They are Trained to Teach, But How Confident are they? A Study of Student Teachers’ Sense of Efficacy

The objective of the study was to assess student teachers’ efficacy in one of the teacher training institutions in Malaysia, with specific reference to the aspects of student engagement, instructional strategies and classroom management. The sample size was 675 final-year teacher education students. The findings suggest that a majority of the respondents had a high level of teaching efficacy (M = 3.98; SD = 0.36). They were also highly efficacious in student engagement (M = 4.01; SD = 0. 41), instructional strategies (M = 4.01; SD = 0. 39) and classroom management (M = 4.00; SD = 0.45). A significant correlation was found between teaching efficacy and academic achievement C (r = 0.15, p<0.05). The study also revealed that teaching efficacy differed as a function of gender (t = 6.47, p<0.05), career choice (t = 6.04, p<0.05), educational aspiration (t = 2.02, p<0.05) and content major (F_3,668 = 9.86, p<0.05).