A Comparison of Teacher Efficacy for Pre and In-Service Teachers in Scotland and America

Teaching is obviously not a simple or mechanical activity; in fact, Naring (1990) suggests that teaching is a complex process requiring skills and strategies such as: * preparing lesson and unit plans * motivating students to learn * creating a climate for teaching * using textbooks and curriculum guides effectively * using a variety of teaching skills * using media and technology * maintaining classroom discipline * diagnosing student difficulties and adapting instruction to meet individual needs Pre-service and in-service teacher education programs must certainly include preparation in these important areas, but should also include the development of confidence in ones ability to execute these teaching activities effectively. This latter concept has come to be known as teacher efficacy. Importance of Teacher Efficacy In terms of including the development of teacher efficacy in teacher education and in-service programs, "it is important to instill a sense of efficacy in those who are being prepared to ensure that they have the confidence to attempt to apply their knowledge when the appropriate time comes" (Gorrell and Capron, 1990, p. 15). Further, the extent to which teachers believe they can affect student learning may influence teacher/student interactions and teachers' success in facilitating gains in student achievement (Dembo and Gibson, 1985). The importance of teacher efficacy is corroborated by Morin and Welsh (1991) who state that "an educator with high teaching efficacy will engage in activities that promote the development of competencies, whereas teachers with low efficacy may avoid engaging in those activities" (pp. 3-4). It seems reasonable to conclude that the higher a teacher's sense of efficacy, the more successful that teacher will be in facilitating desirable student outcomes. The relationship between teacher efficacy and teacher effectiveness was explored by Gibson and Dembo (1984). They observed that teachers' beliefs in their own abilities to teach students may contribute to individual teacher differences in effectiveness. "One would predict that teachers who believe student learning can be influenced by effective teaching, and who also have confidence in their own teaching abilities, should persist longer, provide a greater academic focus in the classroom, and exhibit different types of feedback than teachers who have lower expectations concerning their ability to influence student learning" (p. 570). Few studies have been conducted which compare pre-service with in-service teachers on the variable of teacher efficacy. One such study was conducted by Pigge and Marso (1993) who compared a group of pre-service teachers projected to become outstanding teachers and a group of in-service teachers recognized to be outstanding who were at early, mid, and late stages of their careers. In this particular study, no significant differences on he variables of personal teaching efficacy and teacher efficacy were found. It is interesting to examine the self-rating strategies employed in most teacher efficacy studies especially when individuals' self-ratings can be compared with ratings provided by supervisors of those individuals. In a study by Walker (1992) student teachers tended to rate themselves highly while cooperating teachers were more realistic in their appraisals. "One of the obvious conclusions about this rating would be that student teachers are idealistic about their expectations of their performance in the classroom. It would be interesting to ask those who have full-time jobs.how the items on this survey have been fulfilled in the reality of the classroom world" (Walker, 1992, p. 29). The conclusion seems justified that more direct comparisons of the teacher efficacy of pre-service teachers and in-service teachers are needed. Would the exuberance, enthusiasm and perhaps even the naivete of pre-service teachers produce higher teacher efficacy scores than obtained by in-service teachers, or would the experience and maturity of in-service teachers produce the opposite result? …