An Evaluation of Teachers' Attitudes and Beliefs Levels on Classroom Control in Terms of Teachers' Sense of Efficacy (The Sample of Biology Teachers in Turkey).
2014; Project Innovation Austin; Volume: 134; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês
ISSN
0013-1172
Autores Tópico(s)Education Practices and Challenges
ResumoIntroduction When the related literature is reviewed, it noticed that self-efficacy has been one of the most investigated concepts in the last 30 years. Self-efficacy is defined as a feature that is effective in fostering behavior and one's beliefs about one's own capacity of organizing necessary activities to realize a specific performance and being successful in this organization (Bandura, 1997; Zimmerman, 1995). This concept is one of the important concepts, which is for the first time stressed in Bandura's Social Learning Theory (Bandura, 1977). According to Bandura, self-efficacy plays a crucial role in revealing one's inner behavior and forming new behavior. At this point, sense of self-efficacy that is crucial in one's behavior emerges based on four sources. These are, namely, a) experiencing similar behavior (complete and appropriate experiences, b) the opportunity to observe others' similar behavior (social models), c) being persuaded by an authority (verbal persuasion), and d) one's sense of one's own physiological and emotional states (physiological and emotional situations) (Bandura, 1995). Bandura stresses that sense of self-efficacy affect specifically one's a) choice of activities, b) perseverance to overcome difficulties, c) level of efforts, and d) performance (Bandura, 1997). Teacher self-efficacy is one of the most important concepts that are related to self-efficacy. When the studies conducted on self-efficacy for years are reviewed, it can be stated that one of the most investigated research areas is teachers' sense of self-efficacy (Bandura, 1997; Cannon & Scharmann, 1996; Caprara et al., 2006; Cheung, 2006; Emmer & Hickmen, 1991; Enochs & Riggs, 1990; Gibson & Dembo, 1986; Guskey & Passaro, 1994; Hoy & Woolfolk, 1993; Soodak & Podel, 1998; Ross, 1992; Tschannen-Moran & Hoy, 2001; Woolfolk et al., 1990). Teachers' sense of teacher efficacy is defined as the beliefs about their capacity of affecting students' performances, learning, learning and success or exhibiting necessary behavior to conduct their responsibilities successfully (Aston, 1984; Aston & Webb, 1986; Brouwers & Tomic, 2003; Denzine et al., 2005; Guskey & Passaro, 1994; Tschannen-Moran & Hoy, 2001). Therefore, teachers' sense of self-efficacy are preferred to be high in order to conduct their responsibilities successfully since it is believed that there is a relationship between a high level of teachers' sense of self-efficacy and taking responsibility for students' success, the willingness to care about students having difficulty in learning, teachers' self-confidence, openness to learn and apply new developments or positive sense of their competencies, meeting students' learning needs and their academic success, forming behavior, transferring social values, motivations and sense of self-efficacy towards classes (Allinder, 1994; Anthony & Kritsonis, 2007; Graham et al., 2001; Nolen et al., 2007; Sewell & St-George, 2000; Usher & Pajares, 2006; Wollfolk & Hoy, 1990). In this way, teachers with high level sense of self-efficacy will ensure students' forming behavior of high quality. Stephens and Crawley (1994) provides five types of competences with six sub sections to be an effective teacher. These competences are, namely, subject knowledge (related to how well a teacher knows a subject taught in class), teaching subject (teaching a subject well), classroom management (teaching the subject purposefully so that effective learning is ensured and the order in class is achieved), assessment and recording students' learning (keeping an account of students' level of attainment and systematized account of students' performances), and following professional development (teaching education program considered as the first and important step in the continuous professional development of teachers). As can be noticed, one of the most important competences is classroom management. …
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