Classroom ready?: Pre-service teachers’ self-efficacy for their first professional experience placement

Teachers’ self-efficacy (TSE) is an essential construct for evaluating teachers’ feelings of self-control about completing future teaching-relevant tasks. One important feature of TSE is that it is malleable at the beginning of professional development and difficult to alter once having been established. This study was intended to investigate the level and influential factors TSE among a cohort of pre-service teachers (PSTs) before their first professional practice placement. To answer the two research questions, a survey containing fixed-choice and open-ended questions was used to obtain both quantitative and qualitative data. A total 90 PSTs responded to the survey and the two kinds of data were analysed separately. A relatively lower level of TSE was found in the current study in contrast with previous research, and among the three subscales of TSE in present study, classroom management is of greatest concern for PSTs. With regard to influential factors, PSTs reported several factors such as a lack of teaching experience, previous informal teaching and other relevant experience, teacher education program, personal qualities and characteristics, and teacher-student relationship. Several implications for teacher education programs, limitations, and suggestions for future research were identified.