. It can be interpreted that childcare teachers' reflective thinking and teacher-infant interaction have a significant influence on play support capabilities. Conclusions Through the results of this study, it was confirmed that childcare teachers' reflective thinking and teacher- child interaction have an effect on play support competency. The purpose of this study is to provide basic data to improve the quality of play support competency of teachers in childcare field by understanding the causal relationship between main variables.