Behavior management strategies: beliefs and practices of male and female early childhood teachers

Abstract

This article reports on a comparison of male and female early childhood teachers' beliefs and self-reported practices related to behavior management (BM). The respondents comprised 46 male and 46 female teachers, and independent-samples t-tests were conducted to compare beliefs and self-reported practices about BM strategies across these two groups. There were significant differences between the male and female teachers' self-confidence scores, and the ways in which they interacted with their pupils' parents. However, no significant differences were found between the male and female respondents' beliefs relating to the usefulness of BM strategies, or the frequency of their use of these strategies. Two-way ANOVAs were also conducted to explore the impact of gender/teaching experience, gender/educational level, and gender/class size on teachers' self-confidence; their perceptions of the usefulness of BM strategies; the frequency with which they used such strategies; and their interactions with parents. None of these relationships were statistically significant.