Educational - Ozean Publications

European Journal of Educational Studies 2(2), 2010In contrast, people who doubt their capabilities shy away from difficult tasks which they view as personal threats.They have low aspirations and weak commitment to the goals they choose to pursue. When faced with difficulttasks, they dwell on their personal deficiencies, on the obstacles they will encounter, and all kinds of adverseoutcomes rather than concentrate on how to perform successfully. They slacken their efforts and give up quickly inthe face of difficulties. They are slow to recover their sense of efficacy following failure or setbacks. Because theyview insufficient performance as deficient aptitude it does not require much failure for them to lose faith in theircapabilities.Teacher efficacy has also been defined as teachers' "beliefs in their ability to have a positive effect on studentlearning" (Ashton, 1985; p. 142). This means that teachers with higher teaching efficacy find teaching meaningfuland rewarding, expect students to be successful, assess themselves when students fail, set goals and establishstrategies for achieving those goals, have positive attitudes about themselves and students, have a feeling of being incontrol, and share their goals with students (Ashton, 1985). Henson (2001) stated that teacher efficacy has beenfound to be one of the important variables consistently related to positive teaching behavior and student outcomes.During the past two decades, self-efficacy has emerged as a highly effective predictor of students’ motivation andlearning. Teachers’ sense of efficacy can potentially influence both the kind of environment that they create as wellas the various instructional practices introduced in the classroom (Bandura, 1997). Furthermore, teachers with a highsense of self-efficacy are confident that even the most difficult students can be reached if they exert extra effort;teachers with lower self-efficacy, on the other hand, feel a sense of helplessness when it comes to dealing withdifficult and unmotivated students (Gibson & Dembo, 1984). The literature widely documents the pervasiveinfluence of self-efficacy beliefs and corroborates social cognitive theory that places these beliefs at the roots ofhuman agency (Bandura, 2001).Understanding teachers’ perceptions and beliefs is important because teachers, heavily involved in various teachingand learning processes, are practitioners of educational principles and theories (Jia, Eslami & Burlbaw, 2006).Teachers have a primary role in determining what is needed or what would work best with their students. Findingsfrom research on teachers’ perceptions and beliefs indicate that these perceptions and beliefs not only haveconsiderable influence on their instructional practices and classroom behavior but also are related to their students’achievement ( Hollon, Anderson & Roth, 1991; Johnson, 1992). Thus, knowing the perceptions and beliefs ofteachers enables one to make predictions about teaching and assessment practices in classrooms.The current revised Botswana national policy on educational (1994) recognized that the success of any educationalsystem depends largely on teachers. According to the document, teachers “ are the catalyst of the learning processand on them rests the whole nation educational system”. In the Botswana teaching profession, “the quality ofinstructions is one of the most important determinants of the level of learning achievement. Teachers are the agentsof curriculum implementation are therefore central to the educational system and can make or break the system”.This implies that the Botswana educational system recognizes the fact that the way teachers perceive theirresponsibilities in the classroom will eventually affect the student learning outcomes. This is well collaborated bySoodak & Podell, (1997 , p. 214) that teachers’ beliefs about their own effectiveness, known as teacher efficacy,underlie many important instructional decisions which ultimately shape students’ educational experiences. Teacherself- perceive efficacy is believed to be strongly linked to teaching practices and student learning outcomes and isvery crucial in the educational system of any country.THE PROBLEMTeachers have an important influence on students’ academic achievement and they also play a crucial role ineducational attainment of their students, because the teacher is ultimately responsible for translating policy intoaction and principles based on practice during interaction with students. Both teaching and learning depends onteachers, which means that an effective teacher is one who produces desired results in the course discharging hisduties.140