The effect of teachers and preschool education in children's self-regulation development

This study was conducted to investigate the effects of preschool teachers' self-regulation, their teaching practices to support self-regulated learning, and the effects of preschool education on 48-72 months old children's self-regulation skills. The study was designed as a relational screening model which is a type of quantitative design. The sample of the study consists of 316 teachers working in the kindergarten and preschool institutions and 213 57-76 months old children. The demographic information of the participants was collected through the Demographic Information Form, which was constructed by the researcher. Self-regulation of teachers' data was gathered by using the Self-Regulation Scale, which was adapted to Turkish by Aydın, Özer Keskin and Yel (2014). The teaching practices used by teachers to support children's self-regulated learning were evaluated using the Assessing of Preschool Teachers' Practices to Promote Self-Regulated Learning scale, which was developed by Adagideli, Saraç, and Ader (2015). The self-regulation skills of children were evaluated by Preschool Self-Regulation Assessment (PSRA), which was adapted to Turkish by Fındık Tanrıbuyurdu (2014). To data analysis, the Kruskal Wallis test was used to determine whether teachers' self-regulation differed according to their years of teaching expereince and age in self-reinforcement, self-monitoring, and self-assessment sub-dimensions. In the study, the Mann Whitney U test was run to determine whether there is a significant difference between attention-impulse control and positive emotion sub-dimension according to age, gender, and preschool education duration of children's self-regulation. Spearman Correlation analysis was conducted to determine the relationship between teacher self-regulation and practices to support self-regulation learning with children's self-regulation. Findings revealed that the self-regulation skills of children significantly different in favor of children older than 68 months. It was also found that children's self-regulation and emotion regulation differed by gender. However, this difference was not observed in the attention-impulse control dimension of children. According to the study finding, girls' self-regulation and emotion regulation are highest than boys. Moreover, the self-regulation of children differed by the duration of preschool education. Accordingly, the self-regulation skills of children who have received more than one year of preschool education are significantly higher than children who have received less than one year of preschool education. As a result of the research, there is a significantly positive relationship between teachers' self-regulation and their classroom practices used to support self-regulated learning of children's self-regulation skills. Keywords: Self-regulation, early childhood education, self-regulated learning, preschool teacher, relational screening.