How pre-service teacher self-efficacy changes during the professional experience placement: a growth mixture model

Kang Ma*, Jingjing Dong, Anne McMaugh, Youxing Cui*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Longitudinal studies are essential to examine teacher self-efficacy (TSE) changes during the formative stages of pre-service teacher development. However, limited longitudinal studies have been conducted on this population. Among the existing studies, no study has been found to have applied an individual-centred modelling approach to examine TSE changes; similarly, few studies have examined longitudinal change in domains other than classroom teaching, nor in the Chinese context. The present study surveyed 205 pre-service teachers at three time points, namely at the beginning, middle and end of the professional experience placement. This study used a two-domain TSE scale assessing classroom teaching and school-level activities. The data were analysed using growth mixture modelling in Mplus. Three types of trajectories were fit for TSE for classroom teaching and five types were fit for school-level activities. For classroom teaching, trajectories reflect a high-TSE increasing class, low-TSE decreasing class, and medium-TSE non-increasing class. For school-level activities, trajectories reflect high-TSE increasing, medium-TSE non-increasing class, low-TSE greater increasing class, high-TSE decreasing class, and low-TSE non-increasing class. The classification of TSE trajectories differed according to gender and degree program. Implications, limitations, and suggestions for future research are discussed.
Original languageEnglish
Number of pages21
JournalThe Australian Educational Researcher
DOIs
Publication statusE-pub ahead of print - 6 Sept 2024

Keywords

  • growth mixture modelling
  • longitudinal studies
  • pre-service teacher education
  • professional experience placement
  • teacher self-efficacy

Cite this