Abstract:
The study investigated the relationship between gender and self-efficacy beliefs in instructional
strategies, classroom management and student engagement among senior high school teachers
in Kumasi metropolis, as most previous studies tend to focused on the developed countries
other than developing countries like Ghana. Specifically, descriptive survey design was used to
determine the levels of self-efficacy beliefs among the teachers and the relationship between
gender and teachers’ self-efficacies were also ascertained. The sample included 259 male
and 178 female teachers who were randomly drawn from both private and public senior high schools. Teachers’ Sense of Efficacy Scale (TSES) was used to collect data from the respondents.
Data collected were analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics. Results indicated
that generally teachers have relatively higher self-efficacy beliefs especially at the student
engagement aspect. It was found that male and female teachers differed in relation to their
instructional strategies with female teachers on average have better instructional strategies
efficacy than male teachers. On contrary, both male and female teachers did not differ in terms
of classroom management and student engagement efficacies. Based on these findings, it was
recommended that teacher training institutions should emphasise the teaching of instructional
practices, student engagement and classroom management practices to the teacher trainees so
as to improve their efficacies level.
