Teaching Series Part 4

1. How will the teacher efficacy scores of pre-service teachers, both Scottish and American, compare with the teacher efficacy scores of in-service teachers?

2. How will the teacher efficacy scores of Scottish teachers, both pre-service and in-service, compare with the teacher efficacy scores of American teachers?

Definitions

The concept of teacher efficacy may well have emerged from Bandura' s (1977) work on the conceptualization of self-efficacy and personal efficacy. Bandura (1977) states, "an efficacy expectation is the conviction that one can successfully execute the behavior required to produce outcomes" (p. 193). According to Morin and Welsh (1991), "self-efficacy...is an individual's perception of how effectively one can perform specific behaviors" (p. 1). Applying the concept of self-efficacy to teachers, Gibson and Dembo (184) state, "self-efficacy beliefs would indicate teachers' evaluation of their abilities to bring about positive student change" (p. 570). In 1985 Dembo and Gibson refer to teacher efficacy as "the extent to which teachers believe that they can affect student learning" (p. 173).

Some studies have sharply drawn the distinction between teaching or teacher efficacy and personal or personal teaching efficacy (Gibson and Dembo, 1984; Woolfold and Hoy, 1990; Housego, 1992; Pigge ad Marson, 1993; Gorrell and Hwang, 1995). Teaching efficacy was seen as a general belief in the effectiveness of certain teaching strategies, while personal teaching efficacy has been described as an individual's belief in his or her personal ability to engage in a specific teaching strategy to effect positive student outcomes.

For the purpose of this study, teacher efficacy is defined as a teacher' s belief that he or she can execute the appropriate teacher behavior to effect positive student outcomes.

Pre-service teacher is defined as an individual engaged in his or her initial elementary or primary teacher preparation program with no more than two semesters or terms remaining in order to complete the course of studies. Most often these individuals will be baccalaureate degree seeking candidates but they could also be post baccalaureate students who are seeking their initial certification as elementary of primary teachers. In-service teacher is defined as a certified elementary teacher or registered primary leacher who is currently teaching full-time and who has at least three years teaching experience or who is in the third year of teaching.

Scottish teachers are those who are receiving or who have received their teacher preparation course of study at Scottish institutions of higher education, and who are teaching in Scottish schools. American teachers are defined as those who are being or were educated at American

Go To Page: 1 2