Abstract

Teacher self-efficacy is an important factor in job motivation and professional continuity. One of the important factors affecting teacher self-efficacy is the perception of university classroom environments. Therefore, the aim of this research was to investigate the effect of environmental perceptions of classrooms on the self-efficacy of student teachers. The research design was descriptive, using structural equation modeling, and the statistical population included student teachers in the last two terms of the academic year 2018 at Ferdowsi University of Mashhad. From this population, 400 students were selected using cluster sampling and responded to the self-efficacy and environmental perceptions of university classroom questionnaires. Pearson correlation coefficient and structural equation modeling were used to analyze the data. The results of the Pearson correlation coefficient showed that environmental perceptions of university classrooms and teacher self-efficacy are correlated with each other (p<0.001). The results of the structural equation modeling also indicated a good fit for the proposed model. Therefore, it seems that improving the frustrating aspects of university classrooms in terms of attractiveness, challenge, choice, meaning, and academic self-efficacy will help improve the self-efficacy of student teachers. Multiple regression was used to investigate the role of each component of classroom environment perceptions in teacher self-efficacy. The results show that the right to choose (t=12.3, p,0.05 β=0.25) has a significant role in predicting teachers' self-efficacy.