The Effects of a professional development on teachers’ self-efficacy in promoting thinking and problem-solving skills

Abstract People’s beliefs in their capabilities to complete tasks, achieve goals or produce desirable outcomes is known as self-efficacy. Teachers’ self-efficacy is crucial in terms of influencing their effective teaching and resulting in student achievement. This paper aimed to report the effects of a professional development program on teachers’ self-efficacy toward promoting student’s thinking and problem-solving skills. The training program aimed to support Science, Mathematics and Technology teachers. Ninety-five in-service teachers had participated in this training program. The participating teachers completed a Google form of the five-point Likert scale of the self-efficacy survey which mainly focused on teachers’ beliefs in their understanding of thinking and problem-solving and self-efficacy in teaching thinking and problem-solving. The survey was first given to the participating teachers at the beginning of the workshop. At the end of the training program, three months later, the participating teachers had to present teaching experiences. The survey was then given to the participating teachers to complete after they presented their teaching experiences. The data completed via google form were analyzed and reported. The results showed that teachers’ self-efficacy had significantly improved after attending the training program. However, teachers with different teaching experiences had differently improved their self-efficacy in teaching thinking and problem-solving. Interestingly, education degrees of teachers did not have an effect on efficacy in teaching student’s thinking and problem-solving. These findings suggested that professional development programs should be carefully designed in order to accommodate different participants.