How Confident are Social Studies Teachers in Curriculum Implementation: Understanding Teachers’ Self-Efficacy Beliefs

ABSTRACT: Quality in curriculum implementation and teachers‟ self-efficacy beliefs has many common points. Teachers‟ self-efficacy beliefs influence curriculum implementation in terms of instructional and pedagogical practices. The research was conducted to measure Social Studies teachers‟ self-efficacy beliefs in the implementation of social studies curriculum in public senior high schools in Ghana. The study also examine difference in their self-efficacy beliefs based on gender, age and teaching experience. The study was guided by self-efficacy theory. Descriptive survey design was employed and census method was used to include 52 Social Studies teachers in the public senior high schools in Cape Coast Metropolis, Ghana. The data was gathered using adapted short form of Teacher Self Efficacy Scale (TSES). The data collected was processed using SPSS version 25.0 and analysed using descriptive (frequency, percentages, means and standard deviation) and inferential (Independent samples t-test and One-Way ANOVA) statistics. The study discovered that Social Studies had a high level of self-efficacy beliefs in implementing the curriculum. They were highly efficacious in their instructional strategies and relatively low in classroom management as compared to other dimensions of self-efficacy scale. The study, further, found that there was no statistically significant differences in self-efficacy beliefs (instructional strategies, student engagement, and classroom management) based on gender. Ministry of Education (MoE) through the Ghana Education Services (GES) and school administrators would need to provide Social Studies teachers with adequate classroom management strategies needed to engage their students to facilitate effective curriculum implementation. MoE in partnership with GES and school administrators should continue to organise, and sustain in-service trainings and workshops on teacher quality and effectiveness in terms of instructional strategies, student engagement and classroom management. No special attention should be placed on these characteristics but rather on the quality of instruction and in-service trainings and workshops provided for teachers.
KEYWORDS: Classroom management, Instructional strategies, Self-efficacy beliefs, Social Studies curriculum, Student engagement