Open Collections

A study on wisdom, wisdom in teaching, teacher efficacy, and teaching performance

University of British Columbia

Despite a rising interest in studying the effects and the antecedents of teacher efficacy, a review of literature indicated that an important individual variable has been left out of these studies. This is the cognitive component which Bandura (1977) suggests is central to the process of efficacy formulation. Specifically Bandura (1977) argues that for performance to be instructive for efficacy formulation, a type of cognitive appraisal needs to be present. To date, this cognitive appraisal has not been identified in teacher efficacy studies. The purpose of this thesis is to search for a way to represent this cognitive component and to examine its role in teaching performance and efficacy formulation. Two variables are selected as possible representations of this cognitive component. They are wisdom and wisdom in teaching. The two research questions developed for this study are: (1) What is the relative contribution of wisdom, wisdom in teaching, personal teaching efficacy, and general teaching efficacy to teaching performance? And (2) What is the relative contribution of wisdom, wisdom in teaching, and teaching performance to the formulation of personal teaching efficacy and general teaching efficacy? Eighty-nine final year student teachers were asked to respond to three instruments that measured their level of wisdom, wisdom in teaching, and teacher efficacy. These instruments were: (1) Life planning dilemma "Jack" (Smith & Baltes, 1987), (2) Teaching dilemma "Perimeter" (Arlin, 1987), and (3) The teacher efficacy scale (Gibson & Dembo, 1984). The participants were also asked to submit their teaching practicum marks. This mark represents their teaching performance. Teaching performance was best explained by the combined effects of wisdom in teaching and personal teaching efficacy than by either of them alone. Jointly these two variables accounted for 54% of variance in teaching performance. Wisdom in teaching and teaching performance provided a better explanation for the formulation of personal teaching efficacy than each taken in turn. The joint effects of wisdom, wisdom in teaching, and teaching performance accounted for 7% of variance in the formulation of both personal teaching efficacy and general teaching efficacy. An important finding from this study is that wisdom in teaching has the greatest impact on teaching performance. An implication of this finding is that teacher educators should develop and provide programmes which can help facilitate the growth of wisdom in teaching.

Thesis/Dissertation

application/pdf

2009-02-19

For non-commercial purposes only, such as research, private study and education. Additional conditions apply, see Terms of Use https://open.library.ubc.ca/terms_of_use.

http://hdl.handle.net/2429/4811

Special Education

University of British Columbia

UBCV

DSpace