Reading Coursework and Discipline-Specific Mentorship: Two Factors Leading to High Self-Efficacy Among First-Year Teachers

• In Event: Investigating the Factors That Affect the Self-Efficacy of Novice and Experienced Teachers

Abstract

Examining first-year teachers’ self-efficacy is critical because most teachers begin with high self-efficacy, but then it declines during the first-year of teaching. In addition, teacher self-efficacy has a positive relationship with teacher behaviors and student achievement. Using latent class analysis, this study generates the profiles of first-year teachers’ self-efficacy from 2011-12 School and Staffing Survey and investigates how self-efficacy profiles are related to teachers’ learning status. The results indicate three statistically distinctive classes within self-efficacy: high, moderate, and low. Regardless of teaching assignments, teachers who completed reading content courses during preparation programs and received discipline-specific mentoring during their first-year dominated the high self-efficacy class. We conclude that these two factors are essential to preparing and retaining high-quality teachers.

Authors

• Luxi Feng, Texas A&M University - College Station

• Tracey S. Hodges, University of Alabama

• Hersh C. Waxman, Texas A&M University