Changes in STEM Teacher Self-Efficacy: Examining Professional Transitions of STEM Interns in a Secondary Teacher Education Program
Keywords:
higher education, STEM teacher professional development, self-efficacy, professional transition, preservice teachers, professional knowledge, teacher inductionAbstract
This study builds on a previous report of preservice STEM teacher development that examined how their perceptions of professional self-efficacy changed over the course of enrollment in the Master of Arts in Teaching in Secondary (MAT) Education Program. This study examined themes of transition from pre-professional to professional status for six preservice teachers enrolled in a Master of Arts in Teaching in Secondary Education Program in 2022-23. A mixed methods research design utilized qualitative methods for deriving data from pre and post essays and quantitative methods for describing the reliability and relationships among standardized measures of professional self-efficacy. Results indicated a generalized level of confidence for interns in the total experience of teaching, ability to manage a classroom, deriving personal goals, maintaining confidence in sustaining self and students’ engagement in their classrooms, and professional knowledge of instruction.
References
Ainsworth, S., & Oldfield, J. (2019). Quantifying teacher resilience: Context matters. Teaching and Teacher Education, 82, 117–128.
Alsup, J. (2006). Teacher identity discourses. Negotiating personal and professional spaces. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.
Bamburg, J.D. (1994). Raising expectations to improve student learning (Urban Monograph Series, CS). Oak Brook, IL: North Central regional educational lab.
Bandura A. (1986). Social foundations of thought and action: a social cognitive theory. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice Hall.
Bandura, A. (1997). Self-efficacy: The exercise of control. Prentice Hall.
Beauchamp, C., & Thomas, L. (2009). Understanding teacher identity: An overview of issues in the literature and implications for teacher education. Cambridge Journal of Education, 39(2), 175–189. https://doi.org/10.1080/03057640902902252
Beijaard, D., Meijer, P.C., & Verloop, N. (2004). Reconsidering research on teachers’ professional identity. Teaching and Teacher Education, 20(2), 107–128. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2003.07.001
Bell, N.J., & Das, A. (2011). Emergent organization in the dialogical self: Evolution of a “both” ethnic identity position. Culture and Psychology, 17(2), 241–262. https://doi.org/10.1177/1354067X11398312
Bischoff, P., French, P., & Schaumloffel, J. (2017). A longitudinal essay analysis of Noyce interns’ growth in self-view on teaching science in high-needs school districts. International Journal of Environmental and Science Education, 12(5), 1217–1232.
Capa Aydin, T., & Woolfolk Hoy, A. (2005). What Predicts Teacher Self-Efficacy? Academic Exchange Quarterly, 9, 123–128.
Cochran-Smith, M. (2004). Stayers, leavers, lovers, and dreamers: Insights about teacher retention. Journal of Teacher Education, 55(5), 387–392. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022487104270188
Coyle, A. (2006). Discourse analysis. In G.M. Breakwell, S. Hammond, C. Fife-Schaw, & J.A. Smith (Eds.), Research methods in psychology (pp. 366–387). SAGE.
Creswell, J., & Plano Clark, V. (2011). Designing and conducting mixed methods research (2nd ed., pp. 7–11). SAGE.
Dolighan, T., & Owen, M. (2021). Teacher efficacy for online teaching during the Covid 19 Pandemic. Brock Education, 30(1), 95–116.
Edwards, F.C.E., & Edwards, R.J. (2016). A story of culture and teaching: the complexity of teacher identity formation. The Curriculum Journal, 28(2), 190–211. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585176.2016.1232200
Flores, M.A., & Day, C. (2006). Contexts which shape and reshape new teachers’ identities: A multi-perspective study. Teaching and Teacher Education, 22(2), 219–232. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2005.09.002
Geijsel, F., & Meijers, F. (2005). Identity learning: The core process of educational change. Educational Studies, 31(4), 419–430. https://doi.org/10.1080/03055690500237488
Guest, G., & Fleming, P. (2015), Chapter 19. Mixed methods research. In G. Guest, & E. Namey (Eds.), Public health research methods. SAGE.
Guo, Y., Piasta, S.B., Justice, L.M., & Kaderavek, J.N. (2010). Relations among preschool teachers’ self-efficacy, classroom quality, and children’s language and literacy gains. Teaching and Teacher Education, 26(4), 1094–1103. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2009.11.005
Henry, A. (2016). Conceptualizing teacher identity as a complex dynamic system: The inner dynamics of transformations during a practicum. Journal of Teacher Education, 67(4), 291–305. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022487116655382
Hermans, H.J.M. (2008). How to perform research on the basis of dialogical self theory? Introduction to the special issue. Journal of Constructivist Psychology, 21(3), 185–199.
