A Study for Developing a Transformative Learning Model for Enhancing Desirable Characteristics of Pre-Service Early Childhood Teachers

Abstract

The purposes of this research were to: (1) investigate the current conditions, problems, and needs for developing desirable characteristics in terms of self-esteem and emotion regulation among early childhood pre-service teachers; and (2) develop and validate a transformative learning model for enhancing these desirable characteristics. The study consisted of two phases. The first phase involved qualitative data collection through focus group discussions with nine early childhood pre-service teachers and in-depth interviews with three experts. The second phase involved synthesizing the findings with Mezirow’s Transformative Learning Theory to develop the learning model and examining its quality through evaluation by seven experts.

The findings revealed that early childhood pre-service teachers experienced low self-confidence during professional practice, particularly in classroom management and dealing with children’s behaviors. In addition, they lacked systematic emotion regulation processes and encountered a gap between theoretical learning and practical application. Consequently, they expressed a need for learning experiences based on simulated
situations within a psychologically safe environment. The developed transformative
learning model consisted of five stages: (1) Disorienting Dilemma, (2) Critical Reflection,
(3) Rational Discourse, (4) Action Planning, and (5) Meaning Making. The quality evaluation indicated that the model and its implementation manual achieved content validity indices ranging from 0.86 to 1.00. The research instruments demonstrated content validity indices ranging from 0.67 to 1.00. The desirable characteristics scale yielded a reliability coefficient of 0.87. Furthermore, the overall quality of the model was rated at the highest level by the experts (X = 4.78, SD = 0.21)