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factors make a significant contribute to explaining teachers’ sense of online teaching efficacy. Previous
studies have also reported gender differences with regard to perceived self-efficacy expectations
represent an important issue in the area of computer education. Researchers have found that females have
lower computer self-efficacy than male in areas of computer technology Durndell, Haag, Laithwaite,
2000; Vekiri Chronaki, 2008. Having low confidence in their ability may lead female teachers to
avoid teaching online. Therefore it was reasonable for this study to examine possible gender differences in
self-efficacy beliefs in online teaching.
2. Methodology
2.1 Participants and procedure
The participants were 348 Thai elementary school teachers 68.3 female, 31.7 male
participating in a week e-learning teacher training and professional development of approximately 30 hours
conducted in Bangkok. Teachers are randomly selected from schools to attend the training. They had
from 1 to 33 years of teaching experiences with a means of 6.3 years SD = 5.2. The focus of the
training includes: 1. Exploration of theory and models of design,
implementation and evaluation of e-learning. 2. Demonstrations of practice of teaching and
learning with learning management system. 3. Supervised trial of new skills and feedback on
performance. 4. Development of online teaching self-efficacy.
Prior to the workshop teachers completed a pre- training questionnaire items with respect to their
perceptions of their self-efficacy beliefs in personal and online teaching, the support they receive from
school and colleagues, their motivation toward online teaching, and their technology anxiety, in addition to
demographic information. On completion of the training all teachers were asked to complete a post-
training questionnaire to see if changes had occurred in their technology anxiety and self-efficacy beliefs.
2.2 Instrument
The five parts of questionnaire are implemented in this study. The first part of the survey asked for
teachers’ general information such as the grade level at which they taught, teaching experience, and gender.
The second part assessed teachers’ perceptions of organizational supports adapted from the
measurement of students’ perceptions of teacher support developed by Bru, Stornes, Munthe, and
Thuen 2010. There are 11 items composed to reflect collegial support, organizational support for
autonomy, and organizational support for professional development. The items in the third part of this survey
were borrowed from Ravinder and Pete 1999 20- item version of the personal Internet teaching efficacy
beliefs scale PITEBS, where teachers rated their efficacy beliefs to reflect personal teaching efficacy
beliefs, and personal online teaching efficacy beliefs. The forth section of the survey measured technology
anxiety 3 items, e.g., ‘‘I always feel that the other teachers are better in online teaching than me adapted
from biology and physics classroom anxiety surveys Koul, Lerdpornkulrat, Chantara, 2010. In this
study, the construct of motivation toward online teaching is based on Kao, Wu, and Tsai 2011 which
measures mastery goal orientation, professional goal orientation, and social goal orientation. The items in
the survey are presented using a five-point Likert scale.
2.3 Analysis
A series of paired samples t tests was conducted in this study to evaluate whether teachers’ self-
efficacy beliefs in online teaching changed after the training. Pearson’s correlation is utilized to test any
possible relationship among factors as mentioned. Then, through the regression analysis, the factors,
which are significant in self-efficacy in online teaching, are identified.
3. Result
The findings from this study presented in Table 1 showed that there were