Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2004, Educational Policy and Leadership

This study investigated student teachers' efficacy beliefs, pupil control ideologies, collective teacher efficacy beliefs, and perceived cooperating teachers' efficacy beliefs. These student teacher beliefs were examined in conjunction with contextual factors, primarily the school setting (i.e., rural, suburban, and urban) but also the length and nature of the student teaching assignment, to determine if these contextual factors played a role in the development of the student teachers' efficacy beliefs and pupil control ideologies. The research participants included 108 student teachers: 29 student teachers in the rural group, 45 in the suburban group, 28 in the urban group, and 6 that switched school settings at the halfway point. Participants completed surveys before, during, and after a 16-week student teaching experience. Results indicated that all three setting groups exhibited significant increases in teachers' sense of efficacy following student teaching. School setting did play a role in the student teachers' pupil control ideology (suburban student teachers were the only group to become more humanistic following student teaching) and perceived collective teacher efficacy (urban student teachers exhibited significantly lower perceived collective teacher efficacy scores than the rural and suburban student teachers). Additionally, a positive and significant relationship was found between student teachers' efficacy beliefs and their perceived cooperating teachers' efficacy beliefs. As for the nature and length of the student teaching assignment, the group of student teachers that did not switch placements at the halfway point showed significantly higher efficacy scores in the second eight weeks than the group that switched placements. Finally, significant increases in student teacher efficacy beliefs occurred at both the 8-week and the 16-week point.

Committee: Anita Woolfolk Hoy (Advisor) Subjects: Education, Teacher Training