Preservice Elementary Teachers Self Efficacy For Teaching Writing

Download or read book Preservice Elementary Teachers' Self-Efficacy for Teaching Writing written by Kallen Dace and published by . This book was released on 2015 with total page 222 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The purpose of this phenomenological study was to explore the self-efficacy of teaching writing for elementary preservice teachers at a small private university in southern Missouri. Preservice elementary teachers' self-efficacy for teaching writing was defined as the level of confidence preservice teachers possess in their ability to effectively teach writing to elementary students. This study explored how the preservice teacher participants viewed their self-efficacy as writers and their experiences as writers in both kindergarten through twelfth grade education and higher education. Additionally, the study explored how the writing experiences of these preservice elementary teachers shaped how they might teach writing in their first elementary teaching position. The following research questions were explored through this study: how do preservice elementary teachers describe their self-efficacy as teachers of writing, how do preservice elementary teachers describe their self-efficacy as writers, and how do preservice elementary teachers describe their preparedness for teaching writing after completing their university writing methodology courses? For the purpose of this study, the elementary teaching population was bound by grades third through sixth, because the literature revealed a gap in research with this population of elementary teachers. The researcher utilized participant writing prompts, Hoy and Woolfolk's Teacher Efficacy Scale, cognitive representations, and individual interviews to discover common themes in the data. The results of this study surfaced two themes: enhancers of self-efficacy as writers and teachers of writing and detractors of self-efficacy as writers and teachers of writing.