Inservice Teacher Education/Professional Development
367
EXAMINING THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN CERTIFICATION PATH AND TEACHING SELF-EFFICACY Erik Jacobson Indiana University
[email protected]
Rebecca Borowski Indiana University
[email protected]
In this paper we explore the relationship between certification path and teaching self-efficacy for teachers of K-12 mathematics. We focused on teaching self-efficacy for a content area that spans the K-12 curriculum: fractions, ratios, and proportions. Initial findings indicated that alternate certification is significantly correlated to teaching self-efficacy. However, in multiple regression analysis of certification after including other variables that predicted teaching self-efficacy, the relationship between certification path and teaching self-efficacy was no longer statistically significant. Findings suggest that the apparent relationship between alternate certification and teaching self-efficacy is likely due to other factors (age, highest grade taught, MKT) that differentiate alternately certified and traditional teachers. Keywords: Teacher Beliefs, Teacher Education-Preservice, Teacher Knowledge In this paper, we question a border within mathematics teacher education: the path to certification. In order to understand the relationship between certification path and teacher beliefs, we compare teachers who were certified after a traditional 4-year undergraduate degree in education with those who took an alternate path. Paths to teacher certification are part of an ongoing policy debate which continues to rage in the wake of the Every Student Succeeds Act becoming law (Sawchuk, 2015). Alternate certification is often promoted as a way to bring people with high levels of knowledge into classrooms. In this study, we focused on a different consequential teacher characteristic that might describe those who pursue different paths: teaching self-efficacy: a belief in one’s ability to help students learn. Studies have shown that higher teaching self-efficacy has an impact on student learning (Chang, 2015; Fox, 2014). Thus self-efficacy for teaching is important for mathematics teachers. Because K12 math teachers teach different topics, we focused on a central idea: teaching self-efficacy for fractions, ratios, and proportions. The purpose of this study was to answer the following research question: Do teachers who achieve certification through an alternate path have higher teaching selfefficacy for teaching fractions, ratios, and proportions? Theoretical Framework Teaching self-efficacy (TSE) beliefs are a teacher’s own judgments about her capability to teach and her confidence that her instruction will affect student learning (Bandura, 1986; Pajares, 1992). The construct of TSE has been used extensively for several decades and several measures of TSE exist (see review, Tschannen-Moran & Hoy, 2001). Under Bandura’s (1986) social-cognitive theory, TSE beliefs determine teachers’ “persistence when things do not go smoothly and their resilience in the face of setbacks” (Tschannen-Moran & Hoy, 2001, p. 784), and thus is clearly related to the productive disposition for teaching. Self-efficacy to teach may vary with the content taught. Bandura (1986) wrote that self-efficacy as such was too broad to be useful for research without narrowing one’s attention to self-efficacy beliefs that are relevant to the specific situation or activity being researched. What factors contribute to teachers’ self-efficacy? One factor may be the path by which they become certified. Another may be a teachers’ academic achievement prior to college. As people age, they tend to be more self-assured, so it is possible that a teacher’s age contributes to their selfefficacy In education, there is a general perception that higher grade levels teach more difficult math, Wood, M. B., Turner, E. E., Civil, M., & Eli, J. A. (Eds.). (2016). Proceedings of the 38th annual meeting of the North American Chapter of the International Group for the Pyschology of Mathematics Education. Tucson, AZ: The University of Arizona.
