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Preservice teachers’ beliefs about parental involvement: A cross-sectional perspective

Preservice teachers’ beliefs about parental involvement: A cross-sectional perspective. Andrew S. Wilkins & Joan M.T. Walker Vanderbilt University http://www.vanderbilt.edu/Peabody/family-school/. Background.

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Preservice teachers’ beliefs about parental involvement: A cross-sectional perspective

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  1. Preservice teachers’ beliefs about parental involvement: A cross-sectional perspective Andrew S. Wilkins & Joan M.T. Walker Vanderbilt University http://www.vanderbilt.edu/Peabody/family-school/

  2. Background • Advanced Pre-Service Teachers (PSTs) have more positive beliefs about parents than peers with less coursework experience (McBride, 1991, Tichenor, 1997). • Instruction dedicated to parental involvement has been positively associated with more positive beliefs about parents’ and PSTs’ abilities to involve parents (Evans-Schilling, 1999; Morris et al., 1996). • PSTs often have high of self-efficacy despite a lack of practical teaching experience (Easter et al., 1999; Pang & Sablan, 1998; Weinstein, 1988).

  3. Self-efficacy theory • High self-efficacy is helpful when facing difficulties; Bandura, 1986; 1997) but does high self-efficacy prepare PSTs for dealing with families? • High efficacy for involving parents may not encourage PSTs to optimize their training experiences: • they may underestimate the complexities of working with families. • when difficulties arise they may not persist or ask others for help.

  4. Purpose of the study To learn more about the development of PSTs’ beliefs about parental involvement we asked three groups of students about: • The importance of various teacher practices for parental involvement, • The importance of various parent involvement practices, • Their self-efficacy for involving parents, and • Their beliefs about parents’ abilities to be successfully involved.

  5. Hypotheses • More advanced PSTs would have higher ratings of the importance of teacher and parent practices for involvement. • More advanced PSTs would have more positive beliefs about their own abilities and the abilities of parents.

  6. Participants • The study was conducted at the end of the spring 2002 semester. • 120 students participated • 70 first-year education majors • 23 mid-level students • 27 student teachers • 89% were female • Several majors were represented • 22% early childhood education • 32% elementary education • 24% secondary education • 22% other (e.g., special education, child development)

  7. Measures • Students completed questionnaires assessing their: • Beliefs about the importance of teachers’ parental involvement practices (alpha = .87), e.g., “I think it is important for teachers to conduct conferences with parents at least once a year.” • Beliefs about the importance of parents’ involvement practices (alpha = .91), e.g., “I think it is important for parents to attend parent-teacher conferences at least once a year.” • Response Range: 1 = least important, 4 = most important All measures were adapted from Hoover-Dempsey et al., 2002; Tichenor, 1997

  8. Measures (cont’d) • Self-efficacy for involving parents (alpha = .85), e.g., “I believe that I will be able to successfully conduct conferences with parents at least once a year.” • Beliefs about parents’ efficacy for involvement (alpha = .91), e.g., “I believe parents will successfully attend conferences at least once a year.” • Response range: 1 = disagree, 4 = agree All measures were adapted from Hoover-Dempsey et al., 2002; Tichenor, 1997

  9. Results As expected, first-year PSTs’ beliefs about the importance of teachers’ parental involvement practices were less positive than midlevel students and student teachers (* = p<.002).

  10. Results (cont’d) First-year PSTs reported less positive beliefs about the importance of parents’ involvement practices than did student teachers (* = p<.000).

  11. Results (cont’d) First-year PSTs reported lower self-efficacy for involving parents than did midlevel students (* = p<.047).

  12. Results (cont’d) All groups reported similarly limited beliefs about parents’ efficacy for involvement.

  13. Data Analyses (cont’d) • Given that PSTs reported high self-efficacy but low beliefs about parents’ efficacy, we conducted paired t-tests for each group. • Paired t-tests for all groups were significant (p< .000).

  14. Discussion • Between-group differences suggest that PSTs’ beliefs about parental involvement change over time. • This suggests that as PSTs move from their first year in the teacher education program, their beliefs about the importance of teacher and parent involvement practices and their efficacy for involving parents increase.

  15. Discussion (cont’d) • PSTs’ beliefs about parents’ efficacy do not appear to change. • Suggests further coursework and involvement experiences are needed to educate PSTs that, when invited, all parents can be successfully involved (Epstein, 1992; Hoover-Dempsey et al., 1995).

  16. Future Directions • Track PSTs across their education and into the first years of teaching. • Develop an objective measure of PSTs’ abilities to involve parents. • Collect other forms of data, including observations, interviews, assessment of course experiences. • Assess PSTs’ beliefs across several teacher training programs.

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