Sunday, May 26, 2013

Chapter 2


Teachers’ Self-Efficacy and Classroom Management Beliefs

1.0              Literature Review

School was established with the authority to set standards and criteria in the administration of certain students to achieve success. This makes the roles of teachers more complex and challenging. It started from school with comfortable and conducive environment to learn and to educate students becoming successful members of society and as social worker and agent of social change ( Saxena, 1997). The most important conditions to ensure a process of effective teaching and learning are aspects of classroom management (Rosas and West, 2008). In order to make classrooms more conducive, effective and can be managed efficiently, the teacher must have the qualities of a manager, whether as decisive, democratic, compassionate, and caring (Laut, 1999). Teachers’ efficacy also has positive impacts on teachers’ classroom management beliefs and practice (Good,1981 ; Bezzina & Butcher, 1990; Ross, 1994; Soodak & Podell, 1994). Furthermore, teachers’ efficacy have been associated with significant variables such as students’ motivation and achievement, teachers' adoption of innovations, teachers' classroom management strategies and time spent in teaching certain subjects (Berman, 1977; Bandura, 1977;  Hoy & Hoy, 1998; Hoy, 2000; Bıkmaz, 2004).  

 The Concept of Teachers’ Efficacy

Bandura's social learning theory has introduced the concept of teachers’ efficacy. Bandura (1997) defined perceived self efficacy as “beliefs in one’s capabilities to organize and execute the courses of action required to produce given attainments”. Human motivation, well-being and personal accomplishment are the foundation provided by self-efficacy beliefs (Bandura, 1997). This is because when people believe that their work can produce the result they desire, they will put an effort to act in the face of difficulties (Pajares, 2002). Self efficacy also can be defined as a conviction that one can successfully execute the behaviour required to produce the outcomes (Savran & Çakıroğlu, 2003). Teacher’s efficacy measuring was started in 1966. Rotter (1966) defines two efficacy items in the teachers’ efficacy questionnaire: Rand item 1 and Rand item 2. Rand item 1 on teachers’ beliefs about the power of external factors compared to the influence of teachers and schools and this item was labelled as general teaching efficacy (GTE) which corresponded to Bandura’s outcome expectancy. Rand item 2 was more specific and individual than a belief about what teachers in general could accomplish and it was labelled as personal teaching efficacy (PTE) which corresponded to Bandura’s self-efficacy expectation (Tschannen, Hoy & Hoy, 1998).  Recently, researchers were interested in developing more reliable and comprehensive instruments to measure teachers’ efficacy. These instruments are Teachers Locus of Control (TLC) developed by Rose and Medway (1981). Following these works, Gibson and Dembo (1984) developed a broader and more reliable teachers’ efficacy measurement, which is beginning with the formulation of the Rand studies but bringing to bear the conceptual underpinnings of Bandura. From the analysis, the finding shows same two dimensions of teacher efficacy; one of them is personal teaching efficacy assumed to reflect self-efficacy and the other is general teaching efficacy assumed to capture outcome expectancy (Gibson & Dembo, 1984). Studies related to measuring teacher efficacy in science teaching and learning has been conducted by some researchers. Riggs and Enochs (1990) developed a questionnaire based on Gibson and Dembo’s Teacher Efficacy Scale to measure efficacy of teaching science, which was called Science Teaching Efficacy Belief Instrument (STEBI). Gibson and Dembo developed two useful tools for monitoring teachers’ personal science teaching self-efficacy at various stages of their career: Science Teaching Efficacy Belief Instrument-A (STEBI-A) and Science Teaching Efficacy Belief Instrument-B (STEBI-B). STEBI-A is aimed to reveal elementary teachers’ self-efficacy beliefs and STEBI-B was designed for pre-service teachers (Ginns & Watters, 1999).

Teachers’ Classroom Management Beliefs

 

Classroom management is the essential factor that deeply affects effective teaching-learning environments and students’ achievement. By reviewing literature, it was perceived that some investigators (Smith & Misra, 1992; Colvin, Sugai, & Patching, 1993; Kohn, 1994; Ellis & Karr-Kidwell, 1995; Tauber, 1995, Ellis et al. 1996) seem to consider classroom discipline and classroom management as being synonymous (Youseff, 2003). However, discipline typically refers to structures and rules for student behaviour and efforts to ensure that students comply with those rules (Martin & Yin, 1997; Martin, Yin & Baldwin, 1998; Martin & Shoho, 1999). On the other hand, classroom management can be described as a broader, umbrella term that indicates all teachers’ efforts to oversee the activities of the classroom including learning, social interaction, and student behaviour (Wolfgang & Glickman, 1980 ). Brophy (1988) defined classroom management as “the actions taken to create and maintain a learning environment conductive to attainment of the goals instruction-arranging the physical environment of the classroom, establishing rules and procedures, maintaining attention to lessons and engagement in academic activities”.

