Self-efficacy and its sources in beginner and advanced student teachers

1. Self-efficacy and Its Sources In Beginner
and Advanced Student Teachers
By Aisling O’Connor
Dr. Suzanne Parkinson

2. Outline of presentation
1. What is
self-
efficacy?
2. Previous
research
3. Current
study
4. Method
5. Results
(Quantitative)
6. Results
(Qualitative)
7.
Discussion
8.
Limitations
and
implications
for ITE

3. “If a man is to shed the light of the sun upon
other men, he must first of all have it within
himself.”
(Romain Rolland, 1962)

4. What is Self-Efficacy?
• The perception of one’s ability to carry out a task
• Four sources of self-efficacy applied to teaching:
1. Mastery Experiences (teaching experiences)
2. Vicarious experiences (Teacher observation)
3. Verbal persuasion (encouragement by mentor and
others)
4. Physiological and affective states (reactions to
stressful situations)
(Bandura, 1977, 1997)

5. Research on Teacher Self-efficacy
and its sources
• Tschannen-Moran and Woolfolk Hoy (2007) and Hoy and Spero
(2005) found that teacher self-efficacy increased with experience
in teachers and student teachers.
• Mastery experiences has been noted as the most influential
source of self-efficacy (Bandura, 1997; Tschannen-Moran &
Woolfolk Hoy; Pfitzer-Eden, 2016).
• Verbal persuasion has had a significant influence on self-efficacy
in student teachers (Poulou, 2007; O’Neill & Stephenson, 2012)

6. Research on Teacher Self-efficacy and its
sources
• Vicarious experiences, verbal persuasion and physiological and
affective states predicted mastery experiences in student
teachers (Pfitzer-Eden, 2016).
• Vicarious experiences had a larger influence on mastery
experiences for beginner student teachers.
• No research in student teacher self-efficacy in the Irish context
to date.

7. The Current Study
• Self-efficacy and the sources of self-efficacy in
beginner and advanced student teachers
• First Irish context in self-efficacy and student
teaching.
• Hypotheses:
1. Beginner student teachers will have lower self-
efficacy than advanced student teachers
2. Mastery experiences will be the greatest
predictor of self-efficacy for student teachers
3. Vicarious experiences, verbal persuasion and
physiological and affective states will predict
mastery experiences in all student teachers

8. Method
• Mixed methods design.
• Approved by Educational Psychology Ethics
Board of Mary Immaculate College.
• All self-efficacy and sources of self-efficacy
scales were tested for reliability

9. Method
• Reliabilities for scales:

10. Method
QUANTITATIVE STUDY
Participants:
• 100 participants,
• Convenience sample of Mary Immaculate College
students (M = 20.66, SD = 1.16)
• 2 groups:
1. Beginner student teachers (2nd year, n = 50)
2. Advanced student teachers (4th year, n = 50)
Materials
1. Sense of Self-Efficacy scale
2. Sources of Self-Efficacy scales

11. Method
QUALITATIVE STUDY
Focus Group Interview
Participants:
• Focus Group 1: Beginner student teachers, n = 4.
• Focus Group 2: Advanced student teachers, n = 6.
Materials
• Focus Group Questions: 9 questions
• Thematic analysis to identify similar and different
themes.

12. Results
Quantitative analyses
1. T-tests:
• Significant difference in self-efficacy between beginner and
advanced student teachers; t(98) = -3.7, p < .001, eta-squared =
0.12.
• Significant difference between both groups in all subscales:
Instructional Strategies, [t (98) = -3.52, p =.001], Student
Engagement, [t (98) = 93.03, p = .003] and Classroom
Management [ t (98) = -3.89, p < .001].

13. Results
2. Spearman’s Rank Order Correlations:

14. Results
3. Hierarchical Multiple Regression
BEGINNER STUDENT TEACHERS
• Teacher Sense of Self-efficacy
(controlled): 19.2% of variance in
mastery experiences
• Sources of self-efficacy: 35.1% of
variance in mastery experiences.
• Verbal persuasion by the mentor and
physiological and affective states:
predictors of mastery experiences
ADVANCED STUDENT TEACHERS

15. Qualitative Results
• Thematic analysis was conducted (Braun &
Clarke, 2006).
Themes:
1. Confidence
2. Observation of the classroom teacher
3. Support
4. Stress.

