Research Statement
Focus and Goals
My research interests are focused on examining how teachers may develop their self-efficacy for using new pedagogical skills, and how teacher education programs or legislative bodies may create conditions which promote teachers’ use of innovative teaching methods. My research goals encompass developing new research methods to examine teacher self-efficacy development and self-efficacy calibration, examining barriers to teachers’ implementation of innovative teaching reforms, and determining how teachers’ motivation and self-regulation influences their application of teaching innovations.
Past Research
My early research at the Pennsylvania State University was dedicated to an international research project which examined the effects of a teacher professional development experience on Qatari K-12 teachers’ implementation of reform policies enacted by the Qatar Ministry of Education. My first study determined that although Qatari teachers had high levels of self-efficacy, there was not a significant relationship between their teacher self-efficacy and their reform implementation (Favre & Knight, 2013). My second study found evidence contradicting common findings in the literature which supported the effects of a professional development experience to improve teacher self-efficacy and their ability to create student-centered environments. This finding called into question teachers’ ability to accurately calibrate their teaching self-efficacy (Zimmerman, Knight, Favre, & Ikhlef, 2017). My third study re-examined the data and findings of my previous studies, and provided a theoretical conceptualization of teacher self-efficacy calibration to explain instances when highly efficacious teachers fail to implement the pedagogical innovations prescribed by education reforms (Favre & Knight, 2016).
My dissertation study developed new methodologies to measure novice teacher self-efficacy development in their teacher education program (Favre, 2017). My research employed methods more theoretically aligned with self-efficacy theory but which had not been used to measure the effects of a pedagogical instruction on novice teacher self-efficacy. My findings indicated that although individual learning experiences may not be significantly correlated with larger areas of teacher self-efficacy development, their cumulative effect may be predictive of changes to their self-efficacy for effectively implementing important instructional strategies.
Future Research Direction
My future research will continue to develop theoretically sound instrumentation that will assess teacher self-efficacy development and calibration. I will examine more closely how the relationship between teachers’ motivation and self-regulation influences their willingness and ability to implement innovative teaching practices. From this research, I expect to make meaningful recommendations to teacher education programs and law makers to promote interventions that will develop contexts conducive to teacher adoption of innovations and reform policies.
References:
Favre, D. E., & Knight, S. (2013, March). Effects of personal teaching efficacy on implementation of student- centered approaches to learning in
Qatari math and science classrooms. Poster session presented at the TESOL 2013 Doctoral Forum, Dallas, TX.
Favre, D. E., & Knight, S. (2016). Teacher efficacy calibration in education reform: When highly efficacious teachers don't spell "implement".
International Journal of Educational Reform, 25(4), 361-383.
Favre, D. E. (2017). The effects of a three-step instructional method on teacher self-efficacy (Doctoral dissertation).
Zimmerman, W. A., Knight, S. L., Favre, D. E., & Ikhlef, A. (2017). Effect of professional development on teaching behaviors and efficacy in Qatari
educational reforms. Teacher Development, 21(2), 324-345. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13664530.2016.1243571