Self-efficacy of native and non-native English speaker teachers = Hiệu lực bản thân của giáo viên tiếng Anh bản ngữ và không bản ngữ.PDF

The context of teaching at the Faculty of English Language Teacher Training, University of Languages and International Studies FELTE, ULIS .... On this ground, the researcher was motivat

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Acknowledgements i

Abstract ii

List of tables, figures, and abbreviations v

PART A: INTRODUCTION 1

1 Statement of the research problem and rationale for the study 1

2 Aims of the study 2

3 Scope of the study 3

4 Methodology 3

5 Significance of the study 4

6 Organisation of the thesis: 4

PART B: DEVELOPMENT 6

CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 6

1.1 Review of literature related to Self-efficacy and Teacher Self-efficacy theories 6

1.1.1 Definition, roles, sources, and types of self-efficacy 6

1.1.2 Self-efficacy and Social cognitive theory 11

1.1.3 Teacher self-efficacy 13

1.2 Demographic factors that affect teacher self-efficacy 16

1.2.1 Teacher self-efficacy and teaching experience 16

1.2.2 Teacher self-efficacy and gender 17

1.3 Dimensions of teacher self-efficacy 18

1.4 Non-native English speaker teacher & Teacher self-efficacy 20

1.4.1 Non-native vs Native English speaker teacher 20

1.4.2 Non-native English speaker teacher self-efficacy 21

1.5 The context of teaching at the Faculty of English Language Teacher Training, University of Languages and International Studies (FELTE, ULIS) 23

1.6 How does this study fit into other research? 24

1.7 Summary 27

CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY 28

2.0 Research questions 28

2.1 Sampling and Participants 28

2.1.1 Sampling procedures 28

2.1.2 Participants 29

2.2 Instrumentation 29

2.3 Procedures of data collection 33

2.4 Procedures of data analysis 34

2.5 Summary 35

CHAPTER 3: RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS 36

3.1 Results of construct validation of the TEBS-Self 36

3.2 Sample characteristics 39

3.3 Participant profile 42

3.3 Research question 1: What is the self-efficacy of NNESTs? 43

3.4 Research question 2: What is the self-efficacy of NESTs? 46

3.5 Research question 3: What is the relationship between the self-efficacy of these two parties in terms of gender and teaching experience? 48

CHAPTER 4: SUGGESTIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 54

4.1 Teacher development at FELTE, ULIS, VNUH 54

4.2 Teacher training program design at FELTE, ULIS, VNUH 55

PART C: CONCLUSION 56

List of references 58 APPENDIX 1 I APPENDIX 2 II

LIST OF TABLES, FIGURES, AND ABBREVIATIONS

List of Tables

Table 1 - Reliability of Karimvand’s (2011) instrument 32

Table 2 - Cronbach's alpha Coefficients for the TEBS-S 32

Table 3 - TEBS-Self factor analysis results – 4 extracted components 37

Table 4 - TEBS-Self factor analysis results – Factor loadings 38

Table 5 - Participants' profile 42

Table 6 - NNESTs’ general efficacy beliefs (N=34) 44

Table 7 - Dimensions of TEBS-S 45

Table 8 - Statistics of the four sub-scales for NNESTs 45

Table 9 - NESTs’ general efficacy beliefs (N=6) 47

Table 10 - Statistics of the four sub-scales for NESTs 48

Table 11 - Statistics of the four sub-scales for NESTs and NNESTs 49

Table 12 - Independent samples t-test of the four sub-scales for NESTs and NNESTs 50

Table 13 - Gender aspect of the four dimensions of teacher self-efficacy 51

Table 14 - Experience aspect of the four dimensions of teacher self-efficacy 52

List of Figures

Figure 1 - Bandura’s (1997) Triadic Reciprocal Causation Model 12

Figure 2 - Sample gender 39

Figure 3 - Teaching experience of the sample teachers 40

Figure 4 - Nationalities of the sample teachers 41

Abbreviation

PART A: INTRODUCTION

his opening part illuminates the research problem and rationale for the study, together with the aims, objectives, and the scope of the research Primarily, in this part, the research questions are identified to act as clear guidelines for the whole study

1 Statement of the research problem and rationale for the study

As English becomes a global language for communication and business and the teaching of English becomes a fast growth industry, an increasing number of English language teachers who are non-native English speakers can be seen in English as a Second Language (ESL) as well as in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) contexts around the world This raises so much interest in issues related to non-native English speaker teachers (NNEST) in the field of teaching English to speakers of other languages (TESOL) that a proliferation of papers, theses, dissertations, and publications has been dedicated to the topic Specifically, the issues of NNESTs have been examined from chiefly three different areas of interest, which are the self-perceptions of NNESTs (e.g Amin, 1997; Medgyes,

1983, 1994; Reves & Medgyes, 1994), the credibility of NNESTs (e.g Amin, 1997, 1999; Braine, 1999; Thomas, 1999), and the meaning of the label NNES educator and other parties’ perceptions of NNES educators (e.g., Hansen, 2004; Inbar, 2001; J Liu, 1999, 2004) (Kamhi-Stein, 2004)

Self-efficacy, on the other hand, has been a fresh and recent research issue in the field of psychology and education (Bandura, 1995; Llurda, 2005; Graddol, 2007; Liu,

2009, Karimvand, 2011) Self-efficacy, as defined by Bandura (1995), is a person’s beliefs

in his or her ability to succeed in a particular situation More precisely, it is “the belief in one’s capabilities to organize and execute the courses of action required to manage prospective situations” (Bandura, 1995, p.2) The concept of self-efficacy is different from self-perception, which is an individual’s knowledge of their own “attitudes, emotions, and other internal states” through inference from observations of their own behaviour and/ or the circumstances in which this behaviour occurs (Bem, 1972, p 2) The nature of self-efficacy is more cognitive and more concerned with expectancy beliefs about an

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individual's perceived capability to perform a certain task in a very specific domain (Bandura, 1997, cited in Mercer, 2008) In other words, self-efficacy is “a context-specific assessment of competence to perform a specific task, a judgement of one's capabilities to execute specific behaviours in specific situations” (Pajares and Miller, 1994, p 194) Self-efficacy can have an impact on everything from psychological states to behaviour to motivation, and thus, has become an important topic among psychologists and educators Research on the self-perceptions of native English speaker teachers (NESTs) has received its fair share of attention (Braine, 1999; Kamhi-Stein, 2004; Llurda, 2005) However, little has been done on the self-efficacy of NNESTs, which is the belief in their own capabilities to succeed in their teaching career which can impact their psychological states, behaviour, and motivation, etc and in turn their students’ learning outcomes and achievement

