The purpose of this study was to provide the theoretical foundation for the development of student-participatory class by providing empirical research results on how teachers'' background variables and teacher efficacy affect elementary school teachers'' instructional behavior in student- participatory class. The subjects of this study were 122 elementary school teachers in Gyeongsangnam-do.
The data was collected through online surveys from April 5 to April 26, 2020. The collected data was then analyzed using the IBM SPSS Statistics 25.0 program for reliability, two-independent samples t test, one-way ANOVA, and Pearson’s correlation analysis, multiple regression analysis. The study showed the following research findings.
Firstly, As a result of verifying the differences in teacher efficacy according to the background variables of teachers, the differences were found by gender, teaching experience, and grade in charge.
Secondly, to find out the correlation between teacher efficacy and teacher’s background variables and teacher’s instructional behavior, Pearson’s correlation analysis was conducted. As a result, teachers'' background variables had been shown to be statistically not significant in teachers’ instructional behavior, except for teaching experience (20 years or more). And, self-regulation efficacy, task difficulty preference, sub-variables of teacher efficacy, had a positive correlation with all the variables in teacher’s instructional behavior, whereas self-confidence had a negative correlation with teaching knowledge variable in teacher’s instructional behavior.
Thirdly, the results of the analysis of the impact on the teacher’s instructional behavior of elementary school teachers in student-participatory class based on the teacher background variable and teacher efficacy are as follows. The independent variables that statistically significantly affect the teaching knowledge and class communication, class motivation, which are the sub-factors of teacher’s instructional behavior, were self-regulation efficacy and task difficulty preference. In other words, self-regulation efficacy and task difficulty preference had a positive impact on teacher’s instructional behavior. Whereas self-confidence, a subfactor of teacher efficacy, and teacher’s background variables had no significant impact on the teacher’s instructional behavior of elementary school teachers in student-participatory class.
In conclusion, we confirmed that the task difficulty preference and self-regulation efficacy, which are the lower factors of teacher efficacy, affect the teacher’s instructional behavior of elementary school teachers in student-participatory class, and that the more effective the task difficulty preference and self-regulation effect, the more effective the teacher’s instructional behavior was.
Key words: student-participatory class, teacher efficacy, teacher’s instructional behavior, teacher’s background variables