With increased emphasis on student achievement in schools, teacher education programs are challenged to meet the demand for highly effective teachers. Ensuring that pre-service teachers feel confident in their ability to teach, prompted one Midwestern University to implement an extended student teaching placement. The idea behind this endeavor was…

The purpose of this study was to investigate middle level preservice teacher self-efficacy beliefs in general, as well as in the domain of reading. The participants were 8 middle school preservice teachers enrolled in a state-mandated reading methods course and student teaching over the course of a year. As part of the yearlong internship, the…

This study compared undergraduate and graduate student teachers' and alternate route teachers' sense of efficacy and views of their teacher preparation programs. A one-way analysis of variance indicated that student teachers in the undergraduate program had higher teacher efficacy than the other two groups of teachers. Alternate route teachers and…

This study investigated the effects of early field experiences on preservice teachers' teacher efficacy (TE) beliefs, a cognitive process in which teachers construct beliefs about their capacity to help students learn. The study also explored the effects of early field experiences on preservice teachers' TE beliefs in terms of their early field…