Exploring the Relationships of Teachers' Efficacy, Knowledge, and Pedagogical Beliefs: A Multimethod Study

Teacher efficacy has been related to many positive educational outcomes (e.g., Tschannen-Moran, Woolfolk-Hoy, & Hoy, 1998). However, a literature review revealed little research assessing the relation of teacher efficacy to pedagogical knowledge or pedagogical beliefs. This work explored the relations among these constructs. A proposed model was tested in which efficacy served as a mediator between teachers' demonstrated knowledge, pedagogical beliefs, and performance. One hundred-twenty preservice and 102 experienced teachers completed a test packet that assessed demographic information, knowledge, efficacy, beliefs, and teachers' ability to assess common instructional situations. Three experienced high-knowledge teachers with differing efficacy levels participated in in-depth interviews for instrumental case study analysis. Correlational analyses demonstrated a significant relation for pedagogical beliefs and efficacy. The data for preservice and experienced teachers was fit to the proposed model and analyzed by path analysis. The resulting models differed for each group. Preservice teachers' knowledge related directly to performance, and did not relate to efficacy. Beliefs related to performance as well as efficacy. Experienced teachers' knowledge and beliefs related to teacher efficacy. However, efficacy was not related to performance. The relation between demonstrated knowledge and teacher efficacy was negative in nature, indicating that teachers with greater demonstrated knowledge tended to have a lower sense of efficacy. Case study analysis revealed a tendency in these teachers to verbalize efficacy beliefs as explanations for not engaging in particular teaching practices. Teacher beliefs also emerged as a common theme in the case studies, specifically beliefs about the nature and evaluation of teaching. This investigation confirmed the need to further explore the relations of teachers' knowledge, pedagogical beliefs, and efficacy. Of particular interest are the beliefs teachers hold about the value of pedagogical knowledge, the nature of teaching, and the knowledge content (e.g., subject matter) that is most essential for successful teaching. Future studies should explore in greater depth the interrelations of these constructs

Classroom Test Construction: The Power of a Table of Specifications

Classroom tests provide teachers with essential information used to make decisions about instruction and student grades. A table of specification (TOS) can be used to help teachers frame the decision making process of test construction and improve the validity of teacher\u27s evaluations based on tests constructed for classroom use. In this article we explain the purpose of a TOS and how to use it to help construct classroom tests. Accessed 155,500 times on https://pareonline.net from February 21, 2013 to December 31, 2019. For downloads from January 1, 2020 forward, please click on the PlumX Metrics link to the right

Developing a Measure of Scientific Literacy for Middle School Students

Scientific literacy reflects “a broad and functional understanding of science for general education purposes” (DeBoer, 2000, p. 594). Herein, we present the ongoing development of the Scientific Literacy Assessment (SLA), a work‐in‐progress measure to assess middle school students\u27 (ages 11–14) scientific literacy. The SLA includes a selected response measure of students’ demonstrated scientific literacy (SLA‐D) and a motivation and beliefs scale based on existing measures of self‐efficacy, subjective task value, and personal epistemology for science (SLA‐MB). Our theoretical conceptualization of scientific literacy guided the development of our measure. We provide details from three studies: Pilot Study 1 (n = 124) and Pilot Study 2 (n = 220) describe the development of the SLA‐D by conducting iterative item analyses of the student responses, think‐aloud interviews with six students, and external expert feedback on the items in the SLA‐D. Study 3 describes the testing of our prototype measure (n = 264). We present a validity argument including reliability evidence that supports the use of the current version of the SLA to provide an evaluation of middle school students’ scientific literacy. Our resulting SLA includes the SLA‐D in two versions, each with 26 items and the SLA‐MB with 25 items across three scales: value of science, scientific literacy self‐efficacy, and personal epistemology

Educational Psychology and Transformational Classrooms : Research and Theory Meets Teaching and Learning

https://digitalcommons.montclair.edu/all_books/1506/thumbnail.jp

International handbook of research on teachers beliefs/ Edit.: Helenrose Fives; Michele Gregoire Gill

xii, 502 hal.; 24 cm

Informed and Uninformed Naïve Assessment Constructors’ Strategies for Item Selection

We present a descriptive analysis of 53 naïve assessment constructors’ explanations for selecting test items to include on a summative assessment. We randomly assigned participants to an informed and uninformed condition (i.e., informed participants read an article describing a Table of Specifications). Through recursive thematic analyses of participants’ explanations, we identified 14 distinct strategies that coalesced into three families of strategies: Alignment, Item Evaluation, and Affective Evaluation. We describe the nature of the strategies and the degree to which participants used strategies with frequency and effect size analysis. Results can inform teacher education on assessment construction through explicit instruction in the three families of strategies identified

Exploring Differences in Practicing Teachers’ Valuing of Pedagogical Knowledge Based On Teaching Ability Beliefs

In this investigation, we assessed 443 teachers’ beliefs with the Teaching Ability Belief Scale (TABS) and the Importance of Teaching Knowledge Scale (ITKS). Using cluster analysis, we identified four groups of teachers based on their responses to the TABS reflecting Innate, Learned, Hybrid, and Requires Polish perspectives on the ability to teach. A comparative analysis, using the identified clusters, indicated differences in teachers’ valuing of teaching knowledge across the clusters. Teachers in the Learned cluster valued knowledge of theory significantly more so than other groups

What Do Teachers Believe? Developing a Framework for Examining Beliefs About Teachers\u27 Knowledge and Ability

Influenced by work on teacher beliefs, personal epistemology, teachers\u27 knowledge, implicit theories, and motivation, we conducted a two-part investigation exploring preservice and practicing teachers\u27 beliefs about teaching knowledge and teaching ability. Study I qualitatively examined 53 preservice and 57 practicing teachers\u27 beliefs about teaching, in order to: (1) ensure that the voices of teachers were made prevalent in the development of a framework aimed at understanding their beliefs and (2) facilitate the development of a quantitative measure to assess these beliefs. Results indicated that participants valued several aspects of teaching knowledge and held complex beliefs related to the implicit theories of teaching ability. Study I concludes with a framework for developing an instrument to assess teachers\u27 beliefs. Study II describes two instruments developed to assess the beliefs identified in Study 1. Using responses from 351 preservice teachers, exploratory factor analysis procedures identified factors reflective of emergent themes from Study I

Introduction

Beliefs can be conceptualized as an “individual’s judgment of the truth or falsity of a proposition” (Pajares, 1992, p. 316) or “as a set of interrelated notions” (McAlpine, Eriks-Brophy, & Crago, 1996, p. 392), or “as a set of conceptual representations which store general knowledge of objects, people and events, and their characteristic relationships” (Hermans, van Braak, & Van Keer, 2008, p. 128). As noted by Fives and Buehl (2012), defi ning beliefs is not always the challenge in this fi eld (although it is a challenge), but fi nding consistency across these defi nitions so that one can come to a meaningful, pragmatic, and warranted conceptualization of the research seems to be a more epic quest for scholars in this fi eld: A quest the authors of the International Handbook of Research on Teachers’ Beliefs have undertaken with zeal