In reality, at the Faculty of English Language Teacher Education, University of Languages and International Studies (FELTE, ULIS) in Vietnam, the teaching of English is

in fact provided by a faculty comprising mainly native speakers of Vietnamese What is more, FELTE – previously part of the English Department – under University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University, Hanoi (ULIS, VNUH),

is one of the leading and avant-garde English teaching institutions in Vietnam, with – among many others – the main aim of providing quality teachers of English for Vietnam

On this ground, the researcher was motivated to carry out the research entitled Efficacy of Native and Non-Native English Speaker Teachers”, which aims to

“Self-investigate the self-efficacy of NNESTs and to compare it with their NEST counterpart at FELTE, ULIS, to see what factors affect their teaching and the effectiveness of their work

2 Aims of the study

This research aims to investigate the self-efficacy beliefs of NNESTs and to compare

it with the self-efficacy beliefs of their NEST counterpart, and from the findings, to propose some context-specific suggestions for the betterment of professional development for NNESTs at ULIS-VNUH in particular and in Vietnam in general

3 Scope of the study

Within the scope of an MA thesis, the research will not cover every aspect of

self-efficacy, nor with all categories of teachers at ULIS, VNUH The study focuses on teacher self-efficacy, among some other types of self-efficacy beliefs (Self-efficacy, 2011) In particular, the study focuses on the self-efficacy of NNESTs and NESTs at FELTE, ULIS, VNUH It specifically targets self-efficacy in the educational context

4 Methodology

i Research questions:

1) What are the self-efficacy of NNESTs at FELTE?

2) What are the self-efficacy of NESTs at FELTE?

3) What is the relationship between the self-efficacy of these two parties in terms

of gender and teaching experience?

ii Participants:

34 non-native English speaker teachers working in the EFL English language teachers training (ELTT) program at VNUH and 6 native English speaker teachers involved with ELTT program at VNUH and several other ELTT universities and colleges

in Vietnam were involved in the study

iii Instrumentation:

The methodology of this research is mainly quantitative The study employs the Teacher Efficacy Beliefs Scale – Self developed by Dellinger et al (2008) to probe the self-efficacy beliefs of both native English speaker teachers and non-native English speaker teachers, and to analyse the correlation between the self-efficacy of these two parties

iv Data analysis

The collected data were categorised and quantitatively analysed Data from questionnaires were statistically analysed to find answers to the research questions 1, 2, 3

5 Significance of the study

On the basis of the statistical analyses of data, the self-efficacy of NNESTs and NESTs will emerge, and thus be compared to existing literature Then suggestions for better professional development and eventually even better teaching quality at ULIS, VNUH are proposed

6 Organisation of the thesis:

This paper is divided into three main parts:

Part A is the INTRODUCTION In this part, the rationales of the study, the aims,

research questions, the scope of the study, methods of the study and also its design are presented

Part B is the DEVELOPMENT which includes 4 chapters

Chapter 1, Literature Review, deals with a theoretical background about the

definitions of the self-efficacy and its characteristics; “teachers’ self-efficacy”, and the

“non-native English speaker teachers”, together with an overview of the teaching context

at Faculty of English Language Teacher Education, University of Languages and International Studies (FELTE, ULIS) At the same time, a review of related studies

discloses the research gap; thus, justifies the aims and objectives of the whole study

Chapter 2, Research Methodology, describes the situation where the study was

conducted and the informants involved in the study It includes the teachers of English, both NSETs and NNSETs The data collection instruments, procedures of data collection and data analysis are also presented in this chapter

Chapter 3, Results and Discussion, presents and discusses the findings on

self-efficacy of NESTs and NNESTs and a comparison of the two parties as well as the extent that self-efficacy contributes to the work achievement of the two parties

Chapter 4, Implications and Recommendations, presents some pedagogical

implications of the study and suggestions for even better professional development for teachers at FELTE and eventually, even better teaching

Part C is the CONCLUSION which summarizes the main points of the study,

limitations and suggests for further research

REFERENCES and APPENDICES are presented in the last pages of the study

PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW

his first chapter sheds light on the literature pertinent to the present study, i.e the theoretical background and the review of studies relevant to the topic of research Initially, the theoretical background will be elucidated with an explanation of key concepts, namely “self-efficacy”, “teachers’ self-efficacy”, and the “non-native English speaker teachers”, together with a thematically organised review of relevant studies Then, an overview of the teaching context at Faculty of English Language Teacher Education (FELTE), University of Languages and International Studies (ULIS), Vietnam National University, Hanoi (VNUH) is presented Finally, a statement of the place and importance

of the study in relation to current literature will justify the aims and objectives of the whole research

1.1 Review of literature related to Self-efficacy and Teacher Self-efficacy theories

The following part provides definition of the key concepts, which contribute to the theoretical foundation of the study, and reviews relevant literature which lays out the conceptualisation of the concept Information is organised thematically

1.1.1 Definition, roles, sources, and types of self-efficacy

Definition of self-efficacy

Self-efficacy, first coined by Albert Bandura (1977) in his social cognitive theory, is

a concept in the field of psychology which refers to a person’s beliefs in his or her own ability to succeed in a particular situation It is “the belief in one’s capabilities to organize and execute the courses of action required to manage prospective situations” (Bandura,

1995, p.2) Pajares and Miller (1994) later provided a definition which highlights the cognitive and context specific nature of self-efficacy, which is “a context-specific assessment of competence to perform a specific task, a judgement of one's capabilities to

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execute specific behaviours in specific situations” (p 194) Pajares (2002), basing on Bandura (1986), also defines self-efficacy beliefs as “people's judgments of their capabilities to organize and execute courses of action required to attain designated types of performances.” In other words, self-efficacy is a “future-oriented belief” about the level of competence a person expects he or she will display in a given situation

In the TESOL field, self-efficacy has often been confused, and sometimes referred to inconsistently or even inaccurately, with other related terms such as “self-esteem” and

concept” In fact, all the three terms, efficacy”, esteem” and concept”, are under one umbrella known as “self-constructs” – beliefs about oneself which are thought to affect behaviour and attitudes (Mercer, 2008) Self-constructs, such as self-confidence, self-concept, self-efficacy, and self-esteem, have appeared in a wide array of research areas in foreign language teaching such as works on affect, autonomy, identity, individual differences, and motivation (e.g Dörnyei 2005; Williams et al 2004; Yang 1999; Yashima et al 2004, cited in Mercer, 2008) In her journal article, Mercer (2008)

