Self-Efficacy and Teaching Effectiveness Gail V. Barnes University of South Carolina ———————————- Interpreting changing levels of self-efficacy while improving effective teaching behaviors can be one goal of teacher education programs. Undergraduate education majors often begin their teacher education programs with high levels of self-efficacy (a belief in one’s capabilities). These levels of self-efficacy frequently decline as pre-service teachers progress through their curriculum and make the transition to in-service teaching. A slight decline in these levels can be interpreted as a novice teacher’s greater understanding of the complexity of the teaching process. Eighteen pre-service string teachers evaluated their levels of self- efficacy with the Teacher Efficacy Scale (Gusky and Passaro, 1994) three times during an academic year. The pre-service teachers were video taped three times during regular teaching assignments at a community music program. They self-evaluated the teaching episodes by the means of a Music Teaching Observation Form (Kelly, 1984). Experienced educators also evaluated the tapes. Group and individual means indicated that ratings of teaching effectiveness by both pre-service teachers and experienced educators increased while levels of self-efficacy decreased slightly. Several specific items from the Teacher Efficacy Scale and Music Teaching Observation Form had significant changes. Changing levels in self- efficacy did not have an influence on increased teaching effectiveness scores for this specific group of pre-service teachers. The ability of human beings to influence their environment is strongly linked with belief in their ability to bring about change. Albert Mandura, the social psychologist who devised the construct of self- efficacy, states, “People’s level of motivation, affective states, and actions are based more on what they believe than on what is objectively the case” (1991, p. 2). An individual with a high degree of self-efficacy makes judgments about his or her capacity to achieve a certain level of performance. A teacher’s sense of efficacy may influence their emotive state, their goal setting and their persistence (Ashton and Webb, 1986) since the complex nature of teaching