Self-Efficacy and Teaching Effectiveness

Interpreting changing levels of self-efficacy while improving effective teaching behaviors can be one goal of teacher education programs. Undergraduate education majors often begin their teacher education programs with high levels of self-efficacy (a belief in one's capabilities). These levels of self-efficacy frequently decline as preservice teachers progress through their curriculum and make the transition to in-service teaching. A slight decline in these levels can be interpreted as a novice teacher's greater understanding of the complexity of the teaching process. Eighteen preservice string teachers evaluated their levels of self-efficacy with the Teacher Efficacy Scale (Guskey and Passaro, 1994) three times during an academic year. The preservice teachers were videotaped three times during regular teaching assignments at a community music program. They self-evaluated the teaching episodes by the means of a Music Teaching Observation Form (Kelly, 1984). Experienced educators also evaluated the tapes. Group and individual means indicated that ratings of teaching effectiveness by both preservice teachers and experienced educators increased while levels of self-efficacy decreased slightly. Several specific items from the Teacher Efficacy Scale and Music Teaching Teaching Observation Form had significant changes. Changing levels in self-efficacy did not have an influence on increased teaching effectiveness scores for this specific group of preservice teachers.