A comparative study of pre-service teachers' to teaching efficacy beliefs before and after work-integrated learning: Part two K. E. JunQueira

The study, which is grounded in Bandura's concept of self-efficacy, assessed the teaching efficacy beliefs of student teachers before and after completing six months of work-integrated learning. This was necessitated by research which shows that self-efficacy is an important aspect which influences a teacher's ability to teach as well as the effectiveness of that teaching. The first part of this study measured the perceived teaching efficacy of third-year teacher education students in three construct dimensions: student engagement, instructional strategies and classroom management. This part of the investigation was performed before the participants attended their work-integrated learning at secondary schools in South Africa. The sample consisted of 136 students, with 70 males and 66 females, respectively. A questionnaire was used to collect data from the student teachers. The results showed that at the end of their third year of study, the student teachers responded with largely positive teaching efficacy beliefs with regard to their future occupation. The participants’ perceptions of their teaching efficacy were however primarily based on and influenced by their observations of other teachers and lecturers. The theoretical grounding that they received from the institution at which they studied also contributed to their perceptions of their teaching efficacy. The second part of the study engaged the same group of students, then in their fourth year, but after having completed six months of work-integrated learning at South African secondary schools. A similar questionnaire was administered in order to determine the participants’ perceptions of work-integrated learning itself as well as the extent to which work-integrated learning had influenced their teaching efficacy beliefs. Intricate changes in the perceived teaching efficacy of the participants had indeed taken place and are analysed and discussed in this article.