Sources and variation of self-efficacy in cases of student teaching practicum

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to determine student teachers’ personal self-efficacy beliefs and their views on what type of “sources” were behind self-efficacy in a lesson that they had just undertaken. Very little research-based understanding exists on how student teacher self-efficacy is formed, based on individual teaching situations. In this study, 10 student teachers’ interview data associated with the lesson, along with observation data with field notes, were collected. The interviews of four student teachers focusing on the lesson highlighted small (N=2) or somewhat larger (N=2) variations in levels of self-efficacy. Six student teachers had stable self-efficacy (N=6). The findings suggest that, in contrast to the expression of rather stable self-efficacy, a proportion of student teachers had feelings suggesting lower self-efficacy from time to time, although in general their thinking was dominated by average or high teaching efficacy.