Examining the relationship between teacher self-efficacy and instructional style of community college stem faculty

The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between teacher self-efficacy and the instructional style of community college STEM faculty to explore a possible connection between teacher self-efficacy, instructional style choice, and its possible impact on STEM reform for community colleges. This study is designed as a sequential mixed-method approach with a quantitative survey that is then followed by qualitative interviews to explore emergent themes not captured in the survey. Thirty-nine STEM community college faculty from two community colleges in southeast Texas participated. This study revealed that overall teacher self-efficacy, its subcategories in student engagement, and instructional strategies showed significant differences between the teacher-centered and student-centered STEM community college faculty. These discrepancies were explained by the interviews and included topics of disrespect from university faculty, differences in the accepted definition of student engagement and student-centered instructional styles, and beliefs that having a lab attached to the course makes your instructional style student-centered. Possible causes of these discrepancies were explored and were found to be tied to the lack of training in both pre-service and in-service. Recommendations for changes to both pre-service and in-service training and institutional response were discussed to repair the system of professional development and pre-service academics to get a stronger response to STEM reform in community colleges.