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Self-Efficacy and Online Teaching: A Study of Teaching in Isolation and the Effects on Self-Efficacy for First and Second Grade Teachers in the Online School Setting

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PRESENTERS:

Kathleen Pierce, Ph.D.

Evaluation Supervisor, Western Governors University

Kathleen.lunsford@wgu.edu

Jean Swenk, Ph.D.

Faculty, Capella University and Concordia University

jeanmtps@hushmail.com

http://accredexpertdocjean.weebly.com/

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Background Online teaching is growing by leaps and bounds.

• But how many teachers have received training in how to teach online?

• How easy is it to move from the brick and mortar classroom to the virtual classroom?

• To what factors should we pay attention so we can ensure online teachers are successful?

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Current research in the field of online schools is divided into three main categories:

a) student self-efficacy at the university setting

b) teacher self-efficacy and competencies for the online teacher in a university or high school level and

c) transitions from brick and mortar to online teaching at the university or high school level

By providing research in the field of the early elementary online school setting, this study helped bridge the gap between what is already known in the online higher education setting.

Need for Study

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1. To what extent do teachers work in a setting isolated from other peers and what is the level of isolation felt by first and second grade teachers teaching fulltime in an online setting?

2. What are those same teachers’ levels of self-reported feelings of self-efficacy?

3. Is there a correlation between the first and second grade teachers’ reported levels of isolation while teaching in the online setting and those same teachers’ reported levels of isolation when they taught in the brick and mortar setting?

4. To what extent do first and second grade teachers’ levels of self-efficacy from previous brick and mortar experiences transfer to the online school setting?

Research Questions

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Definitions Online School:

– publicly or privately funded

– fulltime online programs or supplemental courses

Online Learning and Teaching:

a setting where instruction occurred but students and teachers separated by time and/or location and interacted via computers and/or telecommunication technologies.

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Self-efficacy: In essence one’s perception of capability, The belief one has in one’s ability to complete a given task with success.

Relevant factors: mastery experiences (environmental), social modeling and persuasion (behavioral) and psychological (emotions).

Self-efficacy was defined as "[the] conviction that one can successfully execute the behavior required to produce the outcome" (Bandura, 1997, p. 193).

Teacher’s self-efficacy was defined as "[a] teacher's expectation that he or she will be able to bring about student learning" (Ross & Bruce, 2007, p. 50).

Key Concepts: Self-Efficacy

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Teachers with a high sense of self-efficacy:Reflect on their teaching practices. Teachers who are reflective:believed their environment could be manipulated in order to ensure that students are taught

effectively despite factors related to family, IQ, demographics and school conditions.

Teachers with a strong sense of self-efficacy:More likely to try new teaching activities in the classroom.

What about the online school setting?Teachers are often removed from the daily teaching of the student. Teachers have to rely on a parent, grandparent etc. to “teach” lessons presented online. Teachers have Reduced control over the learning environment.

It was predicted that these factors would be a cause of lower sense of self-efficacy for the online teacher.

Isolation in the Online School Setting and Self-Efficacy

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Relevant LiteratureWhat is Self-Efficacy:

Four relevant concepts: mastery experiences, social modeling, social persuasion and psychological responses.

Each concept, although not singular or stand-alone, is important to examine individually, as each element builds upon the other and sets the stage for a person's sense of self-efficacy (Bandura, 1977).

What demonstrates or contributes to Self-Efficacy:

Time and effort invested by a teacher, level of planning and organization, teacher’s personal attitude and enthusiasm, willingness to experiment and tolerance for students' errors and misbehavior (Tschannen-Moran and Woolfolk Hoy, 2001).

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The Teacher’s Sense of Efficacy Scale created by Tschannen-Moran and Woolfolk Hoy (2001) has become a valid and reliable instrument and the standard for measuring non-content specific efficacy

(Ross & Bruce, 2007).

Measuring Self-Efficacy

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Occurs in brick and mortar environments

BUT in online teaching, teachers may have a double sense of isolation because they are often separated by time and space not only from the students but colleagues as well.

Isolation and Teaching

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Drawn from population of school teachers who were members located on LinkedIn and Yahoo online learning discussion groups.

89 respondents met the minimum requirements for the study:

1) Currently teaching, or have taught, fulltime in an online telecommuting setting in first or second grades, and

2) Have taught first and/or second grades in a brick and mortar type setting prior to their fulltime online first and second grade teaching.

SAMPLE

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STUDY RESULTS

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Questions 1 to 12 (the demographic questions) were used for descriptive purposes. Of the 89 responses to this survey:

31%

69%

Gender

Male Female18-25

0%26-3525%

36-4549%

46-5925%

60+1%

Age Range

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97%

3%

Teaching Online

Public Private

Total , 11.86 Bricks

and Mortar,

8.68

Online, 4.06

Full Time96%

Part Time4%

Teaching Contract

Years Taught

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Time spent teaching alone

3 3 3

80

0-25% 26-50% 51-75% 76-100%

% of time away from a central office, where no other teachers are present

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30% of respondents stated they have “to some degree” the ability to collaborate and share with other teachers.

However less than one-third reported seeking communication from fellow online teachers.

75% of respondents reported having “very little to some degree” of communication from administration and main office.

36% of respondents reported that it mattered “quite a bit” and 29% that it mattered “to some degree” that they did not have easy access to see another teacher.

