The Influence of Senior High School Mathematics Teachers’ Demographic Variables on their Self-Efficacy in Teaching

Abstract

Teachers' self-efficacy is teachers' ideas in their ability to successfully manage the tasks, responsibilities, as well as obstacles associated with their professional activity, plays a crucial role in influencing academic outcomes e.g., students' achievements as well as motivation and wellness in the working environment. The perception students have towards mathematics as a subject is one of the key concerns in educational stakeholder's desire to find a lasting solution to the issue of low grades in the subject and lack of interest in mathematics. Many teachers are reported to dislike, fear, and fail to understand mathematics; this leads to the conclusion that some high school teachers’ negative attitudes toward mathematics negatively affect their mathematics teaching self-efficacy beliefs, which eventually leads to ineffective mathematics instruction. The current study was conducted with the purpose of determining the influence of senior high school mathematics teachers’ demographic variables on their self-efficacy in teaching. The study was anchored on social cognitive theory. After comprehensive review of a number of existing literature, the study found out that majority of the reviewed literature reported that male teachers had significantly stronger self-efficacy views than their female colleagues. Moreover, the outcomes revealed that there was no statistically substantial difference between the means of the 5 teams of teacher mentor experience in regards to teacher efficiency. The research wraps up that teachers' group variables and also perspectives towards mathematics have significant impacts on their self-efficacy in training mathematics. The study hence advises that enhancing mathematics instructor's self-efficacy in instructing the topic is an important necessity that permanent and also potential teachers should be considered for trainees' mathematical success.