Teaching Efficacy of Universiti Putra Malaysia Science Student Teachers

By Bakar, Abd Rahim Konting, Mohd Majid; Jamian, Rashid; Lyndon, Novel

The objective of the study was to access teaching efficacy of Universiti Putra Malaysia Science student teachers. The specific objectives were to determine teaching efficacy of Science student teachers in terms of student engagement; instructional strategies; classroom management and teaching with computers in classroom; their satisfaction with teacher education program and lastly to determine their attitudes towards teaching profession. Data were gathered using questionnaire. The sample size was 144. Findings indicate that a majority of the respondents had a high level of confident with their efficacy in term of student engagement (Mean: 3.89, S.D: 0.32), instructional strategies (Mean: 3.85, S.D: 0.33), classroom management (Mean: 3.83, S.D: 0.33) and teaching with computers in classroom (Mean: 3.89, S.D: 0.48). Pearson correlation showed that teaching efficacy and perception toward teachers education program were significantly correlated with each other (r = 0.464, p<0.05). The relationship between these two variables was positive and of moderate strength. In contrast teaching efficacy was weak and negatively correlated with attitude toward teaching profession (r = - 0.146, p< 0.05). Education studies have highlighted that teaching efficacy refers to the belief of one's own teaching ability to bring about students' improvement, the capacity of other teachers and educational system as a whole to help students (Dembo & Gibson, 1985; Ashton & Webb, 1986; Fritz, Miller-Heyl, Kreutzer & MacPhee, 2001). With the work of Bandura (1986) as a theoretical base, efficacy of the teacher and teaching efficacy was first conceived as the extend to which teachers believed that they could control the reinforcement of their actions, that is, whether control of reinforcement lay within themselves or in the environment. For example, highly efficacious teachers have been found to be more likely to use inquiry and student-centered teaching strategies, while teachers with a low sense of efficacy are more likely to use teacher-directed strategies, such as lecture and reading from the text (Flores, 2001 ; TschannenMoran & Woolfolk Hoy, 2001; Kaufman & Sawyer, 2004). In other word, teachers with a high level of efficacy believed that they could control, or at least strongly influence, student achievement and motivation. Malaysian literature has also shown that the weaknesses of teaching efficacy of a pre-service teachers especially in terms of efficacies in instructional strategies and the using of Information Communication and Technology (ICT) in teaching and learning (Abdullah, 1997; Ong Swee, 1998; Belubau, 1998; Wong Tung, 1998). This is clearly seen when most of the beginning teachers are unwilling to use computers in the classroom until they felt that they are comfortable with the technology (Trushell, 1994; Cooper et al., 1997; Cuckle et al., 2000; Taylor, 2003). According to Cheng & Pang (1997) and Chuene, Lubben & Newson, (1999), most of the student teachers felt that their first week of their teaching practice in the school was the critical period for them. The purpose of the study was to access teaching efficacy of University Putra Malaysia Science student teachers before teaching practice.

Education research also examine that there are relationship between self-efficacy and teachers’ classroom management activities and always linked teacher efficacy to a variety of school variables such as facilitating small group discussion and persistence with struggling students (Gibson & Dembo, 1984; Soodak & Podell, 1998). Given the potential value of the construct, many researchers have examined the relationships between teachers’ classroom management and self-efficacy beliefs to provide insights about success (efficacy) as it relates to classroom management (Latz, 1992; Fry & McKinney, 1997; Cathy, 2005). The teaching context according to Biggs’ (1996) model and supported by others (Prosser & Trigwell, 1997; Kember, 1998), is established through preconceptions held by the teacher about the process of learning and how that might be facilitated. Perceptions of the learning process as variously trasmissive or constructive inform different teaching practice which in turn led to modifications of the students’ perception of the learning environment (Ramsden, 1987; Clarke & Dart, 1994).

