Teaching-related self-efficacy of teachers at universities and its development as a result of university teachers' didactic training

This essay deals with teaching related self-efficacy, which is seen as a significant component for teaching activities across all educational fields. While self-efficacy is focussed in school-related teacher research for a long time, the research in the field of university-teaching is in the beginning and inconsistent. The aim of this article is to analyse the structure of self-efficacy of university teachers and to examine possible influencing factors. The following research questions are addressed: To what extent differ novice teachers and experienced teachers in their teaching related self-efficacy, to what extent affects the participation in university teachers' didactic training the development of self-efficacy, and to what extent affect other factors, specifically teaching experience differentiated by teaching duration, volume and format, and their own perception of competence development the increase in self-efficacy among university teachers' didactic training participants. This is realized using data from two longitudinal studies. The explorative factor analysis shows that the instrument used here to assess teaching-related self-efficacy has three sub-dimensions. It also shows that novice teachers and experienced teachers differ significantly in terms of their self-efficacy expectations in all three dimensions. In addition, it becomes apparent that participation in further training has an effect on the development of self-efficacy expectations in the sub-dimensions. The increase is also related to the various facets of teaching experience and the teachers' own perception of their competence development. The identified sub-dimensions of self-efficacy are influenced differently.