Supporting change in novice alternative certification teachers' efficacy

Abstract In this study, we investigated, using multiple modeling techniques, how the teaching self‐efficacy of first‐year alternative certification elementary and secondary teachers changed over the course of their first‐year teaching and relations between that change and teachers' perceptions of formal supports. Using hierarchical linear modeling, we found that teachers' self‐efficacy significantly increased over the course of the school year and that only one of our measures of support was positively and significantly related to change in self‐efficacy. In particular, teachers' perceptions of school leader support covaried with change in their self‐efficacy. Further, a structural equation model suggested that teachers' perceptions of school leader support were positively and significantly related to the magnitude of increase in self‐efficacy. In other words, teachers who perceived greater support from their school leaders, had greater increases in their self‐efficacy. We also analyzed data from interviews with a subset of the teachers to round out our understanding of the types of support from school leaders that first‐year alternative certification teachers perceived as effective. Our full sample included 93 first‐year teachers, 87 of whom completed the survey.