Relationships Between Physical Education Student Teachers' Efficacy Beliefs and Outcome Expectancy

Purpose

Self-efficacy and outcome expectancy comprise two major constructs in the Self-efficacy Theory (Bandura, 1997). In teaching settings, teacher efficacy is defined as one's beliefs about his or her ability to teach effectively, whereas teaching outcome expectancy refers to one's beliefs concerning how effective her/his teaching would have positive effects on student learning. Recently scholars have focused their research on the examination of self-efficacy and outcome expectancy in relation to academic teaching (Plourde, 2002). But such inquiries have been rarely made in physical education. Therefore, this study investigated the relationships between physical education (PE) student teachers' efficacy beliefs and outcome expectancy.

Methods

The participants were 123 PE major students (52 males, 71 females; M_age = 24.05, SD = 2.71) enrolled in the student teaching courses at four U.S. universities. They responded to the Physical Education Teachers' Physical Activity Self-Efficacy Scale (PETPAS; Martin & Kulinna, 2003) and the Outcome Expectancy Questionnaire developed specifically for this study at the end of the 12-week student teaching. The PETPAS was a 100% confidence scale with 10 intervals and included teachers' efficacy for: Student (manage students who don't enjoy or value physical activity), Time (when teachers don't have enough time to teach), Space (when teachers have difficulty teaching due to a lack of space), and Institution (overcome a lack of institutional support). The Outcome Expectancy Questionnaire tapped students' beliefs about the positive consequences of student teaching experience and was rated on 100% likelihood scale from “not at all likely” to “completely likely”. The data were analyzed using correlation analysis and stepwise regression analysis.

Analysis/Results

Descriptive statistics indicated student teachers had relatively high efficacy beliefs (Student: M = 67.85; Space: M = 74.36; Time: M = 64.32; Institution: M = 64.70) and outcome expectancy (M = 88.10). Correlation analysis revealed that the four efficacy beliefs subscales were significantly associated with one another (rs ranging from .64 to .87, ps < .01). However, only Space was significantly related to outcome expectancy (r = .25, p < .01). Regression analysis further yielded that Space emerged as the only significant predictor for outcome expectancy, ß = .25, p <.01, and accounted for 6.2% of the variance.

Conclusions

The positive relationships between outcome expectancy and Space efficacy have been secured in this study. The results suggested that student teachers would expect more positive teaching effectiveness when they were more confident to overcome the lack of space in PE.