Junior High School Novice Teachers' Self-Efficacy in Managing Students' Challenging Behaviour in Indonesia

Abstract

One of the issues commonly faced by teachers is managing students’ challenging behaviour. This behaviour might lead to teachers’ frustration and helplessness, especially in novice teachers. In addition, the issues that arise from this challenging behaviour, such as bullying towards peers and teachers, increase the necessity for teacher competence in managing these problems. However, previous studies have found that some Indonesian teachers claim to be unprepared when dealing with students’ challenging behaviour. Thus, this study analysed the self- efficacy of novice teachers from two Indonesian junior high schools in managing challenging behaviour and the influence of their professional training on their sense of self-efficacy. The study used a narrative inquiry methodology and the participants’ accounts of their experiences were collected through semi-structured interviews. Through the participants’ narratives, it was found that the teachers in this study were influenced differently by the sources of self-efficacy, and that their self-efficacy differed. These differences could have been affected by the varying levels of professional training that the teachers had received.
 Keywords: self-efficacy, student’s challenging behaviour, novice teacher, professional training