کتاب Teachers’ Self-Efficacy and Self-Awareness and Learners’ Achievement

Titel page
Chapter 1 11
Introduction 11
Literature Review 13
Statement of the problem 17
Significant of the study 18
Purpose of the study 19
Research Questions and Hypotheses 19
Definition of key terms 19
Limitations and Delimitations of the Study 20
Chapter 2 23
Review of the Related Literature 23
The role of SE in teachers’ performance and students’ achievement 35
Factors influencing students’ achievement 43
Relationship between teacher efficacy and students’ achievement 45
Measuring teacher efficacy 50
Teacher’s self –efficacy and instructional strategies 52
Teachers’ self –efficacy and Students’ Engagement 56
Chapter 3 61
Method 61
Participants 61
Instrument 62
Reliability of the instrument 62
Procedures 63
Chapter 4 64
Results and Discussion 64
Descriptive analysis of questionnaire 64
Relationship between male and female language teachers’ SE and SA and learner achievement 67
Comparison of male and female teachers’ SE and SA 70
SE and SA across levels of language proficiency 71
Chapter 5 79
Conclusion and Implications 79
Suggestions for Further Research 79
Relationship between female teachers’ SE and SA and students’ achievement 80
Relationship between male teachers’ SE and SA and students’ achievement 80
Difference between SA and SE of male and female language teachers 80
Difference between language teachers’ SA and SE across levels of language learners 80
Pedagogical implications 81
Limitations and delimitations of the study 82
Recommendations for further research 83
REFRENCES 87

Literature Review

Studying the teachers’ affective characteristics seems to be one of the hopeful areas of research that has potential for providing answers to so many questions in the field of teacher competence and learners’ achievement. Adepoju (2001) noted that affective characteristics (personality traits and emotional intelligence), serve as vehicle through which the teachers’ professional skills and qualifications could work to produce effective outcomes on their learners. Among all of the teachers’ characteristics, issues related to self –efficacy and self –awareness are reviewed in the following section.

Martin in 1989 defined the self-efficacy mechanism as a central determinant of a person’s ability to exert action, influence, and power he also claimed that teacher with a high sense of efficacy not only believes that can make a difference in student learning but also demonstrates this belief with certain behavioral skills. In 1992 Raudenbush et al have shown that high level of efficacy produces a generative capability that enables teachers to adopt innovations, construct new teaching strategies, and increase their levels of effort in facing difficult circumstances. Furthermore, Bandura (1997) believed that Teachers’ sense of efficacy can potentially influence both, kind of environment that they create as well as the various instructional practices introduced in the classroom.  In this part Gibson & Dembo, (1984) believed that teachers with a high sense of self-efficacy are confident that even the most distracted students can be reached if they do extra effort; on the other hand teachers with lower degree of self-efficacy feel a sense of defenselessness when it comes to dealing with unmotivated students.

Coladarci (1992) and Soodak & Podell (1997) believed that there are two major dimensions of teachers’ perceived efficacy discussed in teacher’s sense of efficacy: Personal Teaching Efficacy (PTE) and General Teaching Efficacy (GTE). They claimed that Personal Teaching Efficacy refers to teachers’ beliefs about their own ability to make a difference in their students’ learning, whereas General Teaching Efficacy includes teachers’ beliefs about the power of factors outside the school and teacher’s control in affecting student performance. Both GTE and PTE were the two items measured by Armor et al., 1976; Berman et al., 1977 in the earliest teachers’ efficacy studies.

Guskey (1988) and Ghaith and Yaghi’s (1997) studies revealed that Teacher’s efficacy has been linked to several personal and contextual variables such as  teacher’s behaviors, teachers’ attitudes toward implementing instructional innovation and student outcomes. Furthermore their studies showed that teaching experience and personal efficacy were negatively correlated with the perception of teaching concerns toward teaching effectiveness; that is: the longer their years in teaching and the more confidence they felt in their personal ability to provide effective teaching, the less they were concerned about problems related to teaching such as the relations with parents and supervisors or meeting students’ individual needs. On the other hand, on the basis of their studies gender, grade level of taught, and general efficacy were not found to be related to the teachers’ perceptions of any of the categories of teaching effectiveness concerns.

Chacón ( 2005) based on using the short version of the Teacher Sense of Efficacy Scale and two other subscales (self-reported proficiency and pedagogical strategies) found that teachers’ perceived efficacy was positively correlated with self-reported English proficiency and his/her effectiveness in students’ achievement. In relation with this part of study Cousins  & Walker (1995) and Guskey (1988) claimed that teacher’s self-efficacy beliefs may influence student’s achievement in several ways. They said Teachers with high self-efficacy beliefs are more capable than teachers with a low sense of self-efficacy to implement instructive innovations in the classroom and to use classroom management approaches and adequate teaching methods that encourage students’ autonomy and reduce custodial control.

Furthermore, as the other studies show teacher’s sense of self-efficacy has been found to be linked with enhancing student’s motivation which is said by Ashton & Webb( 1986)  Roeser, Arbreton, & Anderman(1993)  increasing students’ self-esteem (Borton, 1991), and ease in managing  the classrooms (Midgley, Feldlaufer, & Eccles, 1989), and more positive attitudes toward school (Miskel, McDonald, & Bloom, 1983). In this manner Ross ( 1998) and Ross, Hogaboam-Gray, & Hannay ( 2001) asserted teacher’s self-efficacy may also contribute to promote student’s sense of efficacy, fostering their involvement in class activities and their efforts in facing difficulties. WoolfolkHoy’s & Davis’s (2006) findings also supported the critical influence of a teacher’s self-efficacy beliefs on their performance and motivation. They claimed self-efficacy beliefs may not, operate in isolation from other psychosocial determinants that affect their motivation and performance such as their professional aspirations, the recognition and respect they perceive to be accorded and ultimately, the satisfaction they draw from their profession.

