Abstract
The Teachers’ Sense of Efficacy Scale was used to measure graduate teaching assistants’ perceived selfefficacy in four constructs: (a) overall teaching efficacy, (b) student engagement, (c) instructional strategies and (d) classroom management. Graduate teaching assistants in the College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources at the University of Tennessee were moderately efficacious in instructional strategies, student engagement, classroom management and overall teaching efficacy. Furthermore, a majority of graduate teaching assistants did not have prior teaching experience. This coupled with the fact that a majority did not participate in university pedagogical training may partially explain why the graduate teaching assistants did not possess a high sense of self-efficacy in their overall teaching abilities or their self-efficacy in student engagement, instructional strategies and classroom management. With that in mind, future research should examine the explanatory power of various prior teaching experiences and teaching and learning training opportunities. This information should aid departments and colleges of agriculture in selecting and training graduate teaching assistants. Moreover, investing in the development of a high sense of teaching efficacy among graduate teaching assistants may prove to be an important element in ensuring the educational quality of undergraduate education.
 9 Poore_2014 NACTA Journal.pdf | [ ] | 294 kB |
