Abstract

• The objective of this study was to explore preschool teachers’ beliefs and practices relating to classroom management at the selected public and international private preschools in Mandalay. A total of 38 preschool teachers from six chosen preschools, which include three public preschools and three international private preschools were invited to participate in this study. A mixed research method (both quantitative and qualitative methods) was used in this study. In order to collect and analyze the quantitative data, one instrument was constructed by the researcher based on the result of pre-interviews and literatures. There were four dimensions for classroom management, namely organizing of physical environment, management of planning and programming activities, management of relationship and communication, and management of children’s behaviours. There were ten items for each dimension. The purpose of the instrument was only used to collect data for preschool teachers’ beliefs related to classroom management. For qualitative analysis, observation, and interviews were performed on six teachers from public preschools and four teachers from international private preschools from Mandalay. According to the results of quantitative analysis results, preschool teachers from the selected preschools possess high beliefs concerning to classroom management. When observing and interviewing preschool teachers, some of their practices were inconsistent with their beliefs, therefore, our results show that there were consistency and inconsistency between their beliefs and practices.