Teaching requires enormous patience, and there is no ready-made formula for good teaching. Studies on effective teaching demonstrate that there are nearly as many successful styles as there are successful teachers (LaCour, 2005; Siebert, 2005). But there are some qualities in good teachers on which nearly everyone agrees that is candidates for teaching should be among the highest academic performers, well versed in the subjects they teach, knowledgeable about how to teach, able to use different strategies, interested in ideas, committed to teaching and learning and lastly eager to make a difference in students’ lives (Feiman-Nemser, 1983; Veenman, 1984; Wong, 1996; Fry & McKinney, 1997; Siebert, 2005; LaCour, 2005). According to Tschannen-Moran & Woolfolk, (1998) and LaCour (2005), teaching is not just an opportunity to earn a paycheck but also a tremendous responsibility which often linked with effective teaching and learning of the teacher itself. In other word, it refers to teachers perceptions of confidence in their ability to complete a specific task or behavior successfully given a stressful situation and also individuals’ beliefs in their capabilities to cope with certain situations (Ashton & Webb, 1986; Souza Barros & Elia, 1996).

Studies on teachers efficacy beliefs, also noted that teaching efficacy among pre-service teachers in school is a complex, pluralistic and multi-faceted enterprise. Yet within the past several years, much of the research had shown surprisingly that involving teacher efficacy and reducing teacher isolation are two critical aspects in retaining educators in the profession. For example, in reviewing thirteen studies conducted between 1983 and 1996, Kember (1998) found that teacher efficacy in teaching and learning has been associated with such significant variables as student motivation, teachers’ adoption of innovations, superintendents’ rating of teacher’s competence, teachers’ classroom management strategies, time spent teaching certain subjects, and teacher’s referrals of student to special education. The psychological literature also highlighted that student teachers may have never had the opportunity to analyze what they know or believe about student assessment. Economically, majority of the student teachers begin their education with the belief they already have mastered their profession, and they know how to teach but their knowledge in teaching only limited to what they have learned by being students or in other words an apprenticeship of observation (Tschannen-Moran, Woolfolk & Hoy, 1998; Wertheim & Leyser, 2002).

Statement of the Research Problem

Teachers are the important key agents for change in a classroom, yet inadequate attention has been paid to traits that optimize teachers’ success in implementing innovations (Milner & Hoy, 2001). One motivational aspect important to classroom effectiveness is the teacher’s sense of teacher efficacy (Ashton & Webb, 1986; Gibson & Dembo, 1984; Geelan, 2003). Teacher self-efficacy has been identified as an important factor in predicting student achievement and sense of competence (Chuene, Lubben, & Newson,1999). However, far less work has been done on showing the student teachers belief about her or his own effectiveness in teaching and their abilities to influence the learning of their students. Moreover, there are no clear guidelines for student teachers on how exactly their willingness to try new methods, which may result in higher achievement in students, which, in turn, increases a teacher’s sense of efficacy and willingness to continue to expend greater efforts to help students learn. Furthermore, despite the amount of studies done (Lin & Gorrell, 1998; Tschannen-Moran & Hoy, 2001; Lim, Khine, Timothy, Philip & Divaharan, 2003) none of the studies analysis issues arising from the Science student teachers in term of teaching efficacy in Information Communication and Technology (ICT). Studies so far only examined the effect of teacher-self efficacy for teaching with computers on student acquisition of computer skills or computer cognitions. Malaysian studies (Abdullah, 1997; Ong Swee, 1998; Belubau, 1998) also so far did not access clearly student teachers feelings with teacher training program and their attitude toward teaching profession before they went for teaching practice.

Methodology

Population and Sample

A total of 148 final year Bachelor of Science students who majored in physics, chemistry and biology participated in the study. They comprised of students who have previously taught in school (n=29) and those who have never taught in school (n=119). The return rate of the questionnaire was 97.3% and this result in a final sample size of 144 Science student teachers.

