Date of Award
August 2020
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Department
Educational Leadership P-12
Committee Member
Kristin Frady
Committee Member
Hans Klar
Committee Member
Cynthia Deaton
Committee Member
Robert Knoeppel
Abstract
Alternatively certified Career and Technical Education (CTE) teacher certification programs have become a more commonplace method for credentialing new CTE teachers. With no traditional teacher preparation or experience entering the classroom, new CTE teachers in the DIRECT program receive 2 years of training and support at the state and district level. With evidence from recent research, alternatively certified teachers have a higher teacher turnover rate than traditionally certified teachers. Research also states that alternatively certified teacher positions are difficult to fill due to the higher salary teachers can make in industry versus in the classroom. Understanding teacher efficacy is the key driver for this study in designing training aimed at meeting new CTE teachers’ needs that helps them remain in the teaching profession. Even though research suggests professional development and mentoring for new teacher induction, there is little research on new teacher training that specifically supports first-year CTE teachers. This qualitative study evaluates second-year CTE teachers who transitioned from the workforce with no prior teacher training experience and their sense of self-efficacy. Through the lens of Bandura’s social cognitive theory of self-efficacy combined with Tschannen-Moran and Hoy’s teachers’ sense of efficacy scale (TSES), this study explores CTE teachers’ beliefs about their training as it relates to their sense of self-efficacy. The TSES grew out of Bandura’s work regarding the 4 sources of efficacy attributed to the major influences of efficacy beliefs. These 2 theories set the framework of this study, which centered on the three dimensions of the TSES and how Bandura’s (1977) 4 sources of efficacy influenced these 3 dimensions in the construct of teaching in order to answer the research question. Interviews were conducted with 6 new CTE teachers after their second year of teaching. Teachers were asked questions regarding their training as it related to their sense of self-efficacy and their stories of successes and challenges they experienced. The key findings in this study revealed that teachers lacked training in understanding students’ behavior in the affective domain, the teacher training in student engagement needed to go beyond the basics, the mentor mentee process needed better alignment, and the teacher training needed to include an opportunity for a teaching experience component before new CTE teachers step into the classroom for the first time. Understanding new CTE teachers’ sense of self-efficacy is important as a means to add to the knowledge base in helping beginning teachers avoid feelings of inadequacy to deliver instruction that ensures student learning outcomes.
Recommended Citation
Hanna, Mary, "Investigating New CTE Teachers’ Training and Support and How It Influences Teacher Efficacy" (2020). All Dissertations. 2681.
https://open.clemson.edu/all_dissertations/2681