The relationship between perceptions of teaching concerns, teacher efficacy, and selected teacher characteristics

This study investigated the relationship between teacher characteristics (gender, grade level taught, experience), personal and general teacher efficacy, and the perception of teaching concerns. Participants included 292 Lebanese teachers from diverse school backgrounds with a wide range of teaching experience. They completed a standard teacher efficacy questionnaire and another questionnaire that assessed their concerns about their professional practice. Results indicated that experience and personal efficacy were negatively related to the perception of teaching concerns whereas gender, grade level taught, and general efficacy were not related to the perception of any of the categories of teaching concerns. The results also revealed that beginning teachers and those with low sense of personal efficacy were concerned about the task of teaching and the impact they make as teachers more than their highly experienced and more personally efficacious counterparts. Implications for teacher development and suggestions for further research are discussed. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.