The Impact of Video Analysis on Teacher Perceptions of Self-Efficacy: An Analysis of Reflections and Self-Ratings

This study explores pre-service early childhood teachers’ efficacy for teaching mathematics. Thirty-eight participants completed the short form of the Teacher Efficacy Scale and the Teacher Beliefs Scale before and after they conducted a clinical interview with a child around a mathematical topic. Results indicated a significant increase in Personal Teaching Efficacy as well as significant changes in beliefs about early childhood mathematics. Introduction “I’m not a math person,” is something heard too frequently in U.S. elementary classrooms. Perhaps most troubling is that this sentiment is often held not only by students, but also by their teachers. In fact, there is consistent evidence that most early childhood teachers have limited knowledge of mathematics and of the thinking strategies that children use to learn early childhood mathematics (Clements, Copple, & Hyson, 2002, cited in Tsamir & Tirosh, 2009). As these teachers are responsible for children’s first formal exposure to mathematics, this ignorance is problematic and serves as a barrier to high quality (and high quantity) early childhood mathematics instruction. The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) has called attention to the importance of providing high quality early childhood mathematics instruction, saying that,