Hoy, W.K., & Woolfolk, A.E. (1993). Teachers’ sense of efficacy and the organizational health of schools. Elementary School Journal, 93(4), 355–372. https://doi.org/10.1086/461729
Joyce, B., Hersh, R.H., & McKibbin, M. (1983). The structure of school improvement. Longman.
McKibbin, M., & Joyce, B. (1980). Psychological states and staff development. Theory into Practice, 19(4), 248–255. Taylor & Francis, Ltd. https://doi.org/10.1080/00405848009542908
Moore, W., & Esselman, M. (1992). Teacher efficacy, power, school climate, and achievement: A desegregating district’s experience. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association, San Francisco.
Nieto, S. (2003). What keeps teachers going? Teacher’s College Press.
Pellerone, M. (2021). Self-perceived instructional competence, self-efficacy and burnout during the Covid-19 pandemic: A study of a group of Italian school teachers. European Journal of Investigation in Health, Psychology and Education, 11(2), 496–512. https://doi.org/10.3390/ejihpe11020035
Posten, H.O. (1982). Two-sample Wilcoxon power over the Pearson system and comparison with the t-test. Journal of Statistical Computation and Simulation, 16, 1–18.
Potter, J., & Wetherell, M. (1995). Discourse analysis. In J. Smith, R. Harré, & L. Van Langenhove (Eds.), Rethinking methods in psychology (pp. 80–92). SAGE.
Pressley, T. (2021). Returning to teaching during COVID-19: An empirical study on elementary teachers’ self-efficacy. Psychology in the Schools, 58(8), 1611–1623. https://doi.org/10.1002/pits.22528
Rabaglietti, E., Lattke, L.S., Tesauri, B., Settanni, M., & De Lorenzo, A. (2021). A balancing act during Covid-19: Teachers’ self-efficacy, perception of stress in the distance learning experience. Frontiers in Psychology, 12, 644108. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.644108
Rodgers, C.R., & Scott, K.H. (2008). The development of the personal self and professional identity in learning to teach. In M. Cochran-Smith, S. Feiman-Nemser, D.J. McIntyre, & K.E. Demers (Eds.), Handbook of research on teacher education (pp. 732–755). Routledge.
Ryel, R., Bernsausen, D., & van Tassell, F. (2001). Advocating resiliency through wellness. Paper presented at the 2001 Association of Teacher Educators annual meeting. New Orleans, LA.
Shoulders, T.L., & Krei, M.S. (2015). Rural high school teachers’ self-efficacy in student engagement, instructional strategies, and classroom management. American Secondary Education, 44(1), 50–61.
Toolin, R., & Meyers, H. (2020). An analysis of Noyce scholar personal and professional self-efficacy. International Journal of Social Policy and Education, 2(9), 17–24.
Tschannen-Moran, M., & Hoy, A.W. (2001). Teacher efficacy: Capturing an elusive construct. Teaching and Teacher Education, 17(7), 783–805. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0742-051X(01)00036-1
Tschannen-Moran, M., & Hoy, A.W. (2007). The differential antecedents of self-efficacy beliefs of novice and experienced teachers. Teaching and Teacher Education, 23(6), 944–956. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2006.05.003
Vermunt, J.D., Vrikki, M., Warwick, P., & Mercer, N. (2017). Connecting teacher identity formation to patterns in teacher learning. In D.J. Clandinin, & J. Husu (Eds.), The SAGE Handbook of Research on Teacher Education, 1, 143–159. SAGE Publications Ltd.
Walkington, J. (2005). Becoming a teacher: Encouraging development of teacher identity through reflective practice. Asia-Pacific Journal of Teacher Education, 33(1), 53–64. https://doi.org/10.1080/1359866052000341124
Whitfield, J. (2016). Comparing Noyce interns’ decisions to teach and perspectives on teaching to non-noyce interns. In B.R. Lawler, R.N. Ronau, & M.J. Mohr-Schroeder (Eds.), Proceedings of the Fifth Annual Mathematics Teacher Education Partnership Conference. Washington, DC. Association of Public Land-Grant Universities.
Yi, E. (2018). Themes don’t just emerge—Coding the qualitative data. Retrieved from https://medium.com/@projectux/themes-dont-just-emerge-coding-the-qualitative-data-95aff874fdce
