A Comparative Analysis of Elementary Education Teacher Self-Efficacy

Since the RAND corporation study of more than three decades ago, researchers have continued to demonstrate that a teacher’s sense of efficacy is one of few teacher characteristics related to student achievement. So what helps to build teacher self-efficacy? In recent years, researchers have established that experiences such as student teaching are highly influential in the development of teacher self-efficacy as well as the degree and type of support that student teachers receive. Furthermore, establishing a strong belief in one’s abilities to perform teaching tasks during the preservice teacher stage seems to have more of an impact than waiting until after a teacher is already in the classroom. These findings stress the important role and responsibility that teacher preparation programs play in developing and securing high teacher efficacy at a most influential time. Yet there are still many unanswered questions regarding how teacher preparation programs influence teacher self-efficacy. This book presents a timely study which looks at teacher self-efficacy at the conclusion of teacher training and tracks teachers into the classroom and to the end of their first year of teaching.