Teachers’ beliefs in their own self-efficacy related to their teaching competences constitute an important point for their professional future and health (Bandura, 1997, Schmitz & Schwarzer, 2000). So far, there are only few empirical data available regarding the self-efficacy during teachers’ education and the first year of teachers’ career entry phase. For this reason, teachers’ beliefs in their own self-efficacy are the central question of this work.

Presented are results from a questionnaire regarding teachers’ self-efficacy from three different points of measurement: (t1) from teacher students’ last semester in teacher education,  (t2) from the beginning of their teaching career after finishing teacher education (novice teachers), and (t3) at the end of the first year in profession. In addition to this, the former teacher students who have become novice teachers responded to a questionnaire about (a) their well-being, (b) the professional support they experienced at the beginning of their first year in profession and (c) their motivation concerning their work in school. In addition to this, the pupils of their classes were interviewed after a videotaped lesson. Fur­thermore, experienced teachers are surveyed and videographed while teaching a lesson. Presented are results from teacher students respectively novice teachers and experienced teachers as well as their pupils’ answers to these questionnaires and results from the video analysis of the videotaped lessons. Though the main question is: Do received beliefs in self-efficacy influence the teaching quality?

The results show that on average self-efficacy beliefs and teaching quality of teacher students, respectively novice teachers barely change from the end of teacher education (t1) to the end of their first year in profession (t3). Differences are found between novice and experienced teachers with regard to teachers’ self-efficacy beliefs, but not regarding teaching quality. The correlations between self-efficacy beliefs and teaching quality at measurement points t1, t2 and t3 are weak. However, regression analyses over time (for example between self-efficacy beliefs at measurement point t1 and teaching quality at measurement point t2) show stronger interactions between self-efficacy and teaching quality.

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