Examining the Impact of Direct Experience on Preservice Teachers' Self-Efficacy for Teaching in Inclusive Classrooms: a Quantitative Study
Date
2012-10-04
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Abstract
With increased implementation of inclusive education in schools, teacher educators have been challenged to redesign their programs to prepare preservice teachers for educating exceptional students within the general classroom. This study examined the impact of an inclusive education course and a field experience on preservice teachers’ self-efficacy for teaching in inclusive classrooms. A within-subjects repeated measures design was used to collect data from 141 preservice teachers at three points in time: before the course, after the course, and after the field experience. The results indicated that both the inclusion course and the field experience produced significant increases in preservice teachers’ self-efficacy. Preservice teachers with prior experience with people with exceptional needs had higher levels of self-efficacy throughout the study; however, both groups of preservice teachers, those with prior experience and those without, demonstrated significant gains in self-efficacy. A multiple regression analysis indicated that, during the field experience, as preservice teachers spent more time with individual instruction with students with exceptional needs, and less time with observation and whole class instruction, their self-efficacy was more likely to increase. Also, the results of the study determined that self-efficacy had a small, but significant, correlation to self-esteem at each point in which the two constructs were measured. However, as the self-efficacy scores increased throughout the study, the self-esteem scores remained relatively unchanged, indicating that the two constructs are theoretically different. The results of the study were discussed in light of current research in the area, and implications for practice and research were suggested.
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Education--Teacher Training
Citation
Peebles, J. L. (2012). Examining the Impact of Direct Experience on Preservice Teachers' Self-Efficacy for Teaching in Inclusive Classrooms: a Quantitative Study (Doctoral thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada). Retrieved from https://prism.ucalgary.ca. doi:10.11575/PRISM/26028