Instrumentation

A structured questionnaire was used to collect the information on teaching efficacy of University Putra Malaysia Science student teachers in term of student engagement, instructional strategies, classroom management and information communication and technology. The questionnaire was adapted from various instruments by Bandura (1982); Gibson & Dembo (1984); Ashton & Webb (1986); Tschannen- Moran, Woolfolk Hoy & Hoy (1998); Lim et al. (2003); Lin, Gorrel & Taylor (2004). Student teachers teaching efficacies were measured using a five-point Likert scale (5=strongly confident, 4=confident, 3=moderately confident, 2=not confident and 1=strongly not confident). The overall reliability estimate of teaching efficacy questionnaire was alpha=.89. To measure student teachers’ satisfaction with with the teacher education program at University Putra Malaysia, a 40 items questionnaire was developed based on ‘Teachers Concerns Questionnaire’ by George (1978), ‘Need for Cognition Scale (NCS)’ by Cacioppo, Petty & Kao (1984), ‘Satisfaction with Life Scale’ by Diener, Emmons, Larsen & Griffin (1985), ‘Customer Satisfaction Questionnaire’ by Parasuraman et al, (1991), ‘Parent School Climate Survey’ by Aber, Meinrath, Johnston, Rasmussen & Gonzalez (2000) and ‘Mathematics Belief Instrument (MBI)’ by Hart (2002). Their satisfaction were measured using a five- point Likert scale (5=strongly agree, 4=agree, 3=moderately agree, 2=disagree and strongly disagree). The aspects of student teachers’ satisfaction with teacher training education program were as follows: university/faculty Environment, teaching facilities, administrative supports, teacher-student relationship, curriculum contents, extent of globalization and overall satisfaction. The reliability estimate of the questionnaire was -=.95. Student teachers’ attitudes towards teaching profession were measured using a 10-items questionnaire. The questionnaire was developed based on Fullan’s Theory of Educational Change (Fullan, 1993) and also adapted from the California Test of Personality (Thamilmani, 2000). The realiability estimate of the questionnaire was alpha= .78. FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS

Profile of the Respondents

Of the 144 respondents, 27 (18.8%) of them were in the PKPG program. About 81.3% were those who have never taught in schools. The majority of respondents from the PKPG program (66.7%) has between 6 to 9 years teaching experience with a mean of 8.2 years. About 15.3% of the respondents were male student teachers and 84.7% were female student teachers. The age for the majority of the respondents who participated in the study were less than 25 years old. Student teachers at UPM has to have a major and a minor to enable them to teach at least two subjects when employed as a teacher. Majority of the respondent majored in biology (82.6%). About 17.4% majored in chemistry (17.4%) , biology (82.6%), 4.8% majored in physics. The respondents chose a variety of minor such as Chemistry (57.6%), Mathematic (12.5%), Malay Literature (9.0%), Physic (6.3%), Computer Science (5.6%), Information Technology (4.2%), English Literature (2.7%), Commerce (1.4%) and Islamic Education (0.7%). Their academic performance based on cumulative grade point average (CGPA) ranged between 2.17 and 3.89. The mean was 2.97 and a standard deviation of .32. Majority of the respondents (79.9%) obtained a CGPA between 2.75 and 3.745. Result also showed that majority of the respondents chose teaching profession as their first career choice (84.0%). The majority of them preferred to be in the teaching profession (84.7%) for a long time. Only 15.3% of the respondents prefered to leave teaching profession if they have an opportunity to move to other field. Most of the respondents (86.8%) planned to further their education if given the opportunities. Eighty-seven respondents (69.6%) indicated the highest levl of education they planned to pursue. About 72.4% (n=63) of the respondents planned to study up to the Ph. D. degree and 27.5% (n=24) planned to pursue up to the Master degree only. They planned to study in Psychology (40 respondents) Education (30 respondents ), and Biology (6 respondents). The findings of this study were similar to those by by Mohan & Srivastava (1994) and Lin, Gorrell & Taylor (2004). They highlighted that in developing countries, most of the novice teachers have strong feeling to further their study into higher level of learning especially in psychology and education with several reasons such as to increase their confidence with the courses they are assigned, and to increase their beliefs about their ability to teach and to increase their ability to use more global measures in teaching and learning approach. Austin (2004) in his study on interpersonal change of pre- service teachers also further noted that those pre-service teachers who had good result in their field of study are more motivated to further their study into higher level of learning.

