The purpose of this study was to compare the level of efficacy of second year teachers with respect to their culturally and linguistically diverse students, and between groups of teachers participating in different induction programs. In addition, this study sought to determine if a relationship existed between the teachers' sense of efficacy with their diverse students and the support and training the teachers' received from their respective induction programs. This study was based on quantitative research methods. The data for the study was collected in February 2005, from each second year teacher participant in one of three California Teacher Induction Programs. The instruments used to collect data were the Ohio State Teacher Efficacy Scale (OSTES) and the Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol (SIOP). A comparative and correlational study was used to investigate the second year teachers' sense of efficacy, and the extent to which they perceived their induction programs to have articulated known effective practices in relation to culturally and linguistically diverse students. The findings of this study indicated that the participating teachers felt less efficacious in instructional strategies and student engagement, and equally efficacious in classroom management as those teachers who served as the sample group for the development of the OSTES. Teachers indicated that they perceived some of the weaker components of the support and training of the induction programs in areas that centered around “language issues” such as: identifying language objectives, differentiating instruction based on language needs, and incorporating appropriate teaching strategies for language needs. This was further substantiated in the intercorrelation between teacher efficacy and the teachers' perception of emphasis of best practices for diverse students by their respective induction program. Specifically, the intercorrelations found correlations between teachers sense of efficacy and their perceptions of the support and training of their induction program in the following areas: differentiated instruction, instructional strategies, grouping strategies, and identifying key content vocabulary. The findings suggest that induction program administrators need to provide novice teachers serving diverse students with opportunities to create and implement lessons with language objectives and provide more training on instructional strategies that support meeting those objectives.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:pacific.edu/oai:scholarlycommons.pacific.edu:uop_etds-3514 |
| Date | 01 January 2005 |
| Creators | Kraft, Sharmila Sohl |
| Publisher | Scholarly Commons |
| Source Sets | University of the Pacific |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | University of the Pacific Theses and Dissertations |
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