Caprara, Barbaranelli, Borgogni, & Steca, (2003) Compared teachers who doubt their efficacy with teachers with the high level of self- efficacy sense, they found more self-efficacious teachers are more tending to appreciate other school constituents’ contribution to the functioning of the school. They also showed that teachers’ self-efficacy beliefs have a crucial role in affecting and sustaining their commitment to school and their job satisfaction because they believed that job satisfaction accompanies teachers’ sense of efficacy and contributes to sustain their efforts towards pursuing learners’ optimal scholastic attainments.

Ryan & Deci (2000) also cited that students’ achievement reflects teachers’ capacity to transfer knowledge and experience and teachers’ self –efficacy and job satisfaction are crucial parts of his/her sense of competence.

But the point is researches which have been conducted in this part are not enough therefore as Dulewicz and Higgs (2000) suggested there is need for rigorous research to underpin the usefulness of teachers’ self –awareness and self –efficacy in organizational settings whether public or private on both personal and organizational levels to increase the range of educational prosperousness regarding of effective outcome on the learners.

Statement of the problem

Language learners’ academic achievement appears to be one of the most important issues in educational circles. Among the effective factors through that potentially affect the students’ achievement, teacher effectiveness seems to be one of the most considerable one. Alexander (2000) believed that language learners achievement difficulties are recurring concern for Higher Education Institutions for various reasons, the most important one is the concept that improvement in achievement may cause higher graduation rate. Also the need for the universities to improve their students’ achievement standards because of the pressing demands of educational circles, and the competition with other universities (Nonis & Wright, 2003) highlights observable considerations for learners’ achievements. One of the crucial factors, as documented in literature, is the role of teacher in academic contexts therefore this research tries to examine how teacher effectiveness can affect language learners’ achievement in higher educational levels. This study aims to provide a relationship between teacher’s sense of effectiveness and awareness with students’ outcomes because of the crucial role of teachers in education which may contribute language teachers to get aware of their impressive characteristics which can impact classrooms, schools, and college as well as how they contribute to other important outcomes for students.

Significant of the study

A wide range of studies have been conducted to examine the relationship between learners’ academic achievements and their teachers’ sense of Self-Efficacy (SE) and Self-Awareness (SA). However, it appears that few studies explored such a relationship in language learning context. Therefore, this study also aims to examine the relationship between language teachers’ SE and SA and language learners’ achievements.

By evaluating the research on teacher effectiveness and the different instruments used to measure it and because of the key role of teachers in motivating and attracting the learners and their general outcomes, the importance of the teachers’ self efficacy and self awareness seems to be clear therefore we hope to provide some practical guidance in how best to evaluate teacher effectiveness and to inform all teachers about their effect on students’ achievement in general.

Purpose of the study

The purpose of this study is an examination of language teacher effectiveness and language learners’ achievement on the basis of his/her self –efficacy (SE) and self –awareness (SA).This research also aims to provide information that researchers, practitioners, school administrators, teachers, counselors, can use for the purpose of evaluating, designing, implementing and advocating teacher factors that appear to be effective in raising academic achievement.

Research Questions and Hypotheses

1. Is there any relationship between male and female language teachers’ SE and SA and the achievement of language learners?
2. Is there any significant difference between SA and SE of male and female language teachers?
3. Is there any significant difference between language teachers’ SE and SA across levels of learners’ language proficiency?

H01. There is no relationship between male and female language teachers’ SE and SA and the achievement of language learners.

H02.  There is no significant difference between SA and SE of male and female language teachers.

H03. There is no significant difference language teachers’ SE and SA across levels of language learners.

Definition of key terms

Self –efficacy: Bandura (1997) defined perceived self efficacy as beliefs in one’s capabilities to organize and execute the courses of action required to produce given attainments. Bandura (1993) also believes that Self-efficacy is a future-oriented belief about the level of competence a person expects he or she will display in a given situation.

Self – awareness: Gold and Roth (1993) defined self-awareness as “a process of getting in touch with your feelings and behaviors” (p. 141).

Language achievement: Johnson and Johnson (2002) defined language achievement as the act of achieving skills or execution of language during the acquisition and learning the language in academic environment.

Limitations and Delimitations of the Study

The present investigation was constrained by a number of delimitations which prevent us from making strong conclusions.

• Psychological differences between students who participated in this study have not been considered.
  • Because the validity of the final exam is not measured and the results of this research are based on the range of students’ success in their final exam so this can be the other factor of limitation in this study.
• Participants in this study were from different ages, occupations, social levels, religious, so the effect of these factors has not been mentioned in this research.
• Environmental factors such as class size, class time (the time which classes have been disposed in), the brightness of the classes, and quietness of the environment were not under the control of the researcher.
• Background knowledge of the language learners has not been considered in this study.

This study has been performed in intermediate and advanced level consequently the language learners in other levels have not been involved in this study.