Teaching Efficacy of University Putra Malaysia Science Student Teachers

The specific objective of the study was to determine the teaching efficacy of University Putra Malaysia Science student teachers. In general the study showed that the respondents have high teaching efficacy (Mean: 3.91, S.D: 0.33). The level of teaching efficacy for specific aspects of teaching is depicted in Table 2. Majority of the respondents had high level of confidence in term of instructional strategies (Mean: 3.85, S.D: 0.33), classroom management (Mean: 3.83, S.D: 0.39) and the use of ICT in teaching (Mean: 3.89, S.D: 0.48). This results are in line with previous researches (Bourdoncle & Robert, 2000; Lin, Gorrel & Taylor, 2004), which reported that most of the pre-service teachers have a better understanding regarding the efficacy of their actions in the classroom and their abilities to influence the learning of their students. Gordon & Debus (2002) in their study on developing deep learning approaches and personal teaching efficacy within a pre-service teacher education context also revealed that most of the pre-service teacher have greater willingness to try new methods and tend to foster a classroom climate that is warm and supportive of student needs. A study by William, Boone & Kingsley (2004) on teachers’ beliefs about educational software also supported the findings of this study. Most of the pre-service teachers today have high ability to teach using ICT and have more ideas when using ICT in their teaching compared with 10 years past particularly techniques that are difficult to implement and involve risk such as sharing control with students. Christine, Jaun & Jonsson, (2002) likewise indicated that most of the preservice teachers and novice teachers today felt that they are more comfortable using ICT in teaching and over 70% of the participants in their study stated that they have access to a computer at home or at school to practice their computer skills that are now necessary to conduct an effective classroom by utilizing the latest technology.

Satisfaction of Science Student Teachers with the Teacher Education Program

Another objective of the study was to determine satisfaction of science student teachers’ satisfaction with teacher education program at UPM. The study showed that students teachers were satisfied with the teacher education program at UPM (Mean=4.01, SD. = 0.354). The results of this study are consistent with Calderon & Green (1997) and May & King (1997). Calderon & Green (1997) found that most of the respondents were satisfied with the teacher education program. Other researches (Ashton & Green, 1986; Rhodes, Nevill,. & Allan, 2004, Bogler, 2005) also reported that most of the preservice teachers felt that teacher education programs need to produce students with the kind of problem-solving capabilities and expose them with publishing papers and attending conference in order to increase their self-confidence in the capacity to manage teaching tasks.

The Attitudes of Science Student Teachers Towards the Teaching Profession

The third objective of the study was to determine the attitudes of Science student teachers towards the teaching profession. As depicted in Table 4, the attitudes of student teachers towards the teaching profession was moderately positive (Mean=3.67, SD.=.43). (see Table 4). This showed that the attitude of student teachers of University Putra Malaysia toward teaching profession were moderate. The study also showed that the respondent in this study have high attitude for items “teaching profession was a very enjoyable job (Mean: 4.243, S.D: 0.661)”, commitment to be a teacher (Mean: 4.014, S.D: 0.567) and low level of attitude for item “I felt bored with teaching profession (Mean: 1.958, S.D: 1.023). The respondent in this study also felt that teaching profession was are challenging profession for them (Mean: 4.159, S.D: 0.644). A studies conducted by Ferraiolo, Hess, Maranto & Milliman (2004) on pre-service teachers’ attitudes and the success of school choice also supported the finding of the study by highlighted that almost half of the pre- service teachers have moderate of attitude in teaching profession and have no clear picture about teaching profession before they went for teaching practice. But after they went for teaching practice their attitude toward teaching profession become higher and they felt that they are enjoy and committed to be are teacher. Inman & Marlow (2004) in their study about teacher retention also noted the same finding by revealed that most of the preservice teacher have low of attitude toward teaching profession because of wrong information and have no clear picture about the profession. Previous research (Thamilmani, 2000; Ediger, 2002; LaCour, 2005) also in line with the finding of this study, which revealed that most of the pre- service teachers have moderate level of attitude toward teaching profession because of lack of preparation from teacher training program and lack of knowledge in teaching and learning situations.

