The Preschool Children Control Ideology Scale: Greek Prospective Kindergarten Teachers' Beliefs about Classroom Management

Abstract

AbstactThe educational literature provides a consensus over two basic ideological systems about student behavior control. The custodial orientation is related to the traditional scope of education delivering to the teacher the responsibility of students' control. The humanistic orientation emphasizes on children's self-regulation and participation in classroom management processes. Accordingly, Willower and his associates (1967) developed a rating system, Pupils Control Ideology (PCI). With reference to preschool education, there is a gap in the literature concerning teachers' personal ideologies about classroom management and behavior control. Of great importance is future teachers' idea concerning discipline, as they seem to determine the practices during their teaching carriers. The purpose of the study is to examine the psychometric properties of the Preschool Children Control Ideology (PCCI), developed by modifying the 20 items of the original scale and adding six more concerning rules setting. It was tested with a sample of 294 future kindergarten students. The scale had high internal consistency. Student teachers had more or less balanced ideas over the continuum of custodial and humanistic control ideologies, with a shift to a more humanistic orientation. Senior students to have more humanistic believes than juniors. Teaching efficacy beliefs were positively related with the humanistic beliefs.Keywords: pupils control ideolory, kindergarten, prospective teachers, teaching efficacy, Greece IntroductionAccoding to Wolfgang and Glickman (1986), classroom discipline refers to structures and rules that shape students' behavior and to teachers' efforts to cotrol students so that they comply to these rules. In a recent study, Gursmsek (2014) provided a very comprehensive description of discipline scope. "The main aim of discipline is to socialize children and help them to construct their own values, to teach students to cooperate with others and to develop integrity to make ethical choices and the confidence to act on their values" (p. 437). A discipline model consists of a set of concrete processes that function in multiple ways, focusing on setting rules and maintaining discipline or/and restoring classroom harmonious relationships and functioning. It represents a certain philosophical orientation towards classroom management delivered through a number of practices that may reflect a range of either custodial or humanistic beliefs. These practices are influential in forming social and pedagogical relationships and affect students' social development and school success. As McCaslin and Good (1992) argue, there should be continuity between learning goals and classroom management aims. When, for example the curriculum mandates the development of skills through children's self-regulation, this principle should be followed not only in the academic domain but also when it comes to behavior and relationships management in the classroom. It is noted, however, that although modern curricula lay emphasis on critical th...