Assessing the Teacher Self–Efficacy of Agriculture Instructors and Their Early Career Employment Status: A Comparison of Certification Types

Abstract

The purpose of this descriptive–correlational study was to assess the level of teacher self–efficacy of first–year, secondary agricultural education teachers in Oklahoma at the beginning and end of their entry–year in the profession and describe their early career retention. This study found that these first– year teachers increased their level of teacher self–efficacy throughout the year. The alternatively certified (AC) teachers indicated the largest amount of perceived growth across three teacher self– efficacy constructs. However, when considering the assessment scores of university supervisors, it was found that traditionally certified (TC) teachers outperformed their AC counterparts by roughly a one–half point margin on each construct. Further, statistically, the TC teachers performed significantly better on the student achievement indicators standard than did the AC teachers. It was found that the difference in effect size between TC and AC teachers was between “medium” and “large” for all constructs. Finally, this study revealed that, statistically, the TC teachers had significantly higher retention rates as compared to their AC teacher counterparts.