An Empirical Study Of Chinese College/University EFL Teacher Self-efficacy

This paper deals with the empirical study of Chinese college/university EFL teacher self-efficacy.A range of researches into teacher self-efficacy in the western countries are based on Rotter's social learning theory and Bandura's social cognitive theory.Great achievements have been made in the scales assessing teacher self-efficacy and its influential factors,which mainly involve primary school teachers and high school teachers.In China,studies of teacher self-efficacy focus on introduction of western studies,with fewer empirical studies.Teacher self-efficacy in the educational context affects student attainments.Yet EFL teaching in China has been stigmatized as “time-consuming and ineffective”.Our study,founded on previous studies in teacher self-efficacy,attempted to explore Chinese college/university EFL teacher self-efficacy.It was intended to offer theoretical and practical guidance in psychological and educational sense to enhance EFL teacher efficacy belief.Bandura's social cognitive theory serves as the theoretical basis for our study.The theory emphasizes the role of human self-adjustment in inducing human behavior,and interplay of human behaviors and environment.Its core construct is the motivational self-efficacy.With Bandura's social cognitive theory,we developed the theoreticalframework of Chinese college/university EFL teacher self-efficacy,which was adapted from Friedman and Kass'(2002)Classroom and School Context Model of Teacher Efficacy.The new theoretical framework was involved with the following two questions: 1)What is the overall level of Chinese college/university EFL teacher self-efficacy? And 2)Is there any significant relationship between Chinese College /University EFL teachers' demographic variables and their self-efficacy? The participants of the study were 150 EFL teachers from the provincial capital city and the municipal cities in X province.Convenience sampling was made to target the participants.The Chinese College /University EFL Teacher Self-efficacy Scale(Chinese version)was sent to them by emailing or we-chatting based on www.sojump.com.SPSS13.0 software tool was used to do data analyzing of the returned questionnaires.The major findings of the study were as follows and their possible reasons were suggested in the study.1)The total EFL teacher self-efficacy was a bit higher than the critical value.EFL teacher developed stronger perception of efficacy belief for classroom-based tasks and interpersonal relations than they did for organization-based tasks and interpersonal relations.They reported the strongest belief for classroom-based tasks and the weakest for organization-based tasks among the four factors.2)There was a significant correlation between EFL teacherself-efficacy and demographic factors such as gender,age,years of teaching,academic degree,academic rank,monthly income,student category,school category,and school location.(1)Gender: Female EFL teachers were stronger in efficacy belief than their male peers.(2)Age:EFL teachers aged 41-50 scored highest in self-efficacy while the eldest and the youngest ones reported lowest.(3)Years of teaching: EFL teachers with 21-30 years of teaching claimed strongest sense of self-efficacy while those with ? 5 years of teaching the weakest.The other EFL teachers shared similar self-efficacy.(4)Academic degree: EFL teachers with doctoral degree scored highest while those with bachelor's degree reported lowest in self-efficacy,whose mean scores were below the critical value.(5)Academic rank: Full professors' self-efficacy was much stronger than assistant lecturers,whose mean scores were below the critical value.Associate professors and lecturers,who were similar in self-efficacy,stood between.(6)Monthly income: EFL teachers with the monthly income of ? 8001-?10000 developed strongest self-efficacy while the least paid teachers declared the weakest.And the other EFL teachers were similar in their belief for their profession.(7)Student category: EFL teachers who taught English majors reported highest scores while those who only taught non-English majors claimed the lowest scores in self-efficacy.(8)School category: EFL teachers from 985 developed strongest sense of efficacy belief while the ones from 211 universities the weakest.(9)School location: There was no significant correlation between EFL teacher self-efficacy and school location.All the findings will give us insights into EFL teachers in psychological sense.It also provides educational departments and its related organizations with theoretical basis and practical guidance to enhance EFL teacher self-efficacy.Most important of all,our study found that raising EFL teacher self-efficacy for organization-based tasks is an urgent issue to be dealt with.Due to time limit and other resource shortage,and the difficulty in getting EFL teachers involved in responding the questionnaire,coupled with our personal factors,our study has its limitations.1)Chinese College /University EFL Teacher Self-efficacy Scale(Chinese version)was the only tool used to assess EFL teacher self-efficacy.If possible,it is more desirable to integrate it with qualitative or longitudinal studies of EFL teacher self-efficacy.2)Some exceptions were found in terms of the effects on EFL teacher self-efficacy created by such variables as age,years of teaching,monthly income and school category,which need follow-up study to make further investigations.