Faculty Members’ Understanding of Teaching Efficacy Criteria

Abstract

This study examines university teaching and aims to understand more about university faculty members’ sense of teaching efficacy criteria in the hope of providing insights for future strategies in faculty development training programme universities and colleges. This study uses a descriptive and correlational survey. The population of this study was all faculty members at four state universities in Sistan and Baluchestan Province in Iran. The research instrument for the study was a questionnaire called the Faculty Teaching Self-Efficacy Scale (FTSE). The findings showed that the faculty members felt efficacious in their work in the following criteria: communication skills, assessment, subject matter, curriculum and instruction, learning environment, and implementing technology. In other words, the faculty members rated their teaching efficacy in all criteria as good. The study also found a relatively high positive correlation between criteria of teaching efficacy, and some significant differences for faculty members with different backgrounds. For example, faculty members with more than 20 years’ experience had a good assessment of skills in comparison with other groups. Faculty members in the education discipline had greater efficacy than their counterparts in some or even all dimensions of teaching efficacy.

Key Words:

• teaching efficacy
• university teaching
• faculty members