Paper Title
Teachers� Sense Of Efficacy With Regards To Gender, Teaching Options And Experience

Abstract
Teachers� sense of efficacy (TSE) is well researched in the education system around the world. In fact, more and more researchers are aware of its significance as a powerful vehicle to identify quality teachers. The main objective of this research is to determine the significance of the three components of TSE, i.e. student engagement (SEE), instructional strategies (ISE) and classroom management (CME) among 183 teachers of different teaching option (Science and non-Science), teaching experience (less than 9 years, 9-16 years and more than 17 years) and gender (male and female) chosen randomly from 18 schools. They were tested using the TSE instrument, that was developed by Tschannen-Moran & Woolfolk-Hoy. The data were analyzed using one-sample t-test and independent sample t-test. In general the study showed that, TSE among respondents was in the medium range. The difference for SEE and ISE among genders was significant as it was evident that the male teachers are better than the females. For teaching experience, the Science option pre-service teachers (less than 9 years) were lacking in TSE (t=-2.236; p=. 031). Both Science and non-Science options had low SEE (Science: t=-3.453, p=.001; non-Science: t=-2.296, p=.027) respectively. However, the non-Science option teachers with 9-16 years of teaching experience significantly shown efficacy in SEE (t=2.890, p=.007) and CME (t=2.817, p=.009). This study showed that female teachers had a low sense of efficacy, especially those in Science option. Thus, this should be taken seriously as they represent more than 60% of the pre-graduates in teaching programmes. As TSE grows with teaching experience, therefore regular in house trainings should be conducted to speed up TSE among pre-service teachers. This research implies programmes that produce Science option teachers should emphasize more on TSE to enable them to build up their sense of efficacy. In the meantime, programmes in teacher training institutions should include more frequent teaching practicum. Keywords� Teachers� sense of efficacy, gender, teaching option, teaching experience.