Inservice Teacher Education/Professional Development
368
so it’s possible that having taught at a higher grade level (regardless of their present grade) may make teachers more confident in their teaching of particular content. Finally, mathematical knowledge for teaching (MKT) may also be related to teaching self-efficacy. In the last decade, large-scale studies using more sharply focused instruments have found evidence of the expected relationships between teacher knowledge and student achievement. These new instruments share a focus on the content knowledge that teachers’ arguably use in practice. Ball, Thames, and Phelps (2008) proposed a framework for content knowledge for teaching “subjectmatter-specific professional knowledge,” (p. 389). Mathematical knowledge for teaching (MKT) includes pure content knowledge as well as specialized content knowledge (SCK), which is a kind of mathematical knowledge that teachers but few other adults possess. Methods Data for this study was collected from a variety of sources. Participants’ certification path, age, and highest grade taught was provided from official records for teachers completing the Texas Teacher Training Survey (TTTS). This survey was conducted by the National Research Council in association with the Texas Education Authority and collected data on a representative sample of Texas teachers certified between 2006 and 2010. University selectivity using ratings for undergraduate institution selectivity (Barron, 2001) and was based on self-reports. TSE and MKT data came from a follow up survey of TTTS participants (Jacobson, 2013). The instrument for TSE was adapted from measures for prospective science teachers (Enochs & Riggs, 1990; Roberts & Henson, 2000). The items measuring TSE were modified to address the domain of multiplicative reasoning by replacing the word “science” with the phrase “topics involving fractions, ratios, and proportions.” For example, the question, “I usually do a poor job teaching science” became, “I usually do a poor job teaching topics involving fractions, ratio, and proportion.” Overall TSE scores were obtained using a rating scale IRT model. The MKT instrument was composed of 25 items selected from the Measures of Effective Teaching project (Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, 2010) that focused on fractions, ratios, and proportions. The items explicitly addressed two kinds of MKT: understanding and evaluating students’ mathematical thinking (18 items) and selecting and using tasks and representations (7 items). The selected items could be cross-classified by three topics that make up the domain of multiplicative reasoning: fraction multiplication and division (8 items), fraction and ratio comparison (10 items), and proportional reasoning (7 items). Both TSE and MKT instruments had high internal consistency (Cronbach’s a > .9). All items had point-biserial correlations greater than or equal to .2, and all item parameters were acceptable (Crocker & Algina, 1986). Results In order to answer our research question, we began with descriptive statistics. We then ran correlations to understand the relationships between pairs of variables. After that, we ran a multiple regression model to predict teaching self-efficacy from the other variables. An analysis of correlations (see Table 1) shows that for all but one explanatory variable (university selectivity), there was a statistically significant linear relationship between it and the outcome variable. This indicates that these variables may indeed be related to teachers’ self-efficacy for teaching fractions, ratios, and proportions. However, there were also significant correlations between several of the explanatory variables. Our findings seem to indicate that teachers who undergo alternate paths to certification have higher teaching self-efficacy for teaching fractions, decimals, and percentages than those who receive their certificate after completing a traditional undergraduate education program. However, because of significant correlations between our explanatory variables, it is possible that teachers with higher teaching self-efficacy also have other characteristics in common which may be responsible for this Wood, M. B., Turner, E. E., Civil, M., & Eli, J. A. (Eds.). (2016). Proceedings of the 38th annual meeting of the North American Chapter of the International Group for the Pyschology of Mathematics Education. Tucson, AZ: The University of Arizona.
Inservice Teacher Education/Professional Development
369
correlation. Thus, we decided to run a multiple regression of certification on the other variables to further understand these relationships. Table 1: Correlations among teacher variables A 1 2 3 1. Teaching self-efficacy (TSE) 2. Traditional Certification Path -.181* 3. University selectivity .049 -.136 * 4. Math Knowledge for Teaching (MKT) .284 * -.106 .252 * 5. Age .202 * -.230 * .038 6. Highest grade taught .310 * -.217 * .089 A N is between 362 (MKT & Age) and 443 (TSE & Age); * p < .01
4
5
.031 .327 *
.042
A standard regression model was tested in which teachers’ self-efficacy for teaching fractions, ratios, and proportions was predicted from certification path, university selectivity, MKT, age, and highest grade taught. Overall, the model was significant, F(5, 303) = 11.67, p < .001, and accounted for 14.8% of the variance in efficacy scores, R2 = .148. Standard error of regression coefficients are reported in Table 2. Table 2: Predictions of self-efficacy for teaching fractions, ratios, and proportions Self-efficacy for teaching fractions, ratios, and proportions B SE Significance level Constant -.794 .278 .005 Traditional Certification -.189 .107 .079 MKT .259 .069