“self-made a clear distinction among the three key self-constructs, i.e self-esteem, self-concept, and self-efficacy

Citing the work of Valentine & DuBois (2005, p 55), Mercer explained that all of the three above concepts share “a common emphasis on an individual's beliefs in his or her attributes and abilities as a person”; however, they are different in terms of (1) degree of specificity with which they are measured, and (2) the relative importance of the cognitive

and evaluative elements Firstly, self-esteem is seen as a more global construct, which

focuses on an individual’s overall evaluation of his/her worth or value as a person, and thus considered as the broadest and most evaluative of the three constructs In this aspect, “self-esteem” and “self-worth” are often used interchangeably (Harter, 1999, p 5, cited in

Mercer, 2008) In contrast, self-efficacy is more cognitive in nature and more concerned

with expectancy beliefs in one's perceived capability to perform a certain task in a very specific domain (Bandura, 1997) such as managing a classroom or motivating students

Self-concept, on the other hand, contains both cognitive and affective elements, and is

considered to be less context-dependent than self-efficacy It is concerned with an

individual's self-perceptions in a wider domain (for example, teaching English as a foreign language) than is the case for self-efficacy (Mercer, 2008)

Self-efficacy should also be distinguished from “self-perception”, which is an individual’s knowledge of their own “attitudes, emotions, and other internal states” through inference from observations of their own behaviour and/ or the circumstances in which this behaviour occurs (Bem, 1972, p 2) Meanwhile, as elucidated above, self-efficacy is “more cognitive in nature and more concerned with expectancy beliefs in an individual's perceived capability to perform a certain task in a very specific domain” (Bandura, 1997, cited in Mercer, 2008)

Overall, self-efficacy is consistently defined as a person’s belief, assessment, or judgement of their own capabilities to design and carry out context-specific sequences of actions to perform a specific task or to succeed in a particular situation (Bandura, 1977,

1986, 1995; Pajares and Miller, 1994; Pajares, 2002) The concept should be distinguished from other related concepts such as “self-esteem”, “self-concept”, and “self-perception” For the purpose of this research, self-efficacy, sense of self-efficacy, or self-efficacy belief, used interchangeably, will adopt the above definition

The Role of Self-Efficacy in human functioning

In their lives, humans can set goals, identify desirable changes & attainment; however, there is a big difference between identifying goals, desirable changes, and attainment to realizing those goals, carry out changes, and accomplish tasks Bandura and others suggest that an individual’s sense of self-efficacy can greatly contribute to how the person approaches goals, tasks, and challenges (Cherry, 2011) Self-efficacy beliefs can influence thought patterns and emotions that in turn affects the amount of effort people expend in pursuit of goals, their persistence in the face of hardship, rebound from obstructions, and the amount of control over events that affect their lives (Bandura, 1986,

1993, 1996, 1997, cited in Tschannen-Moran, Woolfolk Hoy, & Hoy, 1994) Generally, people with a strong sense of self-efficacy: view challenging problems as tasks to be mastered; develop deeper interest in the activities in which they participate; form a stronger sense of commitment to their interests and activities; recover quickly from

setbacks and disappointments Meanwhile, people with a weak sense of self-efficacy: avoid challenging tasks; believe that difficult tasks and situations are beyond their capabilities; focus on personal failings and negative outcomes; quickly lose confidence in personal abilities (Bandura, 1994)

Bandura (1997) proposed that self-efficacy beliefs are “powerful predictors of behaviour” This proposition is supported by his observation: “People regulate their level and distribution of effort in accordance with the effects they expect their actions to have

As a result, their behaviour is better predicted from their beliefs than from the actual consequences of their actions” (1986, p 129, cited in Henson, 2001) as well as by other research literature (Henson, 2001)

Sources of Self-efficacy

Self-efficacy beliefs can develop from four main sources According to Bandura,

the four principle sources of information which influence self-efficacy are enactive or mastery experiences, vicarious experiences, verbal persuasion, and physiological and emotional states In other words, they are “performance attainments; vicarious experiences

of observing the performances of others; verbal persuasion and allied types of social influences that one possesses certain capabilities; and physiological states from which people partly judge their capability, strength, and vulnerability” (Nolan, 2009)

Bandura (1994) contends that mastery experiences are the strongest source of

developing a person’s sense of self-efficacy Actual achievement of a designated task can develop a strong sense of efficacy to accomplish similar prospective tasks; in contrast, repeated failure can undermine self-efficacy beliefs, especially if failures occur before a sense of efficacy is firmly established (Bandura, 1998; Zeldin and Pajares, 2000)

Vicarious experiences, which stem from witnessing other people’s success or failure when

they perform a task, are another important source of self-efficacy According to Bandura,

“Seeing people similar to oneself succeed by sustained effort raises observers' beliefs that they too possess the capabilities master comparable activities to succeed” (1994) The third

source of self-efficacy, verbal persuasion, pertains to the idea that people could be

persuaded to believe that they have the skills and capabilities to succeed An individual sense of self-efficacy tends to increase, if the person who provides verbal persuasion is

dependable Physiological and emotional states constitute the last source of

self-efficacy and refers to people’s physical and affective condition in task completion, e.g moods, emotional states, physical reactions, and stress levels, which can affect a person’s feeling about his/her capabilities in specific situations For instance, feelings of relaxation are signals of self-assurance and, therefore, enhance self-efficacy, while a racing heart beat or high blood pressure can lead to low efficacy beliefs However, Bandura noted that “it is not the sheer intensity of emotional and physical reactions that is important but rather how they are perceived and interpreted” (1994) Typically, self-efficacy beliefs are enhanced by optimism and positive mood, while depression and despair weaken them (Nolan, 2009; Cherry, 2011)

General Self-Efficacy: the global confidence in one’s coping ability across a wide

range of demanding or novel situations This broader construct is most frequently assessed with the General Self-Efficacy Scale (Schwarzer & Jerusalem, 1995)

Social Self-efficacy: an individual’s confidence in her/his ability to engage in the

social interactional tasks necessary to initiate and maintain interpersonal relationships (Schwarzer & Knoll, 2007)

Academic Self-efficacy: a student’s belief that he or she can successfully engage in

and complete course-specific academic tasks, such as accomplishing course outcomes, demonstrating competency skills used in the course, satisfactorily completing assignments, passing the course, and meeting the requirements to continue on in his or her major (Jimenez Soffa, 2006)

