Hong Kong student teachers' personal construction of teaching efficacy
Yeung & Watkins (2000)

what was studied
This study investigated how undergraduate education majors develop a personal sense of teaching efficacy (i.e., confidence in their ability to be a successful teacher) over the course of their degree programs. Specifically, the researchers were interested in structural similarities and differences between the sense of efficacy of students in their first year of the program and students in their final year, and between students enrolled at two different universities. Twenty-seven student teachers from two separated colleges in Hong Kong participated in the study. Thirteen were students in their first year of the education program; fourteen were in their third and final year.

how effectiveness was measured
Repertory grid methods were used to elicit students' personal constructs for understanding teaching efficacy. Participants were given twelve elements in sets of three to sort based on similarity using standard repertory grid interview techniques¹. The constructs so elicited were then analyzed using RepGrid, a computer program designed to process repertory grid data.

what the findings were
Third year students' perceptions of teaching efficacy were more homogenous than were those of the first year students and, surprisingly, students at the same college had less in common regarding the impact of their teaching experiences and education on their sense of efficacy than did students at different colleges. Teaching experiences, elective courses, their students, and their practice supervisors were perceived as the greatest promoters of a sense of efficacy. Third year students saw college curricula as a greater contribution than did first year students, which resonates with the fact that third year students' perceptions were also more homogenous. In general, teaching efficacy was construed in terms of a concern for instructional participation and students' learning needs, communication and relationships with students, academic knowledge and teaching skills, classroom management, teaching success, teaching commitment, and self-confidence.