In addition, classroom management includes three extensive dimensions; first one is the person dimension which is related to teachers’ perceptions of the students as persons and teachers’ beliefs about what they can do to help students in developing as individuals (Martin and Baldwin, 1993). Instruction is the second dimension that includes what teacher can do for enabling students to learn use of time, physical design of the classroom and maintenance of classroom routines . The last one, discipline, entails those behaviours that teachers use to set standards for behaviour and to enforce those standards (Laut, 1999).  Glickman & Tamashiro (1980) examined teachers’ beliefs regarding classroom management and discipline and put forward three approaches based on child development. These approaches show a continuum from high teacher control to low teacher control.

Classroom management is the one of the most important issues in educational settings and it is needed to investigate the teachers’ classroom management beliefs and practices. Researchers attempt to capture multi dimensional aspects of classroom management and for this reason developed some scales. The research efforts to explore the effects of classroom management are limited by the quality of instruments presently available to measure teacher perceptions and beliefs (Martin and Baldwin (1993).  Hence, a better understanding of the teachers’ efficacy and the classroom management beliefs is important to facilitate the process of teaching and learning (Yilmaz and Cavas, 2006).

 

References

Bezzina, M., & Butcher, J. (Eds.). (1990). Teacher efficacy and classroom management beliefs. In The changing face of professional education. Collected papers of the Australian

Association for Research in Education annual conference (pp. 91-98). North Ryde, NSW: Australian Association for Research in Education.

Brophy, J. (1988). Educating teachers about managing classrooms and students. Teaching and Teacher Education, 4(1), 1-18.

Bandura, A. (1997). Self-efficacy: The exercise of control. New York: W.H. Freeman.

Enochs, L. G. & Riggs, I. M. (1990). Further development of an elementary science teaching efficacy belief instrument: A preservice elementary scale. School Science & Mathematics, 90, 694–706.

 

Gibson, S., & Dembo, M. (1984). Teacher efficacy: A construct validation. Journal of Educational Psychology, 76,569-582.

Ginns, W. &Watters, J.(1999). Beginning elementary school teachers and the effective teaching of science. Journal of Science Teacher Education, 10(4), 287-313.

Glickman, C.D. & Tamashiro, R.T. (1980). Clarifying teachers' beliefs about discipline. Educational Leadership, 37, 459- 464.

Johns, A., MacNaughton, R.H., Karabinus, N.G. (1989). School discipline guidebook: Theory into practice. Boston: Allyn & Bacon.

Good, T. (1981). Teacher expectations and student perceptions: A decade of research. Educational Leadership, 38(5), 415-422.

Laut, J. (1999). Classroom management: Beliefs of pre-service teacher and classroom teachers concerning classroom management styles. Paper presented at the Fall Teachers Education Conference, Charleston, SC.

Martin, N. K., & Baldwin, B. (1993). Validation of an inventory of classroom management style: Diffierences between novice and experienced teachers. Paper presentedat the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association, Atlanta, GA.

Martin, N. K., & Yin, Z. (1997). Attitudes and beliefs regarding classroom management style: Differences between male & female teachers. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Soutwest Educational ResearchAssociation, 20th, Austin, TX, January (Eric Document

Reproduction Service No. ED 404738)

Martin, N. K., Yin, Z., & Baldwin, B. (1998). Construct validation of the attitudes and beliefs classroom control inventory. Journal of Classroom Interaction, 33 (2), 6- 15.

 

Martin, N. K. & Shoho, A. R. (1999, April). Beliefs regarding classroom management style: differences between traditional andalternative certification teachers. Paper presented at the

Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association, Montreal, Quebec, Canada (Eric Document Reproduction Service No. ED 432544)

Pajares (2002). Overview of social cognitive theory and of self-efficacy. Retreived October 6, 2006, from http://www.emory.edu/EDUCATION/mfp/eff.html

Riggs, I. M., and Enochs L. G. (1990). Toward the development of an elementary teacher’s science teaching efficacy belief instrument. Science Education. 74 (69), 625-637

Rosas, C. & West,M. (2008). Teachers Beliefs about Classroom management: Pre-service and Inservice Teachers’ Beliefs about Classroom Management. IJAES, 5(1),pp.55-61

Savran, A., & Cakiroglu, J. (2003). Difference between elementary and secondary pre-service science teachers' perceived efficacy beliefs and their classroom management beliefs. The Turkish Online Journal of Educational Technology, 2(4).

Tschannen-Moran, M., Hoy, A. W. & Hoy, W. K. (1998). Teacher efficacy: Its meaning and measure. Review of Educational Research, 68, 202-248.

Wolfgang, C. (1995). Solving discipline problems: Strategies for classrooam teachers. oston: Alyn & Bacon.

Yilmaz, H and Cavas, P.H. (2006). The Effect of the Teaching Practice on Pre-service Elementary Teachers’ Science Teaching Efficacy and Classroom Management Beliefs. Eurasia Journal of Mathematics, Science & Technology Education, 4(1), pp. 45-54

Ashton, P. T., Olejnik, S, Crocker, L. & McAuliffe, M. (1982, April). Measurement problems in the study of teachers' sense of efficacy. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association, New York.

Youseff, G. (2003). An Investigation into the influences of teachers’ classroom management beliefs and practices on classroom procedures. Paper presented at Association for Research

in Education. Retrieved October 16, 2006, from www.aare.edu.au/03pap/you03353.pdf

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

No comments:

Post a Comment