IMPACT OF THE MULTI-CLASSROOM TEACHER MODEL IN ADDRESSING BEGINNING TEACHER SELF-EFFICACY AND RETENTION

Abstract

A growing number of beginning teachers are leaving teaching within their first three years, with half leaving the profession in the first five years (Ingersoll, 2012; Stewart et al., 2021). In an attempt to slow this level of attrition, school districts are creating ambitious induction programs. At the time of the study, Pitt County Schools Multi-Classroom Teacher Program (MCT), sought to provide support to beginning teachers over a three-year period. The purpose of this study was to examine beginning teacher self-efficacy and teacher retention. Using Bandura's Social Cognitive Theory of Self-Efficacy (Bandura, 1997; Tschannen-Moran & Woolfolk Hoy, 2001), as a conceptual framework this study examined Beginning Teachers (BTs) self-efficacy and retention during the implementation of the MCT Program. While studying the self-efficacy of 20 beginning teachers participating in the MCT program over a 1- year period, I worked directly with a group of four Beginning Teachers (BTs) and two Multi- Classroom Teacher (MCTs) to implement a small-scale improvement strategy to increase BT self-efficacy. The scholarly practitioner proposed to administer the Teachers' Sense of Efficacy Scale (TSES) (Tschannen-Moran & Woolfolk Hoy, 2001) to the 20 BT participants at the beginning of the study and once again after the small-scale improvement strategy was implemented to determine the impact on BT self-efficacy. Due to the Global Coronavirus Pandemic during this study, the scholarly practitioner shifted the study to explore inflated BT self-efficacy ratings in classroom management compared to how their MCTs rated their teaching efficacy in classroom management.