Mathematics is a field that is generally difficult to understand for many school children (Van de Walle, 2007). In such a context, mathematics teachers’ roles in mathematics instruction become critical (NCTM, 2000). Several studies indicated that teachers’ knowledge, practices, and beliefs have an important role on the effectiveness of their instruction (Suydam, & Higgins, 1977). For instance, in a study by Gibson and Dembo (1984), the researchers examined the relationship between teacher efficacy and observable teacher behaviors. They suggested that teachers with high efficacy beliefs about teaching tend to devote more classroom time to academic activities, praise students’ academic accomplishment, and work longer with difficult students. In contrast, teachers with low efficacy beliefs about teaching tend to spend more time on nonacademic activities, criticize students for their failures, and have lack of persistence in failure situations. Similarly, Bandura (1997) argued that teachers’ self-efficacy beliefs in their instruction partly determine how they structure academic activities in their classrooms. In this respect,as future practitioners, prospective teachers are critical stakeholders whose self-efficacy beliefs need to be studied.

The belief in one’s capability to succeed in a particular situation is described as self-efficacy by Bandura (1997) in his social learning theory. Bandura (1994) argued that people’s self-efficacy beliefs play a major role in how they feel, think, motivate themselves and behave. Moreover, these beliefs affect the choices individuals make because people engage in tasks in which they feel competent and confident and avoid those in which they do not feel so (Pajares, 2002). The other important concept in Bandura’s social learning theory is outcome expectancy that is distinct from perceived self-efficacy. According to Tschannen-Moran, Woolfolk Hoy and Hoy (1998), while the efficacy question is, “Do I have the ability to organize and execute the actions necessary to accomplish a specific task at a desired level?” (p.210), the outcome expectancy question is, “If I accomplish the task at that level, what are the likely consequences?” (p.210). Bandura (1997) argued that teacher efficacy is a type of self-efficacy, however, it differs from self-efficacy in such a way that a person who has high self-efficacy about a specific task can still has a low sense of efficacy when it comes to teaching the task (Pajares, 1996). Tschannen-Moran et al. (1998) defined teacher efficacy as “the teacher’s belief in his or her capability to organize and execute course of action required to successfully accomplish a specific teaching task in a particular context” (p.233).

In the literature, teacher sense of efficacy has generally been measured quantitatively (Gibson & Dembo, 1984; Tschannen-Moran & Woolfolk-Hoy, 2007; Woolfolk-Hoy & Burke-Spero, 2005). Most of these quantitative studies showed that both mathematics teachers and teacher candidates have high efficacies about teaching mathematics. However, teachers might declare that they feel confident even though they do not really feel confident at all (Wheatley, 2005). This study, therefore, aimed to describe and understand mathematics teaching efficacy beliefs of prospective teachers by utilizing both quantitative and qualitative techniques. 

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