Modeling Changes in Teacher Efficacy during In-Service Professional Development in Trinidad and Tobago

• Sharon J. Jaggernauth ^[1]
  1. [1] University of the West Indies

     University of the West Indies

     Jamaica

     
• Localización: Search and research [Recurso electrónico]: teacher education for contemporary contexts / coord. por Juan José Mena Marcos, Ana García-Valcárcel Muñoz-Repiso, Francisco José García Peñalvo, Marta Martín del Pozo, 2017, ISBN 978-84-9012-769-8, págs. 217-225
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • Teacher efficacy has been long associated with effective teaching and student outcomes. This study explored how the teacher efficacy of three secondary school mathematics teachers changed over a 10-month post-graduate in-service professional development programme in Trinidad and Tobago. Three mathematics teachers were selected for in-depth study to identify the experiences they associated with strengthening their teacher efficacy, and to model the change process therein. Constant comparative analysis of data captured through observations of participants’ teaching practice, their developmental portfolios, informal and formal individual interviews, and the researcher’s field notes supported the conclusion that participants’ teacher efficacy was stronger by the end of the programme. Participants attributed the strengthening of their teacher efficacy with their mastery experiences supported by verbal persuasion, vicarious experiences with critical analysis, developing a reflective teacher disposition, belonging to a professional learning community of practitioners, and the embeddedness of these experiences in their particular school context. Participants entered the programme with some degree of teacher efficacy, and the aforementioned experiences provided new information about pedagogy, which initiated changes in their teaching practices. As they adapted new learnings to their particular school contexts and experienced success, they experienced a boost in their teacher efficacy, which incentivised further changes in teaching practices. This study directly addressed the paucity of teacher efficacy research in Trinidad and Tobago, and provides directions for future research to explore the sustainability of teacher efficacy beyond the period of school-based PD, and its implications for strengthening student self-efficacy.