16. Results
Similarities in themes between beginner and advanced students

17. Results
Differences in themes between beginner and advanced students

18. Qualitative Results
• Confidence
“Like I wasn’t really great at public speaking or
anything. So I felt that through placement my
confidence in teaching and like everywhere as well
developed” (Beginner student teacher)
• Stress
“She (university mentor) laid into me. I burst into tears
afterwards. I came home and cried…I was wrecked. I
was exhausted, I never really recovered from it. I felt so
stressed and anxious” (Advanced student teacher.)

19. Discussion
1. Quantitative insights
Beginner student teachers
• Lower self-efficacy than advanced student teachers
(Tschannen-Moran & Woolfolk Hoy, 2007)
• Mastery experiences was associated with self-
efficacy (Poulou, 2007)
• No other sources of self-efficacy had an influence on
self-efficacy
• Verbal persuasion by mentor and physiological and
affective states were predictors of mastery
experiences (Pfitzer-Eden, 2016)

20. Discussion
Advanced student teachers
• Higher self-efficacy than beginner student teachers
• Mastery experiences were strongly associated with
self-efficacy
• Verbal persuasion by mentor, verbal persuasion by
others and physiological and affective states were
associated with self-efficacy (O’Neill & Stephenson,
2012).
• Verbal persuasion by mentor and others and
physiological and affective states were predictors of
mastery experiences (Pfitzer-Eden, 2016).

21. Discussion
Beginner student teachers
• Informal mastery experience had the biggest
influence on self-efficacy (Tuchman & Isaacs,
2011)
• Negative vicarious experiences influenced their
teaching (Pfitzer-Eden, 2016)
• Support from peers was a form of verbal
persuasion which influenced their self-efficacy
2. Qualitative insights

22. Discussion
Advanced student teachers
• Formal mastery experiences had a positive
influence on self-efficacy (Pfitzer-Eden, 2016)
• Support from classroom mentor influenced
self-efficacy (O’Neill & Stephenson, 2012)
• University mentors were not positive sources of
verbal persuasion
• Physiological and affective states had negative
implications for self-efficacy (Pfitzer-Eden,
2016)

23. Limitations
• Sample size, N = 100 with few males (n = 50)
• Cross-sectional study, longitudinal study would
provide more information
• Scales: self-report measures
• Some qualitative findings contradict quantitative
findings, outliers.

24. Implications
• Initial teacher education
• Providing a large amount of teaching placement to
increase mastery experiences
• Verbal persuasion by the mentor; university mentor
and classroom teacher
• Move to partnership based model of ITE like Finland
and Singapore (Lind, 2013)
• More involvement of classroom teacher in supporting
student teachers

25. References
Bandura, A. (1977). Self-efficacy: toward a unifying theory of behavioural change. Psychological Review, 84, 191–215.
Bandura, A. (1997). Self-efficacy: The Exercise of Control. New York, NY: Freeman.
Hoy, A., & Spero, R. (2005). Erratum to “Changes in teacher efficacy during the early years of teaching: A comparison of
four measures”. Teaching and Teacher Education, 21(6), 743.
Lind, P. (2013). What are the characteristics of exemplary initial teacher education programmes in countries similar to
Aotearoa/New Zealand? Waikato Journal Of Education, 18(1).
O’Neill, S. C., & Stephenson, J. (2011). The measurement of classroom management self-efficacy: a review of measurement instrument
development and influences. Educational Psychological Review, 31, 261–299.
Pfitzner-Eden, F. (2016). Why Do I Feel More Confident? Bandura's Sources Predict Preservice Teachers' Latent Changes in Teacher Self-
Efficacy. Frontiers In Psychology, 7.
Poulou, M. (2007). Personal Teaching Efficacy and Its Sources: Student teachers’ perceptions. Educational Psychology, 27(2), 191-218.
Tschannen-Moran, M., & Woolfolk Hoy, A. (2007). The differential antecedents of self-efficacy beliefs of novice and experienced teachers.
Teacher and Teacher Education. 23, 944–954
Tuchman, E., & Isaacs, J. (2011). The influence of formal and informal formative pre‐service experiences on teacher self‐efficacy. Educational
Psychology, 31 (4), 413-433.