Clements, David John (2024) An Investigation of Pre-Service Teachers’ Motivation and Self-Efficacy to Teach Numeracy. PhD thesis, Victoria University.

Abstract

Teaching numeracy poses a significant challenge for many preservice teachers. More specifically, conceptual ambiguity regarding numeracy presents challenges for both teacher educators and future teachers. These difficulties are further compounded by significant and explicit attention given to numeracy in educational policy and national standards mandating the responsibility of all teachers to teach numeracy. In Australia, national policy has instituted a standardised literacy and numeracy test (LANTITE) for admission into teacher education programs. However, research indicates that personal competence does not necessarily translate to pedagogical competence. Furthermore, pedagogical competence does not necessarily equate to affective teacher beliefs such as motivation and self-efficacy. Previous research also reinforces that these affective variables exert significant influence on student learning outcomes. This highlights the need to combine content expertise with efforts to develop positive teacher beliefs within teacher education programs. At present, limited data has emerged regarding the motivation and self-efficacy of pre-service teachers when teaching numeracy across curriculum areas and including both primary and secondary year levels. Additional data is required to evaluate teacher educators’ perspectives on the development of pre-service teachers’ beliefs. An investigation of pre-service teachers’ beliefs and their influences is therefore warranted and could contribute to improvements to initial teacher education programs involving numeracy curriculum and pedagogy. The present research examines preservice teachers’ levels of motivation and self-efficacy for teaching numeracy using a mixed methods design. Quantitative findings derived from a newly developed survey instrument demonstrated variability in levels of motivation and self-efficacy beliefs among 729 teacher candidates. Factor analysis indicated that both motivation and self-efficacy to teach numeracy represented valid and reliable factors reflective of Goos’ rich interpretation of numeracy. Subsequent interviews with nine teacher educators yielded qualitative themes such as the significance of previous mathematical education and experience, and the role of teacher educators in fostering critical thinking of pre-service teachers. Integrating the quantitative and qualitative results highlights the need for sustained efforts to understand and improve teacher motivation and self-efficacy to teach numeracy within teacher education. Further research is needed to continue to improve the reliability and validity of the newly developed measure in conjunction with longitudinal and intervention studies. Overall, findings provide additional knowledge to inform ongoing program development and empirical inquiry regarding the field of numeracy teaching within initial teacher education.

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