35% stated that it mattered “quite a bit” they were not physically in the same place as other teachers and 27% stated that it mattered “only to some degree.”

Conclusion: Online teachers to some extent do feel isolated.

Findings on Isolation

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33% reported they were able to provide alternative teaching strategies32% reported they were able to assist students in the learning process42% reported having little control over classroom management when it came to synchronous (real time) virtual teaching.

Conclusion: When looking at these two key components of self-efficacy (teaching and classroom management):

Online teachers to some extent have a lower level of self-efficacy.

Self-Efficacy

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81% of respondents reported feeling comfortable with technology.

62% of the respondents reported that when there were technology issues, it affected their ability to teach.

While technology is not a driving force behind the feelings of self-efficacy, the use of technology and issues surrounding the use of technology are important to note.

When a teacher has difficulty delivering lessons or obtaining information, a feeling of success or failure could lead to a lower sense of self-efficacy.

Technology

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The level of contact via phone to both parent and student is greater than in the bricks and mortar school so there was a feeling of knowing the ‘whole student’.

58% of the respondents stated they did not ask for support from main office or administration for fear of being ‘looked at’ and/or raising attention to their teaching style or number of contacts with a student in a month.

There are opportunities to share with fellow teachers but those are not widely utilized because the demographics of each class is different.

Basic technology problems jeopardized learning for the students and teaching.

Essential skills needed are: Microsoft Office (Word and PowerPoint), ability to talk to students and ask good questions to ensure learning is being done.

Running Themes

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CORRELATION RESULTS

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Correlating the percentage of time working from home and how much or how important it is that teachers can communicate

freely amongst one anotherhave online chat opportunitiesseek professional advice have communication from main office and their direct supervisor

The results yielded strong, negative and statistically significant correlations between the variables ( % of time working from home and communication for teachers). From these statistical results this researcher rejected the null hypothesis and confirmed the hypothesis:

H1: First and second grade teachers who teach fulltime in the online school setting reported feeling isolated.

Research Question 1

What is the level of isolation felt by first and second grade teachersteaching fulltime in an online setting?

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The correlation between % of time working from home in isolation and having control over classroom behaviorsthe ability to calm a student down who is disruptiveget students to follow classroom rulesestablish a classroom management system a teachers ability to motivate student, instilling the value of learning and students believing they can do well in schoolcrafting good question for student using a variety of assessment strategies.

All yielded strong, negative and statistically significant correlations between the variables. From these statistical results this researcher was able to reject the null hypothesis and confirmed the hypothesis:

H2: Those first and second grade teachers who teach online fulltime who reported feelings of isolation reported a lower level of self-efficacy.

Research Question 2

What are those same teachers’ levels of self-reported feelings of self-efficacy?

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The Pearson r correlation reveled that there were weak and not statistically significant relationships between feelings of isolation in the bricks and mortar school:

the ability to access and watch another teacherseek advice from fellow teachers communication from main office and direct supervisor.

This was in contrast to the online teachers who reported a high level of isolation.

By comparing the two correlation matrices it was found that online teachers do feel more isolated than their bricks and mortar counterparts.

H3: Fulltime online first and second grade teachers reported a higher level of isolation teaching in the online setting compared to when they taught in the bricks and mortar setting.

Research Question 3

Is there a correlation between the first and second grade teachers’ reportedlevels of isolation while teaching in the online setting and those same teachers’ reported levels of isolation when they taught in the bricks and mortar setting?

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The Pearson r correlation reveled that there were positive, strong and statistically significant correlations between the correlations used to measure self-efficacy:

ability to calm a disruptive student downfollowing classroom rulesestablishing a classroom management systemmotivate studentsstudents to value learning.

This was in contrast to the online teachers where the matrix was negative but still strong and statistically significant correlation. By comparing the two correlation matrices it was found that online teachers have a lower level of self-efficacy then reported from the bricks and mortar teachers.

H4: The reported levels of self-efficacy among first and second grade online teachers was lower than when those same teachers taught in the bricks and mortar setting.

Research Question 4To what extent do first and second grade teachers’ levels of self-efficacy from previous bricks and mortar experiences transfer to the online school setting?

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Results confirmed:Teachers who work from home away from other teachers and a school office feel

isolated. Those same teachers who felt isolated had a lower level of self-efficacy than their bricks

and mortar counterparts.

The findings for this study were not surprising for many reasons: Consistent with the literature reviewed in this study. Work environment is in fact isolating in terms of both faculty and student interactions.Need to modify current teaching practices can be very difficult. Oftentimes more limited modifications that can be done to the curriculum.

Summary

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Future research topics:

Recommendations

1. Administrative practices in regards to contacting and promoting self-efficacy for teachers2. Grade level specific inquiry on feelings of isolation and self-efficacy. 3. What key professional development should be offered for online teachers to increase their levels of self-efficacy?

Recommendations for Practice

1. Online elementary schools should provide a time, at least monthly, where teachers can meet each other in a face-to-face setting to decrease feelings of isolation. 2. Create an online personal learning community or Communities of Practice.3. Administration should reach out to teachers in the online setting. 4. Alternative teaching opportunities (physical books and not e-books) should be made available when technology issues arise for the teacher and student.

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Access to the completed dissertation with

references email: drkatpierce@icloud.com.