Pre-Service Student-Teacher Self-efficacy Beliefs: An Insight Into the Making of Teachers

Abstract

Pre-service teacher education programs play an important role in the development of beginning teacher self-efficacy and identity. Research suggests that this development is influenced by the 'apprenticeship of learning'. However, there remains limited research about the self-efficacy beliefs and identity construction of beginning pre-service teachers entering teacher training, and the impact of the education programs on the development of these attributes. This paper reports on the first phase of a longitudinal study that investigates beginning teacher pre-service teachers' views of what it is to be a teacher. In 2010, the Teacher Sense of Efficacy Scale (Tschannen-Moran & Woolfolk Hoy, 2001) was administered twice (start and end of the year) to beginning pre-service teachers enrolled in three programs: the Graduate Diploma of Early Childhood Education; Graduate Diploma of Education - Primary; and the Graduate Diploma of Education - Secondary. Identity data in the form of text and visual representations of the teachers was also collected. This paper focuses on the results from the self-efficacy scale, highlighting the similarities and more notable contrasts in individual perceived ratings of teacher self-efficacy. Implications for further research are shared.