Strengthening self-efficacy in teaching for non-teachers through training student-focused teaching

Abstract

Teaching and effective communication skills are critical to the success of many roles beyond full-time teachers (e.g. medicine, law, engineering, apprenticeships, postgraduate students etc.). Such responsibilities include informally training others and giving presentations in addition to formal teaching roles. Introductory training courses can be employed to supplement a lack of experience. The aim of the study was to investigate the effects of a short training course on beliefs in teaching (between a teacher-focused or a student-focused approach) and self-efficacy in teaching where teaching is a mandatory but not primary function of their role.The longitudinal variable-centred study examined participants (N=252) of a short teaching and communications training course. Participants were composed of graduate students attending a research-intensive university in Asia. Graduate students are primarily researchers but are also required to teach as tutors and give presentations on their research. The course consisted of 24 face-to-face hours over 4 weeks of teaching. Participants had little prior exposure and experience to student-focused teaching, consistent with those expected to teach with little training.Participants completed surveys on styles of teaching (Teacher-focused teaching, Student-focused teaching) and Self-Efficacy in teaching at the beginning and end of the course.Student-focused teaching and self-efficacy exhibited small and moderate increases respectively. Teacher-focused teaching did not change significantly. A fully-forward structural equation modelling analysis revealed that all past latent variables largely predicted their future counterparts. Past studentfocused teaching moderately predicted future self-efficacy, suggesting training provided means for participants to develop their student-focused teaching abilities. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.