Exploring Language Teacher Efficacy in Japan. Gene Thompson

Bandura et al., 1977). Indeed, one of the key reasons for understanding the dimensions of teacher efficacy is that it helps teacher educators identify domains of teaching (and associated) activity where efficacy is weak and efforts are needed to help individuals take greater agency. Teachers are not only responsive to their environments – they can help shape them. Thus, gaining a better understanding of the different and various underlying dimensions of LTE may help to identify areas where education interventions may be most effective and are most needed in providing teachers with strategies they can use to be better educators.

      In summary, the underlying dimensions of teacher efficacy beliefs may be expected to differ when instruments are adapted for use in contexts that may have significantly different cultural or teaching features. For this reason, LTE researchers should consider research designs that strengthen the cultural and content validity of any scales used – either by adding additional dimensions or by developing context-specific instruments. Chapter 5 provides an example of how this was attempted in the research presented in this book, while Chapter 6 discusses the dimensions of Japanese high school teacher of English (JTE) efficacy beliefs. Results indicate context-specific domains of LTE beliefs in Japan reflecting local teaching challenges.

3.3 Development of Language Teacher Efficacy Beliefs

      Gaining a better understanding about how LTE beliefs develop can provide insights into how teacher education programmes can be structured (i.e. towards domains such as discipline or instruction), as well as suggesting the types of instruction or experiences that are needed (e.g. teaching practice, feedback or observation opportunities). Research on LTE development has mirrored the general trends from the wider teacher efficacy field, identifying enactive mastery experiences via personal experience (Atay, 2007; Karimi, 2011; Zonoubi et al., 2017) as the key source of stronger efficacy beliefs. For example, in an experimental study of 60 teachers carried out in Iran (treatment group of 30, control group of 30), Karimi (2011) found that teachers who participated in a professional development course, which involved three modules related to language teaching practice, had significantly higher teacher self-efficacy beliefs at the end of the course in comparison to the control group who received no training. As the course involved a teaching practicum, the researchers attributed the increase to enactive mastery experiences.

      Similarly, Zonoubi et al. (2017) investigated the influence of participation in a professional learning community (PLC) on 10 EFL teachers in Iran. Teachers participated in two six-month modules and were interviewed using self-efficacy prompts developed by Abednia (2012). Thematic analysis of interview findings identified developments in participants’ pedagogic self-efficacy (i.e. towards instruction), as well as perceived language proficiency. The researchers found that all sources of efficacy development were present, as

      the participants’ experience of taking part in the PLC interventions afforded them the opportunity to observe accomplishments in their own teaching (mastery experiences) and their peers’ (vicarious experiences), to receive positive and constructive feedback from their colleagues and supervisors on their contributions to the PLC discussions, their teaching performance, and their professional growth (social persuasion), and to gain a sense of pleasure and satisfaction as a result of observing their own and peers’ professional development (emotional states). (Zonoubi et al., 2017: 9)

      Thus, it seems clear that professional development activities provide efficacy development information, as different activities (e.g. teaching practice, observation) may act as specific sources (i.e. enactive mastery experiences, vicarious experiences) of influence on teacher efficacy beliefs. Zonoubi et al. (2017) also emphasised the role of peer and supervisor feedback as contributors to stronger efficacy beliefs, and such feedback is often a reinforcement of personal mastery, indicating (as discussed in Chapter 2) that different sources of efficacy development information may be working together in a united fashion.

      The relationship between pedagogic skill and efficacy belief development is a common feature of LTE research. In a series of studies, Wyatt (e.g. 2010a, 2010b, 2013b, 2015) emphasised the importance of reflection as part of the process of efficacy belief development. Personal experiences (i.e. enactive mastery experiences) were a key source of efficacy information, due to a focus on experimentation in practice followed by reflection. In some of these studies (e.g. Wyatt, 2010a, 2010b; Wyatt & Dikilitaş, 2015), the participants may have been going through the process of skill development (i.e. were relatively novice teachers who may not have had sufficient knowledge to implement new teaching strategies). For such teachers, both positive and negative personal experiences, including self-doubts (see Wheatley, 2002), may act as drivers of efficacy belief development as they learn about the areas of practice where skill improvement is needed (Bandura, 1997).

      Such individuals can be differentiated from teachers who have (supposedly) developed the necessary skills for language teaching. Indeed, in self-efficacy theory, Bandura (1997: 75–76) considered the skill development phase as separate from ‘the use of established skills to manage situational demands’. In other words, efficacy doubts may be useful drivers of reflection and may stimulate efficacy development for language teachers who perceive themselves to be lacking in skill. However, at the point where teachers perceive themselves to have the required skills, such doubts may negatively influence efficacy beliefs. This highlights a personal factor that appears to be an important source of efficacy information, which is years of teaching experience. Although time, itself, is not necessarily a specific source, a number of studies (Ghonsooly & Ghanizadeh, 2013; Swanson, 2010a) have shown teaching experience to be positively related to stronger teacher self-efficacy beliefs.