Teacher Educators’ Self-Efficacy Beliefs During The COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

Due to COVID-19 lockdowns, academic institutions had to shut down and offer alternatives to support students’ learning adequately. The sudden change from face-to-face to online teaching, referred to as emergency remote teaching (ERT), caught most teachers unprepared. This study examines teacher educators’ self-efficacy beliefs about the immediate switch to ERT. By investigating the self-efficacy of teacher educators using questionnaires and interviews, we adhere to the need for research within this target group. We deployed a mixed-methods design to shed light on teacher educators’ self-efficacy beliefs towards ERT and online teaching through surveys and interviews. Results show that teacher educators experience online instructional strategies as effective. However, teacher educators believe they can less effectively engage students and manage their classrooms in an online environment. When teacher educators and universities are aware of this, support and guidelines can help in minimising this struggle. No significant differences were found between novice and expert teachers, implying that the two identified groups experience their self-efficacy in COVID-19 the same. This research suggests that novice teachers are ICT proficient and, therefore, can effortlessly teach online and expert teachers can easily switch to new circumstances. Directions for future research are given.