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Prospective primary teachers’ efficacy to teach mathematics: measuring efficacy beliefs and identifying the factors that influence them

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Abstract

Prospective teachers’ mathematics efficacy beliefs affect school placement experiences and influence later teacher behaviour and subsequent student outcomes. These efficacy beliefs are open to change during initial teacher education and become more resistant to change once the teacher enters the workforce. Therefore, it is important to measure mathematics teacher efficacy early in initial teacher education and identify low efficacy beliefs. This study measured the mathematics teaching efficacy beliefs of 402 prospective primary teachers. Arising from Rasch analysis of the efficacy scores of these teachers, 22 participants who displayed a range of mathematics teaching efficacy beliefs were interviewed to gain insights into factors affecting these beliefs. Participants communicated greater confidence in tasks requiring procedural (tell-items) than conceptual knowledge (explain-items). Both low and high efficacy participants reported traditional experiences of mathematics teaching and learning as students. However, high efficacy participants reported mastery of mathematics within these traditional contexts, whereas their low efficacy peers did not report mastery. Furthermore, all participants reported how memories of their school mathematics experiences informed their level of efficacy when thinking about teaching mathematics, thus revealing the powerful influence of mastery experiences.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of STEM Education, Mary Immaculate College - University of Limerick, South Circular Road, Limerick, Ireland

    Aisling Leavy & Mairéad Hourigan

  2. Department of Primary and Secondary Teacher Education, Faculty of Education and International Studies, Oslo Metropolitan University, Pilestredet, Oslo, Norway

    Annette Hessen Bjerke

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  1. Aisling Leavy
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Appendices

Appendix 1. SETcPM scale

figure a

Appendix 2. Interview protocol

A: MATHEMATICS BELIEFS AND EXPERIENCES

When you hear the word ‘mathematics’ what do you think of?

Tell me about your experience of studying mathematics to date

• What was your experience of mathematics prior to college?

• Was this experience different at different levels of your education?

Describe a ‘normal’ mathematics lesson when you were in school

• Was this experience different at different levels of education? How?

What do you remember about the topics you covered? The materials you used?

Opportunities to be involved in group work? Opportunities to share your strategies? Your experiences of testing?

• Was this experience different at different levels of education? How?

What is your level of understanding of the primary mathematics concepts (e.g. number, algebra)? Why do you think this? What evidence do you draw from?

B: BELIEFS REGARDING MATHEMATICS TEACHING

What do you think teaching mathematics will involve?

What do you consider the main factors that affect a child’s ability to learn mathematics?

What influences your beliefs? Give an example of an experience to support your beliefs

What role do you believe the teacher plays in a child’s level of success in learning mathematics?

Do you think you could teach mathematics effectively?

What rating would you give yourself out of 10? Why did you give yourself this rating? Why do you feel like that?

Do you feel you can be an effective teacher in the future?

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Leavy, A., Bjerke, A.H. & Hourigan, M. Prospective primary teachers’ efficacy to teach mathematics: measuring efficacy beliefs and identifying the factors that influence them. Educ Stud Math 112, 437–460 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10649-022-10181-1

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