An examination of teachers' self efficacies in teaching process and reflections of these on classroom environment

The aim of this study is to reveal how English teachers' self-efficacy perceptions of the teaching process and opinions on their self-efficacies, and how they apply these self-efficacy skills in the classroom environment. In the study the exploratory sequential design, which is one of the mixed method designs and starts with the collection and analysis of quantitative data then followed by the collection and analysis of qualitative data, was used. In the first stage of the research, English teachers' self-efficacy perceptions were determined according to various variables and the level of their self-efficacy perceptions were presented. In the second stage, interviews were conducted with the teachers on teaching process in the classroom and the teachers' situations were observed in the real class environment within the context of the case study. Since the study consisted of two stages in which quantitative and qualitative methods were used, two separate study groups were formed in the study. 406 English teachers who worked in Elazığ province in the spring semester of 2016-2017 academic year constituted the working group of the first phase of the study. After the analysis of the first stage, the study group for the second stage was determined from among teachers whose self-efficacy levels were below the average, mid-level and above the average. In this context, 15 volunteer English teachers whose self efficacy levels are below the average, mid-level, and above average were interviewed and 9 volunteer teachers, who have different levels of self-efficacy and are among from interviewed 15 teachers, were observed in class environment. In the study, to determine English teachers' perceptions about their self efficacy beliefs on teaching process "Teacher's Self-Efficacy Scale" (TSES) developed by Tschannen-Moran and Woolfolk Hoy (2001) and adapted to Turkish by Çapa, Çakıroğlu and Sarıkaya (2005) was used. In order to obtain teachers' opinions on teaching process a semi-structured interview form and to observe the teaching practices in the classroom a structured observation form and researcher diaries were used. Quantitative data gathered in the framework of general and sub-objectives of the research were entered into the computer and analyzed using SPSS package program. To describe demographic information of English teachers techniques for calculating frequency (f) and percentage (%); to state teachers' scores for self-efficacy perceptions arithmetic mean and standard deviation were used. In the research the Mann-Whitney U test was used for nonparametric tests in the analysis of gender, type of school and situation of attending an in service training about their domain. To compare the English teachers' opinions with their age, occupational seniority, level of education, type of graduated faculty and school grade groups they work in Kruskal Wallis H tests, which is a nonparametric test, and to examine the differences between the groups Mann-Whitney U tests were used. For the Mann Whitney U test for calculating the effect size of difference between groups; The formula r=Z/√n was used (Field, 2009; Pallant, 2007; quoted by Kilmen, 2015, s. 229). Cohen (1988) effect size values were taken into account in interpreting the results (Cohen1988; quoted by Kilmen, 2015, s. 230). In the study, data obtained from semi-structured interviews were analyzed by content analysis and data obtained from structured observations were analyzed by descriptive analysis method. The analysis of the interviews utilized by NVivo software. As a result of the research; English teachers' general self-efficacy levels for the teaching process and self-efficacy levels for subdimensions of the scale providing student participation, teaching strategies and classroom management dimensions were found quite satisfactory. It was determined that the lowest average among the dimensions is to provide student participation and the highest average is teaching strategies. In the study, it was determined that there are significant differences in favor of male teachers according to gender variable; in favor of those whose age is high in the classroom management sub-dimension according to age variable; in favor of those who have post graduate education according to the level of education; in favor of those who have higher occupational seniority according to the occupational seniority variable; in favor of those graduated from the Faculty of Science and Letters in the classroom management sub-dimension according to the graduated faculty; in favor of those working in public schools in the type of school variable; in favor of primary and high school teachers in the classroom management subscale according to the school grade type; in favor of in-service teachers in the subscale of instructional strategies according to the situation of receiving in-service training. When teachers' views on the teaching process summarize, it was determined that teachers generally prepare their plans by considering student level and course content, and opinions on active participation are collected on the basis of positive attitude development to the course and activity. It was found out that they have generally expressed their views on interventions and obstacles about classroom management and to create an opportune environment in which to listen to the lessons. It was detected that the most stated views on the tools they used, the method and techniques are on the smart board activities which is under the sub themes of tools and equipment, the other views are on grammatical activities and communicative methods, and the most commonly used technique for assesing are question-answer, written exam, test and kısa sınavzes. In addition, it was found out that the teachers complain about crowded classes, intensity of the curriculum, disinterest of student, manager and parent, grammar oriented teaching, inadequacy of teaching materials and teaching hours of the textbooks, physical conditions of the school and lack of communication with his or her colleagues; the most talking thing about the dimensions they think they should improve themselves is speaking skills; to increase their self-efficacy and to make their professional development continuous, teachers think they should attend in-service training or activities such as domestic and international conferences and seminars with the support of MONE for teachers in this regard. When results of the observations analysis were summarized, it was concluded that the teachers with upper and middle self efficacy level relate the topics they would explain to previous topics, give more attention to repeat of topics, do more applications in attracting attention and motivation and give more descriptive examples for students' comprehension by comparison with the teachers whose self efficacy levels are below the middle. In the dimension of application of instructional strategies it was observed that all teachers were close to each other in terms of teaching style, methods and techniques they used except for a few exceptional techniques such as discussion and demonstration-application, and they did not use target language (English) except for simple expressions and examples, and they did not do much activities about listening and speaking skills. In addition, it was concluded that except for a teacher working in primary school, all teachers lecture grammar-oriented and teacher-centered, they have inadequacies in effective communication, providing motivation and active learning environments, they are not equally able to assess four language skills at the same time, but teachers whose self efficacy levels are high apply practical activities such as making sentences, dialogue creation and text translation. Key Words: English teachers, teaching process, teacher self-efficacy