Elementary Candidates' Development of Teaching Knowledge, Beliefs, and Self-Efficacy Across Mathematics and Reading/Language Arts

• In Event: Preservice Courses, Student Teaching Experiences, and Beginning Teacher Outcomes

Abstract

Objective. Elementary teachers seldom use the same instructional strategies and activity structures across the curriculum. For example, Graeber, Newton, and Chambliss (2012) and Cohen, Ruzek, and Sandilos (2018) reported little consistency in elementary teachers’ instructional practices in mathematics and English/language arts (E/LA). Thus, subject matter is a potentially important source of variation in beginning elementary teacher development. In particular, there is a need to examine how features of teacher preparation influence novice teacher development. This study investigated how elementary candidates’ experiences in pre-service courses and student teaching were associated with changes in their teaching knowledge, beliefs, and self-efficacy in both mathematics and ELA over a three-year period (through their second year of teaching).
Perspective. This study is grounded in activity theory, which contends that beginning teachers’ development of teaching knowledge, beliefs, and self-efficacy across content areas is affected by their own characteristics, settings in which they learn to teach, and conceptual and practical tools to which they are exposed (Grossman et al., 2000; Leko & Brownell, 2010; Thompson, Windschitl, & Braaten, 2013). We focused on how these outcomes were shaped by novice teachers’ experiences in pre-service courses and student teaching, the definitions of effective teaching emphasized in these settings, and their opportunities to learn (OTL) to work with math manipulatives, textbooks, and other practical tools.
Data Sources and Methods. In 2015-16 and 2016-17, we collected survey data from 394 final-year elementary candidates at five universities in three states; 175 of them became full-time K-5 teachers shortly after graduation and completed surveys for our study as first- and second-year teachers. Each study participant completed a survey of their beliefs about teaching and learning mathematics and ELA and teaching self-efficacy in these subjects at three time points (final year of teacher preparation, first and second years of teaching) and surveys of their mathematical (MKT) and reading knowledge for teaching (RKT) at two time points (final year of preparation and second year of teaching).
We used multiple regression to examine the main outcomes as a function of several independent variables (including individual teacher characteristics and OTL in courses and student teaching) and interactions among these variables. Our primary outcomes were participants’ teaching knowledge, beliefs, and self-efficacy in both subjects.
Findings. Our findings indicate that OTL in student teaching strongly predicted beginning teachers’ beliefs and self-efficacy in both mathematics and ELA. Further, OTL in content courses most strongly predicted the development of MKT while OTL in methods courses was strongly associated with changes in RKT.
Significance. Elementary teachers are typically prepared as generalists and often teach multiple subjects; therefore, we need to better understand how teacher preparation supports their development of teaching knowledge, beliefs, and self-efficacy across the school curriculum. Elementary teachers are provided with differential resources for teaching mathematics and ELA (Mewborn, 2001; National Research Council, 1998; Wilson, Floden, & Ferrini-Mundy, 2002), and our findings suggest that preparation programs need to provide OTL across different contexts (i.e., content courses, methods courses, and fieldwork) to support beliefs, self-efficacy, and robust knowledge across the curriculum.

Authors

• Julie Jackson Cohen, University of Virginia

• Peter A. Youngs, University of Virginia

• Hong Qian, National Council of State Boards of Nursing

• Dorothea M. Anagnostopoulos, The University of Connecticut

• Corey Drake, The College of New Jersey