Enhancing Self-Efficacy of Beginner Teachers in the Use of E-Portfolio: The Role of a Mentor Teacher

Abstract

The term “beginning teacher” describes those individuals who have less than one to three post qualification years in a teaching profession and or individuals who are entering the teaching profession directly from university. A need exists for a beginner teacher in their first year of teaching to have a mentor teacher that will assist them to improve their self-efficacy so that they can be able to achieve quality teaching and learning in any learning environment. Recent studies have shown that there is growing concern with beginner teachers’ self-efficacy on how to deal with and manage the realities of teaching in modern classrooms. A mentor teacher is a teacher who has a wealth of knowledge, learned from experience and is willing to share. The aim of this study was to investigate how the use of e-portfolio may enhance beginner teacher’s self-efficacy with support from their mentor teachers. The beginner teachers are faced with challenges in their first years of teaching; hence they need mentoring, support to improve their self-efficacy. An e-portfolio might be a means which can assist in monitoring and evaluating the professional activity of the beginner teachers, their achievements and develop them. E-portfolio provides openness and transparency when mentoring the teachers. Qualitative data were collected through focus group discussions with fifty-six (56) randomly selected Post Graduate Certificate in Education (PGCE) students at a university of technology and thematic analysis was employed. Findings of this study indicated that beginner teachers needed guidance and support from their mentor teachers for beginner teachers to transform and build their self- efficacy positively and improve in their use of e-portfolio. The study recommends that induction support be used as an approach to improve novice teachers’ teaching performance and self- efficacy in the use of e-portfolio.