Preservice teachers’ self-efficacy: predicting changes over the internship period through attributional styles and implicit theories of intelligence

Abstract

This study focuses on preservice teachers’ self-efficacy and its development throughout the course of a school-internship. Based on previous findings, we expected that preservice teachers’ self-efficacy would increase during their internship. Moreover, we argued that this initial development of self-efficacy would be associated with the way the first teaching experiences are attributed to different causes as well as to preservice teachers’ implicit theories of intelligence. To this end, surveys with N = 162 German preservice teachers were conducted at the beginning and at the end of their 17-week internship. Results revealed an increase of self-efficacy throughout the course of the internship. Using a structural equation model, self-efficacy at the end of the internship was significantly predicted by self-efficacy at the beginning as well as by attributing successes to internal, stable, and controllable causes, but not by an incremental theory of intelligence. Implications for further research and teacher education are discussed.