Perceived Self-Efficacy of Thai Secondary School English Teachers

Abstract

Effectiveness of learning and teaching may be influenced by many factors from either students themselves or teachers. For teachers, one of the factors for their effective teaching may lie in their belief of their own ability to succeed in teaching, which can be referred to as self-efficacy. This survey study attempted to examine teachers’ self-efficacy level among Thai secondary school teachers and whether their school setting affected this self-efficacy. The subjects were 30 English teachers who currently teaching at Thai secondary schools: 15 teachers are from Bangkok and the other 15 from other provinces. The findings indicated that globally the participating teachers have moderate level of self-efficacy (Mean=6.47). Further observation was made on the differences among the three sub-scales of self-efficacy. The result showed that teachers’ self-efficacy in instructional strategies (Mean=6.64) was the highest followed by self-efficacy in classroom management (Mean=6.51) and in student engagement (Mean=6.46). Moreover, when comparing the level of self-efficacy of teachers from the two settings, it was found that the teachers in provincial areas display a higher sense of self-efficacy than those in the Bangkok area.