Components That Contribute To Mathematics Teaching Self-Efficiency During an Alternative Certification Program.

Perceived self-efficacy for teaching has been linked to a variety of teacher and student outcomes, but research on the development of teaching efficacy during alternative certification programs is limited and mixed. The purpose of this chapter was to understand w hat particular components of an alternative certification program contributed to middle school teachers' mathematics self-efficacy. We used interviews throughout the program and at the end of the first year of teaching to understand how self-efficacy development was impacted by the program. Findings suggest that knowledge of and experience with teaching are important for teachers throughout their training and first year of teaching, but in general, vicarious experiences, verbal persuasion, and stress reducers might be time-sensitive. Variation among individual cases is also discussed. In a recent study (NCCTQ and Public Agenda, 2007) of nearly 700 fi rst year teachers, 2 1 % of middle and high school teachers stated that they anticipate staying a classroom teacher for less than 5 years; another report suggests that nearly 50% will actually leave during this time (Allen, 2005). Attrition rates are especially high for secondary mathematics and science teachers, as well as for teachers in low-income, low-perform ing schools, and in schools in urban settings (Guarino, Santibanaz, and Daley, 2006). In a study of urban schools conducted by the Urban Teacher Collaborative (2000) approximately 80% of the school 108 Kristie J. Newton, Diane Jass Ketelhut, John Pecore et al. districts surveyed stated that they had a shortage of math and science teachers with 60% anticipating shortages over the next 5 years. Teacher shortages have contributed to increased interest in alternative certification programs. Research on the effectiveness of these programs is mixed, likely due to the wide range of program types that are considered to be alternative. When alternative education programs are high in quality, they are more likely to produce teachers who are similar to those from traditional certification routes in terms of confidence and performance (Wilson, Floden, and Ferrini-Mundy, 200 I). High-quality features include high entrance and exit standards, extensive pedagogical training, substantial feedback and mentoring, and opportunities to plan and teach lessons "prior to taking on full responsibility as a teacher" (p. 30). However, the lack of detailed descriptions of program components in many studies makes it difficult to fully understand the effectiveness of alternative certification programs (Wilson et al., 2001). One measure of effectiveness is whether the teachers remain in teaching beyond the problematic five years, and this outcome has been linked to self-efficacy for teaching. Teaching efficacy has also been linked to a variety of teacher behaviors and student outcomes (Czerniak and Schriver, 1994; Haney, Lumpe, Czerniak, and Egan, 2002; see TschannenMoran and Hoy, 200 I, for an overview). Therefore, it is important to understand how to improve teaching efficacy early in order to minimize teacher attrition and improve outcomes. In this chapter, we describe components of an alternative certification program focused on middle school mathematics and science teachers in high needs areas, and we begin to identity those components that have an impact on teachers' views of their own teaching efficacy. In particular, two research questions guided our work. First, what components of an alternative certification program do teachers identify as being important in developing their self-efficacy for teaching? Second, what patterns exist for influences on self-efficacy over time, and how might these patterns vary across individuals? THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK Self-efficacy was first described by Albert Bandura in 1977. Self-efficacy refers to a person's belief in his/her abi lity to perform specific tasks or processes (Bandura, 1977). Selfefficacy levels impact a person's effort, perseverance, level of stress when faced with difficulties, and even career interests (Bandura, 1997; Lopez and Lent, 1992). Thus, developing a high sense of self-efficacy in new teachers has the potential to give these teachers the resolve needed to see challenges, not obstacles, in difficult teaching situations and view teaching not as a stopgap but as a lifetime career. Self-efficacy beliefs also have a direct impact on a person's outcome expectancies. According to Bandura, "perceived self-efficacy is a judgment of one's ability to organize and execute given types of performances, whereas an outcome expectation is a judgment of the likely consequences such performances will produce" (p.2 1 ). Specifically for teaching, personal self-efficacy can be described as a teacher's sense that he or she can teach the material, and outcome expectancy can be described as a teacher's sense that . he or she can impact student outcomes positively. This latter aspect is particularly problematic for secondary teachers as the survey described above (NCCTQ and Public Agenda, 2007) found Components That Contribute . 