The Relationships Between Student Teachers’ Teaching Efficacy, Satisfaction with the Teacher Education Program and Their Attitudes Towards the Teaching Profession There was a significant relationship between students teachers’ teaching efficacy and their satisfaction with the teachers education program that they were in (r = 0.464, p<0.05). A significant relationship was also detected between student teachers teaching efficacy and their attitudes towards the teaching profession (r = - 0.146, p< 0.05).

The findings of this study are in line with previous research (Jones, 2001; Fritz, Miller-Heyl, Kreutzer & MacPhee, 2001; Gordon & Debus, 2002), which reports that teacher education program should help to increase the pre-service teachers feelings of personal teaching efficacy and internal locus of control as a method of improving a sense of competence and satisfaction with teaching since the relationship between teaching efficacy and teacher education program was greater. The finding of this study also consistent with the finding by Fritz, Miller-Heyl, Kreutzer & MacPhee (2001) in their study on fostering personal teaching efficacy through staff development and classroom activities which noted that the feelings of teaching efficacy and satisfaction with teacher education program are interrelated and found that teachers with a high sense of efficacy saw training practices in teacher training program are important in order to foster a classroom climate that is warm and supportive of student needs.

Henson & Chambers (2003) in their study on personality type as a predictor of teaching efficacy and classroom control in emergency certification teachers also noted that one of the most important predictor of successful integrating of students in the classroom and effective teaching and learning is the attitude of pre-service teachers toward teaching profession but the effect of this predictor little bit lower compared with other predictors such as pre-service teacher programs, commit to excellence in their teaching, quality classroom learning environments, parents support, knowledge of pedagogy and personality of the pre-service teachers themselves. McCoy’s (2003) and Dupoux,Wolman, & Estrada, (2005) likewise indicated that most of the pre-service teachers have low confidence with their sense of teaching efficacy not because of their attitude with teaching profession but because of pre-teaching situations which might not well provide readiness for the internship and also lack of experience in-service education when entering the profession.

CONCLUSION

Results of this study demonstrated that teaching efficacy of University Putra Malaysia Science student teachers were high. Majority of the respondents had high level of efficacy with respect to student engagement, instructional strategies, classroom management and the use of ICT in teaching. He science student teachers were very satisfied with the teacher education program at UPM. The study also showed that the attitudes of Science student teachers of University Putra Malaysia towards the teaching profession were moderately positive. The teaching efficacy of University Putra Malaysia Science student teachers and their satisfaction with teacher training program and attitudes towards the teaching profession were significantly correlated.

RECOMMENDATION

The institution has to ensure that student teachers should have a high level of confident in their teaching. For that reason more opportunities should be given to students to participate in classroom activities. Various teaching methodologies need to be employed to ensure full participation by student teachers and to make use the different types of student’s learning styles. As the teacher education program continue to educate those who have chosen teaching as their career, Faculty of Educational Studies (FPP) must focus on ways to provide pre-service teachers with ample opportunities to visit and interact with teachers and administrators in a variety of school settings in order to give a better picture about teaching profession.

In order to ensure that student teachers are satisfied with the teacher training program, a variety of teaching and learning approaches have to be integrated in teaching and learning. The teacher education program must emphasize on “learning by doing” in the curriculum. Teaching practice should be the central aspects of the course from which students can learn by reflection-in-action, aided by competent practitioners (the teachers in schools and lecturers concerned with professional practice). In addition, student teachers should also be able to think about and practice teaching according to different philosophies and traditions. Following this direction, reflective thinking strategies are often suggested as ways to meld ideal from differing philosophies into usable practical knowledge. Furthermore, during the course of the program more discussions concerning the conduct of the profession should be included in order to creating quality classroom learning environments where high expectations are maintained.

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ABD. RAHIM BAKAR, MOHD. MAJID KONTING,

RASHID JAMIAN & NOVEL LYNDON

Faculty of Educational Studies,

Universiti Putra Malaysia,

43400 Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia

Copyright Project Innovation, Inc. Jun 2008

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