A Case Study of Elementary Beginning Mathematics Teachers’ Efficacy Development

Abstract

The main purpose of this research was to explore the developmental process of and possible changes in beginning elementary mathematics teachers' efficacy. Beginning teachers with and without mathematics and science backgrounds were also compared to explore differences in their efficacy development. A multiple-case study method with a process and recursive design was employed in this study. The participants were six beginning elementary mathematics teachers purposefully selected from Taichung, Taiwan. Data were collected through interviews, recordings, observations, and reflection notes and then analyzed by immersion and editing analytic techniques. Based on the data analysis, a five-gradation developmental model and its characteristics of elementary beginning mathematics teacher efficacy was developed and proposed. The findings demonstrated the developmental process of this five-gradation model and its continuity and cyclical nature. Moreover, beginning mathematics teachers, who were at the same efficacy levels, tended to exhibit substantial similarities but slight differences in their developmental processes. This study also verified that the construct of internal and external factors played a significant role in cyclically contributing to continuous efficacy development. The implications of beginning mathematics teachers' efficacy and their professional development that derived from the findings and discussions were proposed, as well as a recommendation for further exploration on their efficacy development.KEY WORDS: efficacy development, elementary beginning mathematics teacher, professional development, teacher efficacy

A Study on PGDE Student-Teacher Efficacy Beliefs in the Sri Lankan Context

“…In classroom practices, the ability of teachers to produce desired results is called teacher efficacy or teacher selfefficacy beliefs. Teacher self-efficacy belief, a personal characteristic, has gained much attention in recent years (Chang, 2010;Bandura, 1997). Numerous studies in recent years have focused on the importance of the selfefficacy concept in understanding the behaviour of teachers and students in the learning process (Arigbabu, Abayomi, & Oludipe, 2009).…”

“…Teachers with high self-efficacy are more likely to develop challenging activities, help students succeed and persevere with students who have trouble learning (Kurz & Knight 2003). Studies on self-efficacy or the sense of efficacy of teachers have explored many fields of study and contexts, such as individual relationships, collective efficacy and goal (Kurz & Knight 2003), collective efficacy at the classroom level (Putney & Broughton, 2011), self-efficacy beliefs of novice and experienced teachers (Tschannen-Moran & Woolfolk Hoy, 2007;Marshall, Horton, Igo, & Switzer, 2007), self-efficacy of mathematics teachers (Marshall et al, 2007;Chang, 2010), self-efficacy of pre-service teachers (Cerit, 2010), self-efficacy of science teachers (Cantrell, Young, & Moore, 2017;Smolleck, Carla & Yoder, 2006;Arigbabu et al, 2009), self-efficacy and burn out in teaching (Friedman, 2003), teacher self-efficacy on the curriculum reform (McCormick & Ayres, 2009;Charalambous & Philippou, 2010) and self-efficacy on the technological pedagogical content (Lee & Tsai, 2008). No related study was found in the search of the literature based on the self-efficacy of teachers in the context of Sri Lanka.…”

“…It can also serve as a warning of the critical problems faced by teachers (Chang, 2010) which can be addressed in future programmes. However, follow-up studies on the performance of teachers in the teaching and learning process after successfully completing the PGDE programme are unavailable.…”

From beliefs to dynamic affect systems in mathematics education

“…Bandura's sources of TEBs have been studied through different approaches, with respect to their infl uence on teachers' effi cacy, and in connection to other educational parameters, such as the role of TEBs as coping resources against job stressors (Betoret 2009 ;Brand and Wilkins 2007 ;Chang 2009 ). Much of the relevant research (Charalambous et al 2008 ; Tschannen-Moran and Woolfolk Hoy 2007 ) has focused on the weight of each source in the formation of TEBs and also on their effect on TEBs of teachers being at different career stages.…”

“…Bandura's sources have been examined both quantitatively (Chang 2009 ) and qualitatively (Usher and Pajares 2009 ), and efforts to build a stronger measure of the sources of self-effi cacy have been reported (Klassen et al 2011 ). Some social and contextual sources of TEBs, including the school climate and characteristics of the group of students, have also been examined (Tschannen-Moran and Woolfolk Hoy 2007 ).…”