109 that 37% of secondary teachers are either unsure or do not think that they can help all students learn. When a person believes there are factors beyond his or her control that impact performance (e.g., students' prior knowledge), self-efficacy beliefs wi ll not fully explain outcome expectancies (Bandura, 1997). Hence, there has been a history of using both personal teaching efficacy and outcome expectancy for measuring teaching efficacy (Robert and Henson, 2000). At the same time, researchers have hypothesized about other factors that might influence overall self-efficacy for teaching. Roberts and Henson (2000) argued that knowledge efficacy, or "a teachers' confidence in his or her mastery of content knowledge" (p. 13) is important to include in measures of teaching efficacy. According to Bandura (1997), when actual experiences with a task are missing, people draw on s imilar experiences as a source of information about how efficacious they will be with the new task. Because preservice teachers have little or no teaching experience, they might make efficacy judgments primarily based on themselves as learners (i.e., their content knowledge). Research supports this notion with evidence of a moderate, positive correlation between prior mathematical knowledge and personal teaching efficacy for preservice elementary teachers (Newton, Leonard, Evans, and Eastburn, in press). As teachers gain experience in the classroom, one might expect that they have more varied sources of information to judge their teaching efficacy. A person develops his or her self-efficacy primarily from four sources of information: mastery experiences, vicarious experiences, verbal persuasion, and affective states (Bandura, 1997). Mastery experiences refer to previous encounters with the content or skill. For example, if a person has previously been successful at building a campfire, this person is likely to feel confident he or she can do it in another s ituation. This is considered to be the strongest input into a person' s self-efficacy. Second, not quite as strong as the mastery experiences are a person's vicarious experiences, which include watching a similar person having success at some task. Using the campfire example again, a person who sees a peer successfully build a campfire might feel more confidence that he or she can also build the campfire. Verbal persuasion occurs when someone more expert encourages a person and suggests that the novice can succeed. This person wi ll have more confidence (i.e. , a higher self-efficacy) in completing the task. Finally, if a person feels stress or anxiety at the thought of building a campfire, he or she will view their affective state as indicating a low ability to successfully complete the task. REVIEW OF LITERATURE Due to the important connections between teaching self-efficacy and teacher retention and effectiveness, researchers of several studies have attempted to understand the development of teachers' self-efficacy. These studies range in scope, with some focused on the impact of entire programs and others focused on the impact of particular courses or experiences. This research generally confirms Bandura's (1997) notion that mastery experiences are a key source of self-efficacy, but the studies have primarily involved traditional certification programs. In one study, 2 1 % of teachers from non-traditional certification programs had no prior teaching experiences before entering the c lassroom (Zientek, 2007); in another study, the majority of participants in alternative certification 110 Kristie J. Newton, Diane Jass Ketelhut, John Pecore et al. programs trained while on the job (Humphrey, Wechsler, and Hough, 2008). Hence, research on how teaching efficacy can develop during alternative certification programs is warranted. In comparing how traditional and non-traditional certification programs are linked to teachers' self-efficacy and feelings of preparedness to teach, Z ientek (2007) surveyed I, 197 teachers in their first three years of teaching. She found that teachers with at least a year of teaching experience tended to have high ratings for teaching efficacy regardless of certification route, although new teacher mentoring of alternatively-certified teachers seemed to be especially important when student teaching was not included as part of the certification program. This study was conducted once teachers had experience in their own classrooms, as they reflected back on their training. On the other hand, Humphrey and colleagues (Humphrey et al., 2008) surveyed teachers at the beginning of their program and again at the end of their first year, in order to compare seven different alternative certification programs. Given that these teachers primarily learned on the job, the school context (e.g., leadership, resources) was a critical factor in the program's effectiveness. Ne