Date of Graduation

5-2024

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelor of Science Education

Degree Level

Undergraduate

Department

Curriculum and Instruction

Advisor/Mentor

Ralston, Christine

Committee Member/Reader

Bell, Karmen

Abstract

In the past four years education has undergone many changes, whether it be shifting to distance learning in 2020 or changing student behaviors, and these changes have undeniable effects on teachers and their self-efficacy. The purpose of this study is to investigate teachers’ sense of self-efficacy. A 24-question Qualtrics survey was distributed through email for kindergarten through second grade teachers between two elementary schools in one rural Arkansas school district. These 24 questions were adapted from The Teachers’ Sense of Efficacy Scale. The survey collected 16 total responses. The survey results provided evidence that teacher efficacy in instructional strategies is the participants’ greatest strength, with the items that measure efficacy in instructional strategies evoking the highest mean scores. One area of varying self-efficacy lies in classroom management, which contained both the highest and lowest reported mean scores from the participating teachers. Collecting qualitative data helped explain this discrepancy, where a theme emerged about how multi-faceted classroom management is. Two types of classroom management emerged in these themes: classroom instructional management (which garnered a higher sense of teacher efficacy) and classroom behavior management (which garnered the lowest teacher efficacy responses). Qualitative data were collected during two separate focus group interviews, one for each elementary school, during which participating teachers were asked to elaborate on their survey responses and the general quantitative data collected. Through coding, patterns and themes were discovered related to teacher efficacy in student engagement, instructional strategies, and classroom management. Additionally, focus group interviews revealed themes that described the trends in survey responses. The results of this study are most beneficial for teachers in kindergarten through second grade, administrators, and those involved in teacher preparation programs.

Keywords

Teacher Self-Efficacy, Education, Classroom Management, Teacher Preparation

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