The relationship between teacher efficacy and professional development within the scope of an in-service teacher education program

Abstract

The present study investigated; (a) the relationship between Turkish EFL teachers’ efficacy and their self-reported practice of Communicative Language Teaching (CLT), and (b) the impact of an in-service teacher education program aiming at improving participating teachers’ knowledge and skills in CLT on Turkish EFL teachers’ efficacy, and, their self-reported and actual practice of CLT. Data were collected in two phases; pre and post tests were conducted before and after the in-service teacher education program by using; a) Teachers’ Background Questionnaire, b) English Teachers’ Sense of Efficacy Scale (ESTES) (Chacon, 2005), c) Communicative Orientation of Language Teaching (COLT): Observation Scheme (Spada & Frönlich, 1995), and the questionnaire version of COLT (QCOLT). 50 Turkish EFL teachers working in eight foundation schools in Istanbul responded the questionnaires while only 20 of them were observed. The findings of the analysis of Pearson Product Moment Correlation indicated no relationship between Turkish EFL teachers’ efficacy and their selfreported practice of CLT. However, significant correlations were found within the dimensions of teacher efficacy and teachers’ practice of CLT. As for the impact of the in-service teacher education, the results of the Paired samples t-tests revealed that after the in-service teacher education program, the teachers not only improved their practice of CLT but also became more efficacious. The present study, being the first one conducted in Turkish EFL context, has significant contributions in the field. Finally, this study does not only make suggestions for further research in the field but also has implications for professional development programs.