A healthy learning environment can influence learning, behaviour and efforts made in class by students (Hopland, & Nyhus, 2016). This is why, when it comes to middle school, creating a positive learning environment in the classroom can be seen as a goal to be achieved in the same way as academic success of students (Martineau, & Gauthier, 1999). Among factors influencing the learning environment, adequate behaviour management helps create a more relaxed, more secure and more orderly learning environment in the classroom (Hattie, 2012; Martineau, & Gauthier, 1999).

When it comes to middle school preservice teachers, behaviour management is considered one of the biggest challenges that must be mastered before lesson content becomes the centre of their attention (Dicke, Elling, Schmeck, & Leutner, 2015; Furlong & Maynard, 1995). This challenge leads to a lot of stress for beginning teachers as it includes tasks with high psychological demands, such as showing perseverance and social skills in managing a student with behavioural difficulties (Harmsen, Helms-Lorenz, Maulana, & van Veen, 2018). Several studies show that this negatively impacts teacher self-efficacy. However, if the latter is impacted by a person's physiological state, it is also positively influenced by mastery and vicarious experiences, such as successfully managing challenging pupils or seeing fellow teachers do so (Bandura, 2013). Teachers with high self-efficacy beliefs are more inclined to stay motivated and to persevere in the face of difficulties (Gaudreau, Royer, Beaumont & Frénette, 2012; Tschannen-Moran & McMaster, 2009).

Finally, recent studies have shown that gender can play a role in defining certain aspects of behaviour management (e.g. İhtiyaroğlu, 2018), this is why we will explore this question regarding perceived efficacy in behaviour management.

In order to better support future teachers in the development of their skills in the classroom, it is important to take a step further towards understanding which aspects of the learning environment are linked to the perception of teacher efficacy. However, these two concepts cannot be captured with objective measures and the perceptions of pupils and preservice teacher may be quite different. It is indeed common to use student perception in research because it refers to the pupil's experience and makes it possible to explain his learning behaviour better than by the teacher's perception; however, it is not recommended to use this perception as the only assessment (Genoud, 2006). The teacher's perceptions allows another point of view that should lead to a further understanding of which aspects of the learning environment are linked to effective behaviour management perceptions. Thus, the confrontation of perceptions and the more detailed analysis of points of divergence (and their extent) generally provide a better understanding of class dynamics.

In a very concrete way, our research questions are the following:

Q1: Do pupils and preservice teachers perceive teacher efficacy regarding behaviour management in the same way?

Q2: How classroom environment interacts with perceived teacher efficacy regarding behaviour management?

Q3: Does preservice teachers’ gender have a moderating effect on perceptions?

Data was collected in a teacher training institution in the canton of Fribourg, in Switzerland. All teachers in their last year of training participated in the study. The teachers had access to on-line mentoring and an on-site teacher trainer as well as their university courses. They had all been working with their students for a four-month period. Data measuring teacher efficacy and the learning environment in the classroom perceived by the teachers and their pupils were collected. Sample Our sample includes 37 middle school preservice teachers and their 837 pupils. Online questionnaire for teachers The teacher questionnaire is made of three parts. The first part is three demographic questions (age, sex and whether they are doing an in-service placement or not). The second part includes an adapted version of the Scale of teacher self-efficacy regarding behaviour management in the classroom for middle school teachers (Dessibourg, 2018), comprising of 11 items separated in three dimensions: proactive behaviour management, reactive behaviour management and parental inclusion. Teachers were asked to assess their ability to accomplish given tasks related to behaviour management using a 10-point Likert scale. The third part is a scale entitled Classroom learning environment (for teachers) (Genoud, 2012). It is made up of 43 items divided into 3 domains and 7 dimensions: class cohesion, teacher proximity, indiscipline, rules and organisation, innovation, pupil difficulty, task orientation and implication. Teachers are asked to rate the learning environment of the classroom using a 6-point Likert. Paper questionnaire for pupils The student questionnaire – adapted from the teacher questionnaire – has two parts measuring the learning environment of the classroom and the perception of teacher efficacy. The dimensions are similar to the version offered to preservice teachers so that a comparison can be made.

Our results show that despite the inter-subject variability of measures, the small differences observed between preservice teachers’ self-efficacy beliefs and their pupils’ perceptions are not significant regarding all three dimensions. Because self-efficacy is subjective, these results are interesting as they show that preservice teachers who feel efficient, probably use behaviour management strategies that pupils perceive as efficient too, thus strengthening self-efficacy. Globally, female preservice teachers were perceived as being slightly more efficient regarding behaviour management. Yet, the only significant difference concerns parental inclusion, meaning that female preservice teachers are more likely to include parents in their classroom behaviour management. From the preservice teachers’ point of view, correlations between perceived classroom learning environment and self-efficacy beliefs regarding behaviour management are very weak, meaning that these aspects do not seem to affect self-efficacy beliefs. From the pupils’ point of view, most classroom learning environment dimensions correlated strongly with perceived teacher efficacy, indicating that the more pupils perceive their learning environment as being healthy (e.g. less indiscipline, positive relationships and well organised lessons) the more they perceive their teacher as being efficient in behaviour management and vice-versa. However, although our sample consists of an important number of pupils, our measures concern only 37 preservice teachers. It is also important to keep in mind that the preservice teachers in this study had access to support in the form of on-line mentoring and an on-site teacher trainer. For future research, we suggest to investigate these variables with a bigger sample. We also suggest to investigate these variables with first year in-service teachers who do not have access to direct support. In this poster, we will therefore discuss not only the limits of this research, but also the contributions for teacher training.

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