Samoučinkovitost odgojitelja i pedagoške kompetencije ravnatelja predškolskih ustanova
Preschool teachers’ self-efficacy and principals’ pedagogical competencies

Summary/Abstract: Self-efficacy is the belief in one's ability to organize and perform specific actions which are necessary to accomplish desired goals. It does not refer to objective abilities to carry out a specific action, but to subjective estimate if the action can be performed successfully. Self-efficacy is the key factor of human functioning, it is a determinant and a predictor of the degree of success that will eventually be achieved. Self-efficacy is largely affected by qualitative leadership in work environment. The precondition of qualitative principal’s leadership are his optimally developed pedagogical competencies. On the basis of theoretical hypotheses and empirical research this paper seeks to examine the way preschool teachers evaluate their self-efficacy and their principals' pedagogical competencies. The relationship between preschool teachers’ evaluation of self-efficacy and their evaluation of principals’ pedagogical competencies is also studied in the paper. The study included 75 preschool teachers in Vukovar-Srijem County. The results have shown that the teachers highly evaluate their self-efficacy as well as the principals’ pedagogical competencies. The statistically significant positive relationship between preschool teachers' evaluation of self-efficacy and their evaluation of principals' pedagogical competencies is found. The paper elaborates reasons of importance of self-efficacy in preschool teachers’ work as well as the key roles of principals’ pedagogical competencies and their quality management of the educational institution.

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