Analysis of the Latent Class of Pre-early Childhood Teachers' Playfulness and Impact Variables

Purpose: In order to understand the characteristics that early childhood teachers should have as playsupporters, this study identified playfulness types according to the playfulness of pre-early childhoodteachers, explored predictive variables that affected them, and compared the differences in understandingof children’s play, student engagement, academic self-efficacy, and learning motivation between groups. Methods: To this end, 123 students from S university in Gwangju were subjected to latent profilingand polynomial logistic regression analyses. Results: First, three latent classes were derived: a ‘low playfulness group’, a ‘middle playfulnessgroup’, and a ‘high playfulness group’. Second, as a result of analyzing the difference between groups,it was found that the ‘high playfulness group’ recognized understanding of children's play and academicself-efficacy was higher than the ‘middle playfulness group’. Finally, it was found that self-directedlearning, participation in high-efficiency programs, academic motivation, and academic self-efficacyaffected group classification. Conclusion: Based on these results, discussions and educational implications for the developmentof playfulness for pre-early childhood teachers were proposed.