The Role of Teacher Self-Efficacy in Special Education Teacher Candidates’ Sensemaking: A Mixed-Methods Investigation

Abstract

Shifts in special education over the last 25 years have increased the pressure on special education teacher preparation programs to improve the quality of opportunities to learn provided to teacher candidates. One aspect of quality that has not been extensively explored in the literature is the interaction between the individual candidate – the learner – and preparation experiences. Using survey and interview data from special education teacher candidates across six teacher preparation programs, we explore how candidates with differing levels of teacher self-efficacy (TSE) experience preparation. Findings suggest that TSE shaped how candidates made sense of preparation and what they took up from their opportunities to learn. Across phases, candidates with low- and high-TSE differed in how they reported on their learning opportunities and then how they interpreted these opportunities as shaping their future practice. We end with implications for research, policy, and practice in special education teacher preparation.

Factores que influyen en la elección de la carrera de educación como predictores de la Identidad Docente en futuros profesores de Educación Especial

“…Una posible explicación a este fenómeno es que los factores de percepción para la elección de la carrera, como la percepción de exigencia de la profesión, la percepción del estatus social y la satisfacción con la elección de la carrera, son aspectos que están estrechamente relacionados con la identidad docente, específicamente, en el dominio denominado percepción de la tarea de enseñar, definido como la percepción que tienen los futuros profesores sobre la función de su profesión, lo que incluye la forma en que conciben la enseñanza y la comprensión de las tareas que son relativas a su profesión (Hanna et al, 2019b;Richter et al, 2021). Estos resultados son consistentes con investigaciones que han relacionado la identidad docente en profesores de Educación Especial con el apoyo social percibido, encontrando que mayores niveles de apoyo social influyen en los niveles de autoeficacia y, con ello en la identidad docente (Chen et al, 2020;Mathews et al, 2022). Otras investigaciones han vinculado la visión social de la profesión e indicadores de la valoración social y estatus profesional como factores que influyen en la conformación de la identidad docente (Hernández-Silva et al, 2017;Martínez de la Hidalga & Villardón-Gallego, 2018), lo cual está en línea con los resultados reportados en esta investigación.…”

“…compromiso, motivación, autoeficacia, agencia) o espacios para su desarrollo durante la formación docente (e.g. practicum), sin mencionar explícitamente el constructo (Li & Ruppar, 2020;Mathews et al, 2022).…”

Embedding High-Leverage Practices into Special Education Field Experiences

“…Rather, employing HLPs in teacher preparation must include a scaffolded approach with opportunities for application, feedback, and reflection (Windschitl et al, 2019). Integrating a specific set of practices, such as HLPs, into field experiences in a cyclical and advancing manner can offer great value to special education PSTs (Mathews et al, 2023).…”

“…Using a virtual tool for field supervision also allowed the PSTs to watch their own instruction during the cycle of evaluation and identify individual areas for continued growth on specific HLPs. This required step was intended to promote PSTs' use of feedback for developing their practice, as seen in teacher candidate self-efficacy (Mathews et al, 2023), and to support the development of their reflective abilities (deBettencourt & Nagro, 2019). PSTs also completed a survey reflecting the frequency of their usage of HLPs at multiple points during student teaching, allowing teacher candidates and university supervisors to identify specific practices to target for continued growth (Firestone et al, 2021).…”

How School Principals’ Managerial Skills Influences Teacher Self-Efficacy

“…Moreover, these beliefs are useful to see the difference between individual performance and their true potential in a particular field. Self-efficacy is an individual's belief, judgment, and performance of himself in doing certain work to achieve success (Mathews et al, 2023;Naidoo & Naidoo, 2023;Sánchez-Rosas et al, 2023). Teacher self-efficacy is seen as a manifestation of teacher behavior to be able to do work in accordance with their profession.…”