Why Do I Feel More Confident? Bandura's Sources Predict Preservice Teachers' Latent Changes in Teacher Self-Efficacy.

Franziska Pfitzner-Eden

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2016.01486

Abstract

Teacher self-efficacy (TSE) is associated with a multitude of positive outcomes for teachers and students. However, the development of TSE is an under-researched area. Bandura (1997) proposed four sources of self-efficacy: mastery experiences, vicarious experiences, verbal persuasion, and physiological and affective states. This study introduces a first instrument to assess the four sources for TSE in line with Bandura's conception. Gathering evidence of convergent validity, the contribution that each source made to the development of TSE during a practicum at a school was explored for two samples of German preservice teachers. The first sample (N = 359) were beginning preservice teachers who completed an observation practicum. The second sample (N = 395) were advanced preservice teachers who completed a teaching practicum. The source measure showed good reliability, construct validity, and convergent validity. Latent true change modeling was applied to explore how the sources predicted changes in TSE. Three different models were compared. As expected, results showed that TSE changes in both groups were significantly predicted by mastery experiences, with a stronger relationship in the advanced group. Further, the results indicated that mastery experiences were largely informed by the other three sources to varying degrees depending on the type of practicum. Implications for the practice of teacher education are discussed in light of the results.

Highlights

Researchers have identified a multitude of meaningful associations between teacher self-efficacy (TSE) and a range of sought after outcomes for inservice and preservice teachers, as well as for students
Some of the verbatim examples reported in this study indicate that preservice teachers draw on feedback by their mentor teacher to inform the judgment of their mastery experiences
The results provide first evidence of good construct validity, convergent validity, and reliability of the self-developed source scales

Summary

Introduction

Researchers have identified a multitude of meaningful associations between teacher self-efficacy (TSE) and a range of sought after outcomes for inservice and preservice teachers, as well as for students. For example, burnout (Fives et al, 2007), occupational commitment (Klassen and Chiu, 2011; Chesnut and Burley, 2015), and commitment to finishing a teaching degree (Pfitzner-Eden, 2016) have been found to be associated with TSE. Reviewers (Henson, 2002; Klassen et al, 2011) have highlighted a lack of studies regarding the formation of TSE beliefs as one key problem hampering progress in this field of research. Supporting the development of TSE beliefs during initial teacher preparation is of particular importance because failures are especially detrimental to self-efficacy development if they occur early on Bandura (1997)

Objectives

Results

Conclusion