Teacher educators’ self-efficacy and perceived practices of differentiated instruction in Ethiopian primary teacher education programs: Teacher education colleges in amhara regional state in focus

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine teacher educators’ self-efficacy and perceived practices of differentiated instruction in Ethiopian primary teacher education programs. To this end, a mixed research approach was employed. As research participant, 400 instructors who had been teaching in teacher education colleges of Amhara regional state were selected through stratified random sampling for the quantitative phase and 15 of them were selected purposively for the qualitative phase. The data gathered through questionnaires and semi-structured interview were analyzed using percentage, one sample t-test and thematic analysis. The findings revealed that most of the teacher educators have not had any training on differentiated instruction and are less efficacious to implement differentiated instruction. It was also found that implementation of differentiated instruction in the study area was at a very low level. Thus, it is suggested that college officials should organize training that will provide instructors with sufficient opportunities to learn how to differentiate instruction and to strengthen their DI self-efficacy.

Keywords

• differentiated instruction
• self-efficacy
• learners diversity