Middle School Novice English Teachers' Self-efficacy

Teachers' self-efficacy is one of teachers' inner psychological experiences and feelings.The study of teachers' self-efficacy(TSE)begins with the report of Rand company in the 1970 s.As indicated in the report,teachers' self-efficacy is an important predictor variable of students' grade.As a result,TSE began to catch more scholars' attention.With the development in research,TSE has gradually stood to be one of the hot issues in pedagogy,psychology and sociology.The research on TSE abroad began about 50 years ago.In China,however,TSE study began in the 1990 s.Ever since then,more and more domestic scholars have shown their interest in TSE research,with a focus on the concept,structure,affecting factors,effect on teaching behaviors and students' academic performance,and the relation with teaching effects.Among the research concerning novice teachers' self-efficacy,however,the bulk of the studies have focused on the comparative study of expert teachers' and novice teachers' self-efficacy and the characteristics of novice teachers' self-efficacy.The self-efficacy of English teachers,especially that of novice English teachers in the Chinese context,requires more study and investigation.This thesis attends to explore the self-efficacy of novice English teachers in southeastern coastal area in China.The study aims to make conjecture on the current situation of middle school novice English teachers' self-efficacy and to explore the factors of such situation.A combination of quantitative and qualitative method is adopted.65 middle school novice English teachers help to fill in the questionnaire.Their efficacy levels are analyzed from three perspectives,namely instructional strategies,classroom management and student engagement.The result indicates that middle school novice English teachers' self-efficacy is at a relatively middle level;they are more efficacious in classroom management than in other two aspects;there is a certain degree of difference among different teachers' self-efficacy levels.Based on the questionnaire,two novice teachers are selected for in-depth interview.Possible factors for the current situation are analyzed from four aspects,namely,efficacy sources,instructional strategies,classroom management and studentengagement.The study suggests that the differences in their self-efficacy levels are caused by both internal reasons and external ones.They have a certain degree of efficacy as they have gone through pre-service training and gained much teaching experience.Due to their limit of teaching length and teaching experience,however,their efficacy needs further improvement.And the differences in self-experience,school type,working environment and colleague assessment cause differences in their efficacy levels.The research findings may,to some extent,enrich the research achievement in teacher education.Furthermore,the implications could give novice teachers a better understanding to build up their confidence,and also provide some useful guidelines for more effective pre-service training and professional development.