Relationship of Self-efficacy and Teacher Knowledge for Prospective Elementary Education Teachers

Abstract

This research investigates relationships between prospective teachers' self-efficacy of literacy instruction and their growing knowledge of literacy essentials. An instrument was used that is one part self-ratings of confidence levels in teaching specific literacy skills and one part assessment of literacy knowledge required to teach those skills. The survey was given three times over the course of 16-months to 70 prospective teachers. Results indicate that self-efficacy scores and knowledge scores significantly increase over time concurrently but without any predictive power of each other. Findings support Bandura's [1] self-efficacy theory.