Student Teachers' Self-Efficacy for the Complexity of Teaching in a Classroom

• In Event: Enhancing Teacher Skills in Classroom Management

Abstract

Following the ecological approach of classroom management by Doyle (1986), the study aimed to develop and validate a scale to measure student teachers’ self-efficacy for the complexity of teaching in a classroom. The analyses are based on a sample of N = 234 student teachers for secondary schools at the Austrian University of Salzburg. Analyses of the reliability of the scale revealed sufficient internal consistency. The results of the factorial structure using confirmatory factor analyses indicate that the construct can be measured by a second-order self-efficacy factor underlying six dimensions of complexity in a classroom. Correlations with existing measures of self-efficacy as well as with self-concept and emotional exhaustion supported the convergent and divergent validity of scale.

Authors

• Andreas Bach, University of Salzburg

• Horst Biedermann, Saint Gallen University of Teacher Education

• Thomas Fischer, Europa-Universität Flensburg