Bandura (1997) defined self-efficacy as “beliefs in one’s capabilities to organize and execute the course of action required to produce given attainments” (p.3). Strong sense of efficacy supports individuals’ well-being and accomplishment even they face with obstacles. Teacher self-efficacy is related to teachers’ efficacy beliefs in teaching context and that teaching effectively can have an influence on student learning (Hoy & Spero, 2005).

Teacher self-efficacy is reported to be related to the educational and psychological constructs regarding students. For instance, it is related to the success of students (Ross, 1992), and their motivation and efficacy (Anderson,Greene, & Loewen, 1988: Midgley, Feldlaufer, & Eccles, 1989Moreover, teacher efficacy plays a role in teachers’ efforts and commitment to being effective teachers (Hoy & Spero, 2005). Therefore, teacher efficacy is clearly an important construct in the education field

A couple of studies were conducted regarding teacher efficacy during teachers’ pre-service education or in-service years. A vast majority of these focused on preservice teachers with a focus on exploring the relationships between teacher efficacy and other constructs such as mathematics self-efficacy and mathematical beliefs (Briley, 2012), teaching efficacy and mathematical performance (Bates, Latham, & Kim, 2011). Besides, a number of studies aimed at investigating the shifts in teacher efficacy of preservice teacher during a specific training course (Moseley & Utley, 2006, Palmer 2016,) or during field work (Charalambous, Philippou,  & Kyriakides, 2008). The major findings of these studies were that teaching efficacy changed in a positive way during the training courses or fieldwork, and it was positively related to other constructs such as mathematical self-efficacy and mathematical beliefs.

Besides, a few studies were focused on an examination of the shifts in  teaching efficacy during undergraduate education and at first year of enrollment as an inservice teacher (Hoy & Spero, 2005, Işıksal-Bostan, 2016). The results of both longitudinal studies showed that preservice teachers have strong sense of teaching efficacy during their university education, but when they face with complexity of teaching their efficacy decrease in the first year (Hoy & Spero, 2005, Işıksal-Bostan, 2016). 

In another study with a longer term period of investigation, Isıksal-Bostan, and Ayan (2017) aimed at exploring teaching efficacy beliefs of mathematics teachers in the period of being senior students in teacher training program, when they finished their first year and the second year employment as a teacher. Researchers stated that mathematics teaching efficacy of the prospective teachers decreased at the end of their first year of teaching but increased at the end of their second year of teaching.

Literature review emphasized that in order to reveal the trends in changes in teaching efficacy over-time (Gür, Çakıroğlu, & Çapa-Aydın, Y., 2012) there is a need for  more longitudinal studies. However the longitudinal studies are limited in number. The findings of this study might provide invaluable feedback to teachers and teacher educators about the trends and development of efficacy beliefs over years in national and international arenas. Therefore, as a continuation of Isıksal-Bostan, and Ayan’s (2017) long term study, in this research we investigated novice middle school mathematics teachers’ efficacy belief in the following three years after their graduation from teacher education program. Thus, the following research question guide the study:

1. How does year of employment as a teacher effect novice middle school mathematics teachers’ mathematics teaching efficacy belief?

1. How does novice middle school mathematics teachers’ self-efficacy, outcome expectancy and total efficacy score change during their first three years of employment as a teacher?

The aim of this research is to investigate novice middle school mathematics teachers’ efficacy belief in the following three years after their graduation from teacher education program. Considering the given aim, a longitudinal survey design was used. Data were collected from 30 mathematics teachers working as a mathematics teachers in different provinces of Turkey during a period of three years. To be more specific the first data set was collected from middle school mathematics teachers at the end of their first year employment (Year 1) as a mathematics teacher in schools. The rest of the data were obtained at the end of their second (Year 2) and third year employment (Year 3) as a teacher respectively. In order to evaluate mathematics self-efficacy of participants, Mathematics Teaching Efficacy Belief Instrument (MTEBI) developed by Enochs, Smith, and Huinker (2000) was used. The MTEBI consists of two sub-dimensions namely personal mathematics teaching efficacy (PMTE) and mathematics teaching outcome expectancy (MTOE). The PMTE dimension is related to teachers’ perceptions of their ability to teach mathematics. “I will continually find better ways to teach mathematics” and “I know how to teach mathematics concepts effectively” are two examples for the personal mathematics teaching efficacy dimension. The second dimension of the scale which is outcome expectancy is related to teachers’ perception that teacher action will translate into student learning. “When the mathematics grades of students improve, it is often due to their teacher having found a more effective teaching approach” is an example from the scale related to the outcome expectancy. The MTEBI is a five point Likert type instrument rated the given answers from strongly agree to strongly disagree. The scale was translated and adapted for the Turkish students by Cakiroglu (2003). The calculated Cronbach’s Alpha values were ranged between .7 and .8 among the three implementation which are considered as high for the social sciences.

To analyze data, descriptive statistics and inferential statistics were used. Before checking the statistical significance, normality, independence, and sphericity assumptions were checked. Findings indicated that novice teachers’ overall teaching efficacy scores increase during their enrollment in teaching profession. In other words, one-way repeated measures of ANOVA revealed that mean mathematics teaching efficacy belief scores differed significantly between time periods (F (2, 28) = 7,6, p =.002). Post hoc analysis showed that overall efficacy score increase significantly (p=.00) from Year 1 (M = 81.20, SD = 7,4) to Year 2 (M = 84.73, SD = 5,9, p=.00), and from Year 1 to Year 3 (M= 86,7, SD= 6,1, p=.00). Although there is an increase from Year 2 to Year 3, this difference is not significant (p=.076). Multivariate eta square was calculated as .35 which suggests a very large effect size (Cohen, 1988). Moreover, one-way repeated measures of ANOVA revealed that personal self-efficacy scores differ significantly across time periods (p= .00). More specifically, there is a significant (p=.02) increase in participants’ self-efficacy scores from Year 1 (M= 53.8, SD=4.29) to Year 2 (M= 55.9, SD=4.48), from Year 2 to Year 3 (M= 57.7, SD=4.76, p= .03), and from Year 1 to Year 3 (p= .00). On the contrary, outcome expectancy scores did not differ significantly across time periods (p=.40). In other words, although there is an increase from Year 1 (M= 28.07, SD= 3,7) to Year 2 (M= 28.83, SD= 4,2), from Year 2 and Year 3 (M= 28.93, SD=3,44), and from Year 1 to Year 3, these differences are not statistically significant. Novice teachers’ efficacy belief increased as the year of their employment as a teacher increased. Better classroom experiences (Holzberger, Philipp, and Kunter, 2000), being familiar with the content and school environment might be the factors that support that increase.

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