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Teacher efficacy beliefs at the horizon between primary and secondary school mathematics education

Harbison, Lorraine orcid logoORCID: 0000-0002-1945-7241, Prendergast, Mark orcid logoORCID: 0000-0002-1766-7421, O'Meara, Niamh orcid logoORCID: 0000-0002-6959-2783, Cantley, Ian orcid logoORCID: 0000-0002-8995-6281 and O'Hara, Clare (2019) Teacher efficacy beliefs at the horizon between primary and secondary school mathematics education. In: ESAI 2019, 11-13 Apr 2019, Sligo.

Abstract
A belief in one’s ability to enact change is central to personal motivation, and thus the way we behave (Bandura, 1993). More particularly, mathematics teaching efficacy beliefs encompass the extent to which a teacher believes that his/her teaching is capable of bringing about change in the mathematical understanding of his/her students, and the extent to which teaching in general supports the learning of mathematics for all students. Bandura (1993) further posits that teachers with a low sense of efficacy are less inclined to support students in responding constructively to challenge and may thus undermine students’ sense of self efficacy in relation to mathematics. This is particularly significant when students’ transition from primary to secondary school, a change that frequently has a negative impact on students’ achievement and enthusiasm for mathematics (Grootenboer & Marshman, 2016). This cross border research study sought to capture the mathematics efficacy beliefs of 6th class and Year 7 teachers in Ireland (Ire) and Northern Ireland (NI), respectively, as well as 1st Year and Year 8 teachers through the use of a questionnaire. Altogether, a representative sample of 428 primary teachers responded, 298 from Ire and 130 from NI and 248 secondary mathematics teachers, 173 from Ire and 75 from NI. The findings show a disparity in relation to teachers’ impressions of mathematics. Primary school teachers (57.8% NI, 57.5% Ire) consider mathematics easier than most subjects to teach with only around 10% of secondary teachers agreeing (8.1% NI, 12.9% Ire) (chi sq p<0.0001). All teachers reported a high sense of self-efficacy in relation to answering students’ questions in class as well as teaching all strands across the mathematics curriculum. Primary teachers were more likely to consider that students were well prepared in all strands of the curriculum upon exiting primary school than secondary teachers. This disagreement is more pronounced when considering Algebra than in any other strand (89% primary, 11% secondary). Particularly significant is that in NI, 72% of secondary teachers as opposed to 51.5% of primary teachers agreed that students have their minds made up about mathematics before they start in secondary school (p=0.006) pointing to a lower outcome expectancy. These findings are particularly pertinent considering that the national Growing Up in Ireland study capturing the transition of students from primary school concluded that the quality of students’ interaction with secondary teachers emerged as having a significant relationship with attitudes to mathematics (ESRI, 2017, 52).
Metadata
Item Type:Conference or Workshop Item (Other)
Event Type:Conference
Refereed:Yes
Subjects:Social Sciences > Education
Social Sciences > Teaching
DCU Faculties and Centres:DCU Faculties and Schools > Institute of Education > School of STEM Education, Innovation, & Global Studies
Research Institutes and Centres > Research Centre in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) Education (CASTel)
Copyright Information:© 2019 the Authors
Use License:This item is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-Share Alike 3.0 License. View License
Funders:Irish Research Council (Grant no. 13948), SCoTENS
ID Code:23211
Deposited On:24 Apr 2019 10:11 by Lorraine Harbison . Last Modified 13 Aug 2020 16:13
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