Educational - Ozean Publications

European Journal of Educational Studies 2(2), 2010this particular study, no significant differences on the variables of personal teaching efficacy and teacher efficacywere found. Research on the efficacy of the teachers suggests that behaviors such as persistence at a task , risktaking , and the use of innovations are related to degrees of efficacy (Ashton & Webb ,1986 ). For example, highlyefficacious teachers are more likely to use open – ended, inquiry, student–directed teaching strategies, whileteachers with a low sense of efficacy were more likely to use teacher - directed teaching strategies such as lecture orreading from the text book.Research indicates that students generally learn more from teachers with high self efficacy than those studentswould learn from those teachers whose self – efficacy is low. Teachers with low levels of efficacy often expend littleeffort in finding materials and planning lessons that challenge students, show little persistence with students havingdifficulty and display little variety in their teaching approaches, whereas teachers with high levels of efficacy aremore likely to seek out resources and develop challenging lessons, persist with students who are struggling andteach in multitude ways that promote student understanding (Deemer, 2004, p. 74).Using the 16-item version of the Gibson and Dembo (1984) used a 16 item version of the teacher efficacy scale,Soodak and Poodell (1997) looked at how teaching experience influenced teacher efficacy among 626 elementaryand secondary preservice and practicing teachers in New York metropolitan area. The main finding from this studywas that for the elementary teachers, personal teaching efficacy was initially high during the pre-service teachingyears but in the first year of teaching, this sense of personal efficacy fell dramatically. However, with more years ofteaching experience, their personal efficacy gradually increased but their sense of their own effectiveness neverreached the same levels achieved by secondary-level teachers. On the other hand, the secondary teachers in thisstudy were more homogeneous and stable in their personal efficacy beliefs.Huang, Liu, & Shiomi, (2007) in their research study report, concluded that teachers’ efficacy beliefs influencestudents’ attitudes and achievement as well as affect teachers’ teaching behaviors . In recent years the developmentof the constructivist view of learning has resulted in modifications of teaching and learning designs in manycountries educational systems such as Turkey and Singapore (Chang, 2005, p. 96; Chan, Tan, & Khoo, 2007). Sucha view requires a classroom environment that encourages students to become active, self-motivated or masteryoriented learners (Deemer, 2004). It is obvious that teachers play an important role in creating such environments(Pajares, 1992). Specifically, teachers’ beliefs are one of the most important factors that affect the implementation ofcurriculum reforms (Day, Elliot, & Kington, 2005). For example, teachers with high self-efficacy beliefs are likelyto adopt more student-centered approaches than teacher-centered approaches in educational settings such asclassrooms (Swars, 2005). Understanding teachers' self-regulatory processes and self-efficacy is a paramountinquiry if their effects in the classroom would like to be accurately determined. From the social cognitiveperspective (Bandura, 1997), self-regulation encompasses the interaction of the person and his or her behavior aswell as the environment in a triadic process. In other words, teachers' beliefs and abilities interact with their actionsand with how they perceive and relate to their environment. Teachers' self efficacy refers to "their beliefs in theirability to have a positive effect on student learning" (Ashton, 1985, p. 142). Recent work has revealed that teachers'self-efficacy beliefs is a significant factor that influences teachers' positive attitudes toward helping their students,their level of satisfaction, and their desire to motivate their students (Tschannen-Moran & Woolfolk, 2001).Sampling procedureMETHODOLOGYIn all, out of 150 junior secondary school teachers in the southern educational region of Botswana selected for thisstudy, only 132 teachers participated in the study by completing the teachers’ self – efficacy questionnaire. Theinitial 150 junior secondary teachers were selected through random sampling procedure. The 132 teachers whoresponded to the questionnaire were made up of 74 (%) females and 58 (%) males. The average age of the teacherswere thirty (30) years and their average teaching experience was six (6) years in service. All of them were classroomteachers at the junior secondary schools in Botswana, and their level of education is a diploma in education.142