Abstract:

Bandura’s pivotal work [1] on self-efficacy proposed four factors affecting its development: mastery, persuasion and vicarious experiences; and individual affective states. Initial teacher education (ITE) programmes should intend to develop and maintain stable, high levels of teacher self-efficacy, and their structure support this [2]. During the Covid-19 pandemic, ITE programmes in England were severely disrupted by two national lockdowns. The first lockdown terminated school experience placements for all trainee teachers in the United Kingdom. When schools were fully open, there were unpredictable and localised disruptions to school experience placements due to a variety of anti-Covid-19 measures. This changed the nature of ITE programmes and, presumably, the relative importance of Bandura's [1] influential factors.

Tynan and Mallaburn [3] [4] investigated the self-efficacy of pre-service teachers on ITE programmes leading to qualified teacher status (QTS) at a Higher Education (HE) provider working in partnership with schools in the northwest of England. They utilised three anonymous on-line surveys [3] [4] to monitor the teaching skill self-efficacy scores of respondents from two intakes of trainee teachers whose ITE programmes were disrupted by anti-Covid-19 measures. They invited open responses to further explain those scores and collected demographic data that included participants’ experiences of the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic on their ITE programme and placements.

In this proceedings paper, Tynan and Mallaburn’s findings [3] [4] are compared to similar pre-Covid-19 studies (e.g. [2] [5]) that use Bandura’s influencing factors [1] to explain self-efficacy findings in different contexts. During the pandemic investigation [3] [4], open responses indicated the increased importance of maintaining high self- efficacy through positive affective states. Participants appreciated the steps taken by schools and the HE provider to provide additional vicarious experiences to compensate for reduced or disrupted opportunities for mastery and persuasion experiences in school. However, they were able to fully articulate the areas where the disruption had been highly detrimental to their development of teaching skills. Some respondents reported other compensatory factors, unrelated to teaching skills, that bolstered their individual affective states to maintain their confidence to teach.

References:
[1] Bandura, A., “Self-efficacy: The exercise of control,” New York, NY: W.H. Freeman, 1997
[2] Gurvitch, R. and Metsler, M., “The effects of laboratory-based and field-based practicum experience on pre-service teachers’ self-efficacy,” Teaching and Teacher Education, 25, pp. 437-443, 2009
[3] Tynan, R. and Mallaburn, A., “The self-efficacy of trainee teachers who were recommended for qualified teacher status (QTS) in England during the Covid-19 pandemic,” EDULEARN22 Proceedings, pp. 484-489, 2022
[4] Tynan, R. and Mallaburn, A., “The self-efficacy of trainee teachers recommended for qualified teacher status (QTS) in England during the Covid-19 pandemic: looking for explanations,” ICERI 2022 Proceedings, pp. 6984-6993, 2022
[5] Pendergast, D., Garvis, S., and Keogh, J., “Pre-Service Student-Teacher Self-efficacy Beliefs: An Insight Into the Making of Teachers,” Australian Journal of Teacher Education, 36(12), pp. 46-57, 2011

Keywords:

Pre-service teachers, self-efficacy, ITE, Covid-19, QTS, England, mastery, persuasion, vicarious, affective states.