Abstract:
The present study examined the impact of language teachers’ gender, age, and experience on their self-efficacy. Moreover, it aimed to find out the mediating role of in-service teacher training in modifying the effects of foregoing variables. To this end, a stratified sample of 180 English teachers in high schools, private language institutes, and university settings in seven cities in Iran were initially handpicked as the participants of the study. Next, Teachers’ Sense of Efficacy Scale (Tschamen-Moran & Woolfolk-HoyHoy, 2001) was administered to the participants to specify their initial self-efficacy. Further, they attended a 20-session in-service teacher training program focused on theoretical and empirical issues related to learner variables and aiming at empowering the participants to tackle relevant problems in the context of the classroom. Finally, The Self-Efficacy Scale was administered to probe viable changes in the participants’ self-efficacy posterior to the treatment in relation to gender, age and experience. Results showed significantly higher levels of self-efficacy for males prior to and for females after the treatment. Additionally, the findings revealed that teacher self-efficacy was positively influenced by increase in teachers’ age and teaching experience and that in-service teacher training could avert disparities among the teachers across the diverse age groups and experience levels. The results underscore the paramount importance of in-service training courses aimed at empowering teachers.
Machine summary:
g. Brown 80 & Ferrill, 2009; Demirkasmoglu, 2010; Kennedy, 2007; McBer; 2000; Pratte & Rury, 1991).
g. Ganji, Ketabi, & Shahnazari, 2018; Jamshidi Avanaki, & Sadeghi, 2014) in the Iranian EFL context have made an effort to compare Iranian teacher training courses and the international teacher education programs such as Certificate in Teaching English to Adults (CELTA).
86 Table 4 Descriptive Statistics for EFL Teachers’ Self-efficacy in Different Age Groups before the Treatment N Mean Std. Deviation Std. Error 95% Confidence Interval for Mean Lower Bound Upper Bound G1 22 125.
The second research question delved into whether teacher education could modify the impacts of teachers’ gender, age, and experience on their self-efficacy.
Table 12 Descriptive Statistics for EFL Teachers’ Self-efficacy in Different Age Groups after the Treatment N Mean Std. Std.
Table 16 ANOVA Test of EFL Teachers’ Self-efficacy at Different Experience Levels after the Treatment Sum of Squares df Mean Square F Sig. Between Groups 360.
Table 16 ANOVA Test of EFL Teachers’ Self-efficacy at Different Experience Levels after the Treatment Sum of Squares df Mean Square F Sig. Between Groups 360.
2. Discussion The first research question of this study strived to particularize the capacity of EFL teachers’ gender, age, and experience to orientate, modify, and convert their teaching self-efficacy which constitutes a main and key attribute in instructed language learning.
The second research question endeavored to discern the role of teacher education in the mediation of the impacts of teachers’ gender, age, and experience on their self-efficacy.