Field Study and Pre – Service Teaching Portfolio

Chambers & Hardy (2005) studied the relation between the length of the student teaching experience and perception of teacher efficacy and found no impact. Gavora in 2011 studied self-efficacy of in-service teachers in Slovakia and compared results with the results of his earlier research where the sample consisted of pre-service teachers. His findings suggest that mean score of personal teaching efficacy (PTE) is higher than general teaching efficacy, which means that teachers believe in t heir own abilities to facilitate students learning more than to the abilities to overcome problems as e.g. low motivation etc. Mean score of the PTE (maximum positive value 6) reached by the pre-service teachers was 4.22 (research published 2009, 2010), in-service teachers with 1–5 years of teaching practice 4.21 and teachers with the teaching experience above 5 years 4.52. Concerning general teaching efficacy he observed similar results – 3.69 pre-service teachers, 3.72 teachers with 1–5 years’ experience, 3.75 teachers with the teaching experience above 5 years. The similar results were published by Pendergast, Garvis, & Keogh (2011) who ran a longitudinal study and tested the pre-service teachers before and after completing the seven-week practice and found that self-ecacy declined. They suggested that this might be “a result of reality shock ”. The quality of teacher training, the meaningful content and connection with practice are the factors that can not only strongly influence the teaching performance but also help to create a positive self-image and build self-efficacy. Learning as such is a cyclical process and thus every lesson leads us towards further experimentation, gaining new experience that must be analysed and further steps should be suggested and verified.