By Ken To, Centre for University and School Partnership, The Chinese University of Hong Kong

Teachers’ efficacy is regarded as essential for the delivery of high-quality education. A recent research study published in Early Childhood Research Quarterly examined how kindergarten teachers’ self-efficacy can affect children’s social skills through classroom environment, especially teacher-child interaction.

A total of 5,628 children and their teachers from 180 kindergarten classrooms participated in the study. The class sizes varied from 7 to 58 children per class. Teachers were surveyed about their teacher self-efficacy. Children’s social skills were assessed by their parents using the Social Skills Improvement System-Rating Scales. From the videos covering the major routines of the kindergartens, five randomly selected, 20-minute observation cycles were extracted for trained observers to assess the teacher-child interaction quality with the CLASS observational tool. The analysis showed that:

• Classroom organization, instead of emotional support and instructional support, significantly mediated teachers’…