Self-efficacy as a predictor of reading instruction: a comparison between Norwegian and Swedish teachers

Abstract

This study departs from socio-cognitive theory to describe differences in Swedish and Norwegian teachers' attitudes towards reading instruction. The overall aim of the study is to describe how Swedish (n = 340) and Norwegian teachers' (n = 236) self-efficacy for motivating their pupils and adapting their reading instruction vary with their attitudes towards reading instruction-more particularly: reading aloud, conducting text talk in whole class, or conducting teacher-guided text talk in small groups. The study reports a structural equation model using diagonally weighted least squares. We tested that the scales had the same meaning in both countries (invariance analysis) to ensure that the scale was comparable across countries. The results suggest that when compared to Norwegian teachers, the sampled Swedish teachers reported more positive attitudes towards reading instruction and higher self-efficacy for reading instruction. Specifically, reading self-efficacy for reading motivation was substantively higher in the latent (probit) means. In addition, self-efficacy for reading instruction positively predicted higher propensity for positive attitudes towards reading instruction. The study also reports measures for individual reading attitudes (reading aloud, conducting text talk in whole class, or conducting teacher-guided text talk in small groups).

What predicts Swedish teachers' disposition for text talk: A survey study

“…Although not the foci of the study, some noteworthy results concerning complementary explanations will be discussed. Contrary to the common belief that teachers in Swedish and English are more prone to conduct text talk than, for example, teachers in mathematics, sciences, and social sciences, there was no support for such a belief in this study (Westlund, 2013;Reichenberg & Andreassen, 2019). Another surprising result was that special educators were not prone to conduct text talk.…”

“…Special educators encounter students daily who struggle with their reading. Moreover when they attended special education programmes they were exposed to research regarding reading comprehension programmes (Reichenberg & Andreassen, 2019).…”

“…Finally, four dummies were included: special education (=1, none =0), male (=1, female=0), Swedish language teacher (=1, otherwise=0), English language teacher(=1, otherwise=0). One might suspect that language teachers and special educators should be more prone to practising text talk (Westlund, 2013;Reichenberg & Andreassen, 2019). In total, 50 percent taught Swedish as a school subject.…”

Will an app-based reading intervention change how teachers rate their teaching self-efficacy beliefs? A test of social cognitive theory in Swedish special educational settings

“…TSE beliefs are known to be a crucial variable when teaching students to read and comprehend texts (Reichenberg and Andreassen, 2019). Results of previous intervention studies on TSE have been inconclusive.…”

“…Teachers' agreement with these statements indicated confidence in their capabilities to overcome factors that could create obstacles to students' learning. The statements have previously been used (Reichenberg and Andreassen, 2019).…”