Teacher Self-Efficacy: one's perceived competence to deal with all demands and

challenges that are implied in teachers' professional life (Schwarzer & Hallum, 2008)

1.1.2 Self-efficacy and Social cognitive theory

Self-efficacy lies at the heart of Bandura’s social cognitive theory, which emphasises the role of observational learning, intrinsic reinforcement, and social experience in the development of personality The theory posits that “portions of an individual's knowledge acquisition can be directly related to observing others within the context of social interactions, experiences, and outside media influences” (Social learning theory, 2011) More precisely, an individual can acquire knowledge and develop personality through observing other people, with the environment, behavior, and personal factors – i.e cognition, affect, and biological events – all as the chief factors in influencing development

One of the major arguments in Bandura’s social cognitive theory is that individuals are more likely to perform tasks they believe they are capable of doing and succeeding and are less likely to participate in the ones which they feel less competent Thus, individuals’ beliefs in their competencies to accomplish specific tasks, i.e self-efficacy, affect the choices that individuals make and the courses of action they pursue, the effort they exert, their perseverance in front of impediment, and their resilience in the face of failure (Bandura, 1997)

Bandura’s social cognitive theory builds on the assumption that individuals are organizing, proactive, self-reflecting and self-regulating agents who engage in their own development and can shape their lives by their own actions, instead of being driven by external forces of the environment Individuals possess “self-beliefs”, among other personal factors, that allow them to exercise a measure of control over their thoughts, feelings, and actions, that "what people think, believe, and feel affects how they behave" (1986, p 25, cited in Pajeras, 2002)

self-The triadic reciprocal causation model

Bandura’s social cognitive theory holds the assumption that people are capable of human agency, or intentional pursuit of courses of action This human agency is the product of a dynamic interaction of personal, behavioral, and environmental influences,

resulting in a process called triadic reciprocal causation (Bandura, 1977, 1997, cited in

Henson, 2001) This means that people are the product of neither the environment influences nor biological factors, but rather an interplay of all factors, with an emphasis on cognition, self-reflection and self-regulation processes The triadic reciprocal causation model is a multi-directional model suggesting that our behaviour is caused by multiple factors and behaviour can impact those factors reciprocally The model, describe in the figure below, is a function of three interrelated forces: environmental influences, our behaviour, and internal personal factors such as cognitive, affective, and biological processes

Behavioral Factors

Personal Factors

(Cognitive, affective, biological processes) Environmental Factors

Figure 1 - Bandura’s (1997) Triadic Reciprocal Causation Model

A pertinent example to illustrate this model can be seen in Nolan (2009):

A teacher receives their class roster and upon review realizes that the roster includes the name of a student who has a history of hostile behavior When greeting this student, the teacher’s behavior (e.g

nonverbal demeanor, manner of communication) interacts with the teacher’s internal personal factors (e.g memory of a similar student, emotional reaction) and the environment (e.g school climate, other students) This blending of factors impacts the teacher’s perceived ability to interact in a positive manner with this student in the future

Therefore the teacher’s future behavior is a result of many factors

Finally, the teacher’s behavior is a function of the cognitive processing of the value and influence of all components involved

(Nolan, 2009)

1.1.3 Teacher self-efficacy

Definition of teacher self-efficacy

According to Bandura (1977), teacher self-efficacy is a special type of self-efficacy Bandura (1997) referred to teacher’s self-efficacy as “the belief in one’s capability to organize and execute courses of action required to produce given attainments”, which is not much difference from the mother concept self-efficacy Dellinger (2001), building from Bandura’s definition, conceptualized teachers’ self-efficacy as “a belief system that one has concerning his/her self-perceived capabilities to organize and execute courses of action to acquire given levels of attainment in situation-specific teaching tasks.”

Tschannen-Moran, Woolfolk Hoy, & Hoy (1998) in their article “Teacher Efficacy: Its Meaning and Measure” have also made attempts to pinpoint the concept of teacher self-efficacy, labelling it “teacher efficacy” They build on the work of others to provide two definitions of teacher efficacy as “the extent to which the teacher believes he or she has the capacity to affect student performance” (Berman, et al., 1977, p 137), or as “teachers’ belief or conviction that they can influence how well students learn, even those who may

be difficult or unmotivated” (Guskey & Passaro, 1994, p 4, cited in Tschannen-Moran, Woolfolk Hoy, & Hoy, 1998)

Akbari & Moradkhani (2010) has also provided a succinct definition of teacher efficacy, in which teacher self-efficacy refers to “teachers’ judgment on their abilities to motivate students and improve their achievement.”

self-Schwarzer & Hallum defined teacher self-efficacy, in relation to other types of efficacy, as “one's perceived competence to deal with all demands and challenges that are implied in teachers' professional life” (2008)

All the definitions above accentuate the key elements of teacher self-efficacy, i.e

“teacher’s beliefs”, “perceived capabilities”, “motivate”, “improve”, “student performance” For the purpose of this study, definition from Dellinger (2001) will be adopted as it most closely reflects the theoretical foundation of the study, the social

cognitive theory and self-efficacy With regards to terminology, all the terms teachers’ sense of efficacy, self-efficacy of teachers, instructional efficacy, teachers’ efficacy beliefs,

or teachers’ perceived efficacy can be used interchangeably to denote “a belief system that

one has concerning his/her self-perceived capabilities to organize and execute courses of action to acquire given levels of attainment in situation-specific teaching tasks” (Dellinger, 2001) Whereas the term “teacher efficacy” will not be used since it is too often confused with teacher “effectiveness” (Shaughnessy, 2004)

The role of teacher self-efficacy

The self-efficacy and talents of teachers play an essential role in creating environments which are conducive to learning (Bandura, 1993, p 140) In his article

“Perceived Self-Efficacy in Cognitive Development and Functioning”, Bandura (1993) demonstrated that teachers’ self-efficacy can have influence on the environment they create in their classroom, their specific instructional practices as well as their orientation toward the educational process, and their student academic achievement

In general, teachers with a high sense of self-efficacy are confident that even the most difficult students can be reached if they exert extra effort; e.g these teachers devote

more time to academic learning in the classroom, provide help to students with difficulty learning, praise students’ accomplishment, and create mastery experiences for their students On the other hand, teachers with lower self-efficacy feel helpless in dealing with difficult and unmotivated students; e.g they spend more time on non-academic pastimes, give up on students if they do not get quick results, and criticize students’ failures (Gibson

& Dembo, 1984)

Factors that influence teacher self-efficacy

There are many variables which may influence the psychological construct of teacher self-efficacy Akbari & Moradkhani (2010) classified the variables under two broad

categories, namely contextual and demographic factors

The first category, contextual factors, refers to variables within the specific context

and environment which the teacher is working Some major variables are: the principal’s leadership, the school’s climate, the colleagues, the students’ characteristics These

contextual variables can have significant influence on teachers’ self-efficacy beliefs (Akbari & Moradkhani, 2010) For instance, if teachers have access to more resources

in the school and enjoy the support from the principal and their colleagues, they are more likely to have stronger self-efficacy beliefs (Deemer, 2004; Hoy, & Woolfolk, 1993; Tschanne-Moran & Hoy, 2002) Also, class size can affect teachers’ sense of efficacy

in that the larger the class teachers teach, the stronger efficacy beliefs they possess (Lee et al., 1991; Raudenbush et al., 1992) Student gender has been found to have no effect on teacher’s efficacy beliefs (Benjarano, 2000); however, student age has a reverse relationship with teacher perceived efficacy, i.e teachers are more likely to be efficacious when they teach younger students (Tribble, 1986; Herman, 2000; Taimalu and Õim, 2005; and Tchannen-Moran & Hoy ; 2002, cited in Akbari & Moradkhani, 2010) A noticeable case of students’ characteristics and teacher self-efficacy is reported in Paneque & Barbetta’s study on special education teachers’ self-efficacy (2005), where teacher who taugh English language learners with disabilities had were found to have higher level of self-efficacy if their students had higher language proficiency level

The second category, demographic factors, includes demographic variables such as teacher’s gender, age, experience, and academic degree The focus of this study is to

examine teacher perceived efficacy in relation to the demographic variables of age and gender; therefore, the following sections will review in detail available literature relevant

to the issues of teacher self-efficacy and demographic factors

1.2 Demographic factors that affect teacher self-efficacy

In reality, there are many factors or variables which can have possible effects on teachers’ belief of their capability to succeed in a particular teaching situation However, for the purpose of this paper, the factors of teaching experience and gender will be looked upon thoroughly

1.2.1 Teacher self-efficacy and teaching experience

As previously mentioned, Bandura (1977, 1986) believes mastery experience is the most important source of self-efficacy, implying that success and accomplishment can develop a strong sense of efficacy; whereas, failure can weaken it Since throughout their years of teaching, teachers usually gain vast experience of successful and unsuccessful performances, this assumption has facilitated in-depth research into how teachers who have had different lengths of teaching time perceive their teaching efficacy (e.g., Penrose, Perry

& Ball, 2007; Hoy & Woolfolk, 1993; Moran & Hay, 2002; Imants & Brabander, 1996; Fives & Looney, 2009; Fives, 2010; Soodak & Podell, 1996; Campbell, 1996; Yan, 2006; Kotaman, 2010, cited in Karimvand, 2011)

According to Karimvand (2011), some studies have shown a positive correlation between years of experience and efficacy beliefs of teachers, in which seasoned teacher reported higher level of self-efficacy then their novice counterparts; and new teachers in their first year of teaching had lower levels of perceived efficacy for instructional practices and classroom management than did teachers with more experience (Lin and Tsai, 1999; Liu et al., 2007; Wolters and Daugherty, 2007, cited in Karimvand, 2011) The results of Akbari & Moradkhani’s research on Iranian English teachers’ self-efficacy have also showed that experienced teachers (with more than three years of teaching experience) had

“a significantly higher level of global efficacy, efficacy for student engagement, efficacy for classroom management, and efficacy for instructional strategies compared to their novice counterparts” (2008)

However, some studies have reported results which: (1) contradicted the ones reported above, (2) showed mixed results, or (3) showed no significant relationship between teacher’s years of experience and their efficacy beliefs For instance, the work of Woolfolk (1990) and Weinstein (1988) showed contrasting results that novice teachers were found to have high personal and professional efficacy Gorrell & Dharmadasa (1994) showed mixed results which indicated, although pre-service teachers reported higher efficacy for implementing new methods of instruction, experienced teachers reported higher efficacy for classroom management, organization of instruction, and impact on students Some others (e.g., Cruz & Arias, 2007; Gaith & Yaghi, 1997; Hoy & Woolfolk, 1990; Taimalu & Õim, 2005; cited in Akbari & Moradkhani, 2010) intended to find the difference between the efficacy of prospective and in-service teachers They concluded that as teachers enter the profession and gain more experience, their beliefs in

their ability to control disturbing factors outside the classroom context, known as general teaching efficacy (GTE), decreases, whereas their beliefs in their own ability to teach within the classroom context, called personal teaching efficacy (PTE) improves Finally,

some researchers have also found no significant relationship between teachers’ years of experience and their efficacy beliefs (e.g., Guskey, 1987)

In light of the above brief review of relevant literature, it is difficult to conclude that there is a similar direction regarding the relationship of the two variables, teacher perceived efficacy and teaching experience

1.2.2 Teacher self-efficacy and gender

Gender is another demographic variable that might influence teacher’s professional lives, in general, and their beliefs of their capabilities to succeed in specific teaching situations, in particular According to Karimvand (2011), social relations and the dominance of either gender (usually male) can affect teachers’ lives Female professionals are usually subordinate to male authorities in educational settings where professional

interactions are usually characterized by marginalization of women (Bartlett, 2005; Lin et al., 2004, cited in Karimvand, 2011) Since the social cognitive theory contends that efficacy beliefs are constructed and reconstructed through people’s social experiences and interactions, the impacts of unequal power dynamics existing in the field of TESOL and resulting practises – explicit or implicit – are undeniable Thus, examining the effects of gender on teachers’ perceived efficacy has proved to be an important area in the TESOL field

However, on reviewing the studies which have focuses on the relationship between gender and teachers' sense of efficacy, a great number of discrepancies can be seen Imants and De Brabander (1996), using a modified version of the Teacher Efficacy Scale (TES), concluded that gender influences teachers’ self-efficacy More precisely, their results showed that male elementary teachers’ level of efficacy beliefs for pupil-oriented and school-oriented tasks seemed to be higher than their female counterparts In contrast, both the work of Cheung (2006) and Karimvand (2011) found that female teachers have significantly more general efficacy than male teachers, while it is worth noting that female teachers in their studies were either generally older or had longer teaching experience than male teachers Finally, some other studies, such as Ghaith and Shaaban (1999), Tschannen-Moran and Woolfolk Hoy (2002), and Wilson et al (2004), showed that gender has no signification effect on teachers’ self-efficacy

Overall, studies focused on teaching experience and teachers’ self-efficacy failed to show a consistent trend or general direction in which teaching experience, based on years

of teaching, might correlate with teachers’ efficacy beliefs With regards to studies on differences between the two genders in terms of teacher self-efficacy, the picture is even murkier; first of all, these studies are few (Karimvand, 2011) and, second, as explained above, some discrepancies and opposing observations still exist among them

1.3 Dimensions of teacher self-efficacy

Research on teacher self-efficacy has shown that this is a multi-dimensional constructs Although researchers in this particular niche area have developed and/or used

different instruments, their findings have unanimously yielded common dimensions of teacher self-efficacy

In their study exploring dimensions of teacher self-efficacy and relations with strain factors, perceived collective teacher efficacy, and teacher burnout, Skaalvik & Skaalvik (2007) developed and factor analyzed the Norwegian Teacher Self-Efficacy Scale Their analysis supported the conceptualization of teacher self-efficacy as a multidimensional construct The authors discovered strong evidence for 6 separate but correlated dimensions

of teacher self-efficacy, which were termed Instruction, Adapting Education to Individual Students' Needs, Motivating Students, Keeping Discipline, Cooperating With Colleagues and Parents, and Coping With Changes and Challenges A strong 2nd-order self-efficacy factor underlying the 6 dimensions was also found The construct of teacher self-efficacy was conceptually distinguished from perceived collective teacher efficacy and external control It was strongly related to collective teacher efficacy and teacher burnout

Tschannen-Moran and Hoy (2001, cited in Cheung 2008) developed their own Teacher Sense of Efficacy Scale with 24 items, then extracted three variables, each with 8 items These three variables are named efficacy for instructional strategies, efficacy for classroom management and efficacy for student engagement

Karimvand (2011), in a recent study on Iranian teachers’ self-efficacy used the questionnaire of TEBS-Self (Teachers' Efficacy Beliefs System- Self) previously developed by Dellinger, Bobbett, Oliver, & Ellett (2008) The scale was factored into four components of Accommodating Individual Differences (AID), Positive Classroom Climate (PCC), Monitoring and Feedback for Learning (MFL), and Managing Learning Routines (MLR) Since the factor structure used by Dellinger et al (2008) and Karimvand (2011) appears to encompass all other dimensions of the construct of teacher self-efficacy employed by other researchers, it is also utilized in the current research which used the questionnaire developed by Dellinger et al (2008) as well

The previous parts have laid out the theoretical foundation needed for the study Specifically, the key concepts, i.e self-efficacy, teacher self-efficacy, have been defined;

the factors that affect those psychological constructs have been analysed; and literature pertinent to self-efficacy and teacher self-efficacy has been reviewed The following section will shed light on the issue of non-native English speaker teachers and teacher perceived efficacy

1.4 Non-native English speaker teacher & Teacher self-efficacy

1.4.1 Non-native vs Native English speaker teacher

The native and non-native speaker dichotomy has direct relevance and implications

in the field of English language teaching Since the early 1990’s the notion of native and non-native English-speaking teachers has emerged in the literature of the field (Brutt-Griffler, & Samimy, 1999; Davies, 1991; Medgyes, 1994; Phillipson, 1992, cited in Liu, 2009; Liu, 2009; Graddol, 2007) According to Liu (2009), many researchers have challenged the view that the native speaker (NS) is the ideal language teacher, claiming that non-native speakers (NNS) can be trained to gain abilities that are associated with NSs (i.e fluency, correct usage of idiomatic expressions, and knowledge about the cultural connotation of English) Also, as NNESTs themselves have gone through the language learning process, they can more likely predict potential difficulties for their students, and know how to help them learn based on their own language learning experiences (Tang, 1997) This learning process of NNES teachers is, according to Phillipson (1992, in Liu, 2009), considered a “valuable quality” that NSs cannot emulate Medgyes (1994) also acknowledges the strengths of NNESTs, saying that NNESTs can:

1 Provide a good learner model for imitation;

2 Teach language learning strategies more effectively;

3 Supply learners with more information about the English language;

4 Anticipate and prevent language difficulties better;

5 Be more empathetic to the needs and problems of learners; and

6 Make use of the learners’ mother tongue

However, because of the limited access to native English-speaking cultural experiences, and lack of authentic input, the employment of Native English-Speaking Teachers (NESTs) to join the teaching faculty still proves to be popular in EFL settings

This can create a sense of native superiority On the other hand, the NNESTs have long endured what is called the inferiority complex; the belief that they will never match the

linguistics standards so valuable in their profession, such as a native U.S or U.K accent, which in turn will lead them to believe that their interlanguage, the knowledge of their L2,

is perpetually inadequate Thus, holding the assumption that in order to meet the high expectations of their students and to prove themselves worthy of being in the profession, NNESTs must work harder than their NEST counterparts (Liu, 2009)

At this stage, there is an interesting question of whether NNESTs’ sense of efficacy, their beliefs in their capability to successfully handle a specific prospective teaching situation, is affected by this dichotomy of nativeness As Bandura (1993) have demonstrated, teachers’ self-efficacy can impact the environment teachers create in their classroom, their specific instructional practices, their orientation toward the educational process, and, subsequently, their students’ academic achievement Therefore, it is worthwhile to examine NNESTs’ efficacy beliefs in comparison with their NEST counterparts

The following part is a review of literature related to the issue of non-native English speaker teacher self-efficacy

1.4.2 Non-native English speaker teacher self-efficacy

The growing number of non-native English speaker teachers in EFL as well as ESL contexts around the world has raised so much interest in issues related to non-native English speaking teachers (NNEST) in the field of TESOL that a proliferation of papers, theses, dissertations, and publications has been dedicated to the topic Specifically, the issues of NNESTs have been examined from chiefly three different areas of interest, which are the self-perceptions of NNESTs (e.g Amin, 1997; Medgyes, 1983, 1994; Reves & Medgyes, 1994), the credibility of NNESTs (e.g Amin, 1997, 1999; Braine, 1999; Thomas, 1999), and the meaning of the label NNES educator and other parties’ perceptions

of NNES educators (e.g., Hansen, 2004; Inbar, 2001; J Liu, 1999, 2004) (in Kamhi-Stein, 2004) However, studies on the the self-efficacy beliefs of NNESTs are few; of the available literature, work from researchers examining NNES teachers in the context of Iran can be observed (Eslami & Fatahi, 2008; Akbari & Moradkhani, 2010; Karimvand, 2011) Eslami & Fatahi (2008), using a modified version of Teacher Sense of Efficacy Scale (TSES) (Tschannen-Moran & Woolfolk Hoy, 2001) and two sub-scales – self-reported proficiency and pedagogical strategies (Chacón, 2005, cited in Eslami & Fatahi, 2008), examined the self-efficacy beliefs of EFL NNESTs in Iranian in relation to their perceived English language proficiency and instructional strategies They found that teachers' efficacy beliefs were positively correlated with self-reported English proficiency and communicative-based teaching strategies Which means the more efficacious the teachers felt, the higher their perceived level of English proficiency was and the more inclined they were to use communicative-based strategies

Akbari & Moradkhani (2010), who also used the Teacher Sense of Efficacy Scale, examined 447 NNESTs from a single English institute in Tehran, Iran in terms of the possible relationships between the demographic factors, i.e experience & academic degree, and teacher efficacy Their results showed that teacher experience had a positive relationship with NNESTs’ self-efficacy whereas teachers’ English related academic degrees did not have significant impacts on their efficacy beliefs More precisely, experienced teachers (with more than three years of teaching) had a significantly higher level of global efficacy, efficacy for student engagement, efficacy for classroom management, and efficacy for instructional strategies compared to their novice counterparts In contrast, teachers who had English-related academic degrees did not enjoy significantly higher levels of efficacy except in the subcomponent of student engagement Karimvand (2011) in a similar strand with Akbari & Moradkhani (2010), explored Iranian NNESTs’ perceived efficacy relative to their teaching experience and gender, using the Teachers' Efficacy Beliefs System- Self scale (TEBS-Self) (Dellinger, Bobbett, Oliver,

& Ellett, 2008) The results also showed that experienced teachers (with more than or equal

to three and a half years of teaching) had significantly more positive efficacy perceptions than teachers with less than or equal to three years of experience Also, the female teachers

in Karimvand study were found to have “significantly higher self-efficacy than the male participants on the whole questionnaire and two components of it.”

In light of all the reviewed literature above, there is, in fact, much research which has been carried out to examine teacher efficacy from different angles (e.g Tschannen-Moran, Woolfok Hoy, & Hoy, 1998; Henson, 2001; Shaughnessy, 2004); however, little has been done to investigate the perceived efficacy of NNESTs in EFL contexts in relation to the efficacy beliefs of their NEST counterparts Thus, this research sets out to investigate NNESTs’ efficacy beliefs in comparison with their NEST counterparts in the hope of bridging the research gap, reaching recommendations for the betterment of NNESTs and providing the support they need to develop their mastery experiences, which in turn are the major sources of their perceived self-efficacy

1.5 The context of teaching at the Faculty of English Language Teacher Training, University of Languages and International Studies (FELTE, ULIS)

Firstly, regarding the context of teaching and learning English at tertiary level in Vietnam, English is introduced both as a discipline and as a subject As a discipline, students study to get a BA, MA, or doctorate in English and become teachers, interpreters/translators, or researchers in the field of English language teaching methodology or linguistics In Vietnam, there are currently four tertiary institutions which provide programs in English as a major field (The University of Hanoi, Da Nang University, Hue University, and The University of Languages and International Studies-Vietnam National University, Hanoi) Among the four, University of Languages and International Studies-Vietnam National University, Hanoi (ULIS) is the only institution to fully offer undergraduate, graduate, as well as doctoral programs in English (Hoang, 2011) This implies the high responsibility and commitment to quality teaching and learning from ULIS In fact, ULIS is one of the most prestigious institutions in Vietnam for language teaching, learning, and research

The Faculty of English Language Teacher Training, which specialises in training teacher and interpreters/translators of English at the undergraduate level, is a faculty under

ULIS Regarding teaching staff, teachers at the FELTE, who are all Vietnamese NNESTs, are methodologically trained in ELT and are highly qualified in terms of English proficiency, linguistic competence – every teacher being recruited has to undergo English language tests & professional interviews – and academic degree – which the basic degree requirement for employment is an honours BA degree In addition, the faculty annually hires from 3 to 4 native-speaker teachers from the U.S., U.K., New Zealand, etc through ELIC, an organisation which recruits native English speaker teachers to teach English in Asia

At FELTE, demographically, the female teachers outnumber their male counterpart and most of the teachers are young with less than three years of experience This is possibly due to the fact that there are more female students pursuing ELT career in Vietnam, and FELTE recruitment policy of employing honours BA holders respectively Regarding professional development, teachers at FELTE enjoy many opportunities for professional development, such as participating in departmental workshops, seminars, international conferences, annually conducting research in their field of interest, and most noticeably, joining FELTE mentoring program The FELTE mentoring program, initiated since 2007 and organised at the grassroots division level, mainly aims at helping novice teachers get a head start in their teaching career (in terms of professional development, attitude, job moral, etc.) and providing seasoned teachers with rejuvenating experiences The main activities of the program are: 1) Mentor (teachers with more teaching experience) giving feedback on mentee’s (beginning teachers) lesson plans; 2) Observing each other’s classes as scheduled; 3) Giving feedback on teaching methodology and class management; 4) Mentee writing reflections after each class observation; 5) Mentor writing evaluation about mentee’s performance and reporting to the program coordinator (Ngo &

Vu, 2011)

1.6 How does this study fit into other research?

Having examined the relevant literature on the research topic, i.e teacher efficacy and NNESTs around the world and in the context of the Faculty of English

self-Language Teacher Education (ULIS, VNUH), this section discusses how the present study fits into the area of investigation

In the first place, the present study seeks to find out the self-efficacy beliefs of both NNESTs and NESTs at the Faculty of English Language Teacher Education, ULIS, VNUH

in relation to the demographic factors: teaching experience and gender This is in line with current trends of research in TESOL under the theme of teacher motivation and its subtheme, teacher self-efficacy Furthermore, as contended by Bandura (1993) and many others, teachers’ self-efficacy can impact the environment teachers create in their classroom, their specific instructional practices, their orientation toward the educational process, and, subsequently, their students’ academic achievement Thus, examining NNESTs’ efficacy beliefs proves to be valuable in the field of TESOL in general, and in terms of teacher professional development in particular

Secondly, it appears that, so far, there has been little research on NNES teachers’ self-efficacy in EFL contexts in Vietnam in general, and at FELTE in particular Around the world, other research on teacher self-efficacy has mainly focused either on NESTs (e.g Tschannen-Moran, Woolfok Hoy, & Hoy, 1998; Paneque & Barbetta, 2005; Henson 2011)

or NNESTs (e.g Chacón, 2005; Eslami & Fatahi, 2008; Akbari & Moradkhani, 2010; Karimvand, 2011), while the current research attempts to investigate both NNESTs and NESTs’ sense of self-efficacy in the hope of producing exhaustive data to the self-efficacy beliefs of these two parties In this way, the present study supplements those studies

Given the context-specific nature of the construct of self-efficacy (Bandura, 1995) and the scarcity of research in this significant area in Vietnam, the researcher was motivated to conduct the present study to contribute to the available knowledge about the place of teacher self-efficacy beliefs in ELT, in general, and EFL education in Vietnam, in particular More precisely, this study was conducted in order to explore possible effects of teaching experience and gender as well as their interaction effect on Vietnamese NNESTs' self-efficacy and NESTs’ self-efficacy, in general, and its different dimensions as conceptualized by Dellinger, Bobbett, Dianne and Chad (2008)

To sum up, in light of the literature review, the current study on teacher self-efficacy

at FELTE, ULIS, VNUH is worth doing as it is in line with current trends of study on efficacy beliefs of teachers around the world Furthermore, it is useful and beneficial to FELTE and English language teaching institutions alike as it will provide insights into NNES teachers’ sense of efficacy and help further improve the quality of English teaching – learning and training of future NNES teachers

self-1.7 Summary

This chapter has shed light on the relevant literature which forms the theoretical basis of the study More precisely, the chapter has reviewed literature pertinent to the conceptualisation of “self-efficacy” and “teacher self-efficacy”, “the social cognitive theory”, which laid the theoretical foundations for research On the practical side, the chapter has examined the issues of “non-native English speaker teacher” and “NNESTs’ self-efficacy It ended with a brief review of related studies hence disclosed the research gap and justified the practical aims and objectives of the present study

In the next chapter, the methodology for the investigation to find answers to the research questions set forth in this study will be presented

CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY

n the previous chapter, the theoretical basis of the study has been explicated through a systematic and thematic review of pertinent literature This chapter, on the practical side, presents the methodology employed for data collection and analysis It first discusses the participants and sampling procedure of the study It closes with a detailed description

of the instrumentation, the procedure of data collection and analysis; hence, justifies the reliability and validity of the whole study

2.0 Research questions

The current study sets out to find answers to the following research questions:

1 What is the self-efficacy of NNESTs?

2 What is the self-efficacy of NESTs?

3 What is the relationship between the self-efficacy of these two parties in terms

of gender and teaching experience?

2.1 Sampling and Participants

2.1.1 Sampling procedures

The study employed a non-probability strategy for sampling as defined by Lund Research Ltd (2010) as it has to rely on the consent to participate of the subjects that is NESTs and NNESTs at FELTE The specific procedures employed was purposive sampling and snowball sampling, i.e a technique for developing a research sample in which current study subjects recruit future subjects from among their acquaintances; thus, the sample group seems to grow like a rolling snowball (Eslami & Fatahi, 2008) Purposive sampling was employed to recruit NNESTs participants in order to serve the purpose of the study, which is to investigate the efficacy beliefs of NNESTs who teach at FELTE, ULIS, VNUH in particular As for the NEST counterpart, snowball sampling was applied because

I

of the relatively small number of NESTs at FELTE The unique nature of the sample and its impact on the results are further discussed in Chapter 3 where the demographic results are reported

2.1.2 Participants

The participants of the present study were 40 EFL teachers, among them 34 were NNESTs working at FELTE, ULIS, VNUH, and 6 NESTs working at FELTE and other English language institutions in Hanoi In general, their years of teaching experience ranged from less than 1 year to more than 30 years The NNESTs had at least a BA TEFL

or a BA in English language, translation, & interpretation The NEST counterpart all had relevant BA ELT academic degrees or postgraduate TESOL certificates

2.2 Instrumentation

On reviewing the literature, it is revealed that many researchers in the field have developed different scales to measure teacher self-efficacy based on their justified conceptualisation of the concept (Dellinger et al., 2008; Henson, 2001; Tschannen-Moran

et al., 1998; Tschannen-Moran & Woolfolk Hoy, 2001) Many studies on teacher efficacy utilise these scale, some of which were reported above However, the adequacy of most of these scales in the measuring of teacher self-efficacy was questioned by Dellinger

self-et al (2008); they argued:

First, the measure should clearly, and accurately, reflect the meaning

of efficacy Second, the measure must assess teachers’ efficacy beliefs in the context in which the beliefs are formed Third, the specific tasks selected for the measure should be meaningful (p

self-756)

Based on these assumptions, Dellinger et al (2008) developed their own scale, which

in their opinion had certain strengths compared to previously developed instruments Dellinger et al contended that their instrument was developed based on a conceptualisation

of self-efficacy that is firmly grounded in Social Cognitive Theory In defining “teacher self-efficacy”, they have tried to avoid confusing the construct of self-efficacy with other

related and relatively more stable self-constructs such as self-esteem, self-concept, locus of control, and outcome expectancy Also, the context-specific nature of efficacy beliefs has been taken into consideration in their developing of the items in their instrument, called the Teacher Efficacy Beliefs Scale-Self

Specifically, their tool includes 31 items assessed with a four-point Likert Scale (1=Weak, 2=Moderate, 3=Strong, 4=Very strong) The following justifies the choice of TEBS-S

Teachers’ Efficacy Beliefs System-Self (TEBS-S)

The TEBS-S was chosen to measure teacher’s perceptions of teachers’ self-efficacy beliefs in this study because of the relevant nature of the items to the research context Furthermore, as stated above, the design of the items was grounded on a firm theoretical basis which is the Social Cognitive Theory with differentiation from other related concepts

of self-constructs such as self-esteem, self-concept, locus of control, and outcome expectancy

More precisely, the 31 item survey requests respondents to make judgments about the strength of their personal beliefs in their capacity to organize and successfully carry out specific teaching tasks on a 4-point scale (1=weak beliefs in my ability, 2=somewhat strong beliefs in my ability, 3=strong beliefs in my ability, and 4=very strong beliefs in my ability) For the purpose of this study, three more questions were added to the

questionnaire, probing responses to participants’ gender, teaching experience (in terms of year of teaching), and nationality (See Appendix 1)