Teacher efficacy, professional development, professional practices, and critical science-based FCS curriculum implementation

Twenty years ago Ohio family and consumer sciences curriculum planners began to conceptualize a practical problem-based, critical science oriented, process-centered curriculum. Implementation of this curriculum is not easy; thus, professional development experiences included resource guides, teacher-leader institutes, state and regional conferences. The purpose of this study was to determine (a) factors related to the teachers' dominant mode of professional teaching practice for implementing the curriculum: professional characteristics, teachers' teaching efficacy, professional development experiences, and (b) differences between the Teacher-Leaders and Non-Teacher-Leaders [dominant professional teaching practice modes].; Descriptive and correlational designs utilized data from the Family and Consumer Sciences Teacher Beliefs (r = .94) (adapted from Ohio State Teacher Efficacy Scale, Tschannen-Moran & Woolfolk-Hoy, 2000), Family and Consumer Sciences Curriculum Implementation (r = .87) (adapted from Professional Teaching Practices, Chatraphorn, 1989; Ryu, 1998), Teacher Efficacy Scale (r = .74) (Hoy & Woolfolk, 1993), and Professional Characteristics of Family and Consumer Sciences Teachers. The target population (N = 1,013) for this study was Ohio Work and Family Life secondary teachers teaching during autumn, 2000. A random sample of 450 teachers and 45 Teacher-Leader Institute participants were mail-surveyed; 297 (60% of sample) useable questionnaires were returned.; Findings from descriptive statistics, Pearson product-moment correlation, analysis of variance, and stepwise multiple regression showed: Ohio Work and Family Life secondary teachers' level of teacher efficacy was moderately high (M = 6.61) on a ninepoint scale); no significant difference between Teacher-Leaders and Non-Teacher-Leader on the FCS Teacher Beliefs scale; and a significant difference (p = .004) between Teacher-Leaders and Non-Teacher-Leaders on the Personal Teaching Efficacy subscale score of the Teacher Efficacy Scale. The teachers' dominant mode of professional teaching practice was the Process-Oriented practice (76.7%) with significant differences (p ≤ .01) between Teacher-Leaders and Non-Teacher-Leaders for all professional teaching practice modes. FCS teaching efficacy predicted all three modes of professional teaching practice accounting for variance in Process-Oriented practice (29%), Reflective-Ethical practice (28%), and Technical-Rational practice (2.4%).; Implications include fostering mastery learning experiences of Reflective-Ethical and Process-Oriented teaching practices for preservice and inservice FCS teachers and encouraging teachers to participate in professional development activities. Recommendations include revision of the instruments to measure FCS teachers' efficacy and professional teaching practice.