Date
6-8-2023
Department
School of Education
Degree
Doctor of Education in Educational Leadership (EdD)
Chair
Treg Hopkins
Keywords
Self-Efficacy, Community College, Public University, Private University, Early childhood majors
Disciplines
Education | Educational Leadership
Recommended Citation
Cain, Carlton LeMar, "Self-Efficacy of Early Childhood Majors at Community Colleges, Public Universities, and Private Institutions" (2023). Doctoral Dissertations and Projects. 4531.
https://digitalcommons.liberty.edu/doctoral/4531
Abstract
There is a general assumption that students’ competency levels in community colleges differ from that of public and private university students as the academic goals of these educational institutions are different. However, studies have not been exhaustingly conducted to establish a significant difference in students' self-efficacy or confidence in these educational institutions. The purpose of this quantitative casual-comparative study was to examine whether differences exist in perceived self-efficacy of early childhood majors attending community college, public university, and private university. The long-form Teachers’ Sense of Efficacy Scale developed by Tschannen-Moran and Hoy (2001) was used to collect data for this study. Four hundred twenty students majoring in education were randomly recruited to participate in the study. An analysis of variance was conducted to analyze the data and address the research question. The results of the study determined that there was no significant difference in the self-efficacy subscale scores based on the type of institution. There was also no significant difference in the self-efficacy scores of participants based on the type of institution. Prior research has concluded that certain factors such as the learning atmosphere, teachers’ motivations, and experience all have an influence on self-efficacy and more research needs to be conducted on the specific aspects of these factors that have an influence.
