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 to provide combinations of attributes that shape high-risk groups of teachers being globally unconfident/inefficacious in teaching mathematics. We examined whether these profiles differed concerning their sense of responsibility for their students’ achievement, self-efficacy (overall), locus of control, special educational needs, and individual parameters/work-related characteristics. Moreover, the 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 seminars in special education (that teachers attended) were evaluated for their contribution in differentiating teachers’ profiles. 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: “Passionate—Confident/Efficacious in Teaching Mathematics,” “Operational—Moderately Confident/Efficacious in Teaching Mathematics,” and “Overworked—Globally Unconfident/Inefficacious in Teaching Mathematics” and typical education teachers, entitled: “Operational—Moderately Confident/Efficacious in Teaching Mathematics,” and “Overworked—Globally Unconfident/Inefficacious in Teaching Mathematics.” Findings are discussed for their implications for designing training programs for teachers at risk.