Teachers' Belief and Efficacy Toward Inclusive Education in Early Childhood Settings in Korea

In the literature, teacher self-efficacy has been found to increase teachers' effective teaching strategies and students' positive learning outcomes in inclusive education, which highlights the importance of identifying and fostering factors associated with increased self-efficacy. Thus, the purpose of the current study was to examine the relations between teachers' demographic and background variables (i.e., age, teaching experience, and training experience), teachers' beliefs toward inclusive education, and teachers' self-efficacy. Specifically, this study aimed to test the mediating effects of teachers' beliefs toward inclusive education on the relations between teachers' demographic and background variables and their self-efficacy using structural equation modeling (SEM). Teacher beliefs toward inclusive education included the effectiveness of inclusive education on the social and cognitive development of children with disabilities and on non-disabled students' understanding of the needs of children with disabilities. Results indicated that whereas teacher age and teaching and training experiences had no direct relations with teachers' self-efficacy in inclusive education, teaching and training experiences had significant indirect relations with their self-efficacy through their beliefs toward inclusive education. Implications and future directions are discussed.