The Relationship Between Saudi Pre-Service Teachers’ Perceptions of Preparation and Their Teaching Self-Efficacy
Open Access
- Author:
- Alasmari, Abdulrahman Ahmed
- Graduate Program:
- Curriculum and Instruction
- Degree:
- Doctor of Philosophy
- Document Type:
- Dissertation
- Date of Defense:
- March 17, 2023
- Committee Members:
- Rachel Wolkenhauer, Major Field Member
Andrew Baxter, Outside Unit & Field Member
Fran Arbaugh, Chair & Dissertation Advisor
Kimberly Powell, Professor in Charge/Director of Graduate Studies
Andrea Mccloskey, Major Field Member - Keywords:
- Teacher Education
Self-Efficacy
Pre-Service Teachers
Teacher Praparation - Abstract:
- This study investigates the relationship between Saudi pre-service teachers' perceptions of preparation and their teaching self-efficacy. The study is based on Bandura's social cognitive learning theory for self-efficacy to describe human behavior in which personal determinants, environmental influences, and behavioral factors interact continually. This quantitative study is based on data from a measurement instrument comprised of two surveys adopted from previous research studies to measure pre-service teachers' preparation and self-efficacy. Based on data collected from 198 pre-service teachers in Saudi Arabia, the results show that the correlation between the participant's average self-efficacy score and the teacher preparation quality score is the largest. At the same time, the correlation between the participant's average self-efficacy and average opportunity is also quite significant. Thus, there is a linear relationship in the analysis. When a participant's gender and year in college were controlled, these correlation values changed slightly. The results also show that the average score of the preparation quality component has the most predictive power. Moreover, the participant's average learning opportunity score, the level of college education, and the interaction between the participant's average quality and opportunity scores are still significant in the model. This finding suggests that the Ministry of Education should work with the universities to improve and support the teacher education programs by providing them with all materials and resources they need to prepare pre-service teachers to be successful teachers in the future. Another critical research implication relates to this study's translated instruments for data collection. The North Carolina New Teacher Preparation Survey (NTPS) has 40 items, and researchers can use the Arabic version used in this study to evaluate the quality of the teacher education program.