The sense of self-efficacy of EFL pre-service teachers at the University of Quintana Roo.

Abstract

In recent years, research on self-efficacy has been an important topic in the area of education. Many studies have been carried out within the field of educational psychology (Bandura, 1977, Tschannen-Moran y Woolfolk, 2001, Zimmerman, 2000). Most of these studies tend to measure the sense of self-efficacy to determine its related variables such as self-esteem, contextual factors, self-confidence and cognitive skills (Erdem & Demirel, 2007; Cabaroglu, 2014; Reilly,Dhingra & Boduszek, 2014). As far as I know, in the Mexican context, the topic of self-efficacy has been studied in different disciplines and specific areas. For example, there have been studies of postgraduate students’ research self-efficacy beliefs (Reyes & Gutiérrez,2015; Gutiérrez& Reyes, 2014); teachers’ self-efficacy beliefs in informational research skills (Reyes & Franco, 2013; Reyes &Franco, 2014) and teachers’ research self-efficacy beliefs (Reyes & Murrieta, n/d; Reyes & Perales, in press).

Regarding the English language teaching field, measuring self-efficacy beliefs has been found convenient to detect novice and experienced teachers’ success and failures in language teaching (Tschannen-Moran et al., 1998). Research studies carried out in countries such as Turkey, the United Kingdom, the United States and Ireland have found that the sense of self-efficacy is a fundamental tool in the cognitive development of future teachers (Erdem, Demirel, 2007).