Narrative Inquiry Into The Development Of Pre-service English Teachers’ Self-efficacy In Teaching Practicum

With the deepening study on teachers’ professional development,researchers pay more attention to internal factors which influence teachers’ professional development.As an important element of teacher cognition,self-efficacy plays important roles in both teachers’ teaching behaviors and teaching effects,so researchers give a lot of attention to it.Teachers’ self-efficacy,which originated from Rand’s studies,has been studied for over 40 years so far.It is mentioned in Bandura’s efficacy theory that teachers’self-efficacy are most malleable in early learning.Therefore,for pre-service teachers who will step into the post of duty as in-service teachers in the future,the opportunities for them to teach in real teaching contexts are critical for long-term development in the aspect of their self-efficacy.In previous studies at home and abroad,it is also found that in teaching practicum,the development of pre-service teachers’ self-efficacy has different features.However,quantitative research methods are dominated among the existing researches and we can also find the inconsistency among the results of some existing studies.Therefore,it’s necessary and worthwhile to carry out a study on the development of pre-service English teachers’ self-efficacy during the period of teaching practicum.This study adopts narrative inquiry as the research method and the participant is the author.It aims to inquire into the development of pre-service English teachers,self-efficacy during the period of teaching practicum through living,telling,reliving,and retelling the stories happened in her own teaching practicum.The field texts include the conversations and conversational interviews between the author and other participants in her life,the pre-service English teacher’s practicum journal,the observation notes taken down in teaching practicum,and the feedback notes from the students.And the field texts are analyzed after the teaching practicum for carrying out an autobiographical narrative inquiry into pre-service English teachers’ self-efficacy development in teaching practicum.It is found that changes do take place in pre-service English teachers’ self-efficacy during teaching practicum.Moreover,different variation trends in different dimensions are found and there are also different variation trends among the sub-dimensions of the same dimension.After the teaching practicum,the pre-service English teacher’s efficacy for students’ engagement and students-teacher relationship are weakened,and efficacy for classroom management is relatively stable.Efficacy for English language proficiency,and teaching methods are strengthened.In the aspect of facilitating students’ engagement,the pre-service English teacher’s efficacy for cultivating students’ creativity and critical thinking are strengthened,while the efficacy for motivating difficult students and promoting their self-confidence are diminished.The features of the pre-service English teacher’s self-efficacy development in the teaching practicum are related to students’performance,mentor’s supervision,vicarious experience of peers,etc.Therefore,as an opportunity for student teachers to teach in real teaching contexts,teaching practicum is vital for pre-service English teachers’ self-efficacy development.Students’ performance,mentor’s supervision,vicarious experience of peers,etc.are very important for the development of pre-service English teachers’ self-efficacy.