Effects of teaching goal content and academic behavioural regulation on the beliefs of teaching efficacy in pre-service teachers

Abstract

Grounded in self-determination theory, the objective of this study was to examine the relationship between goal contents and the beliefs of teaching efficacy in pre-service teachers, considering the mediating role of academic behavioural regulation (autonomous and controlled) at the beginning and end of the Professional Master of Education. The participants were 379 preservice teachers (180 men and 199 women, Mage = 25.30, SDage = 4.21) who completed measures of goal contents for teaching and academic behavioural regulation at the beginning of the Professional Master of Education (time 1), as well as measures of academic behavioural regulation and teacher’s beliefs in their teaching efficacy at the end of the master’s programme (time 2). The hypothesised predictive relationships were examined via the structural equation modelling approach. Structural equation modelling showed that intrinsic goal contents at the beginning of the master’s programme had a direct positive effect on teacher’s beliefs in their teaching efficacy at the end of the master’s programme, with this relationship being mediated by autonomous motivation at the beginning and at the end of the master’s programme. Conversely, extrinsic goal contents at the beginning of the master’s programme showed a negative direct effect on teacher’s beliefs in their teaching efficacy at the end of the master’s programme. The obtained results underline the importance of goal contents in explaining the dynamicnature of the motivational processes related to beliefs in teaching efficacy throughout teacher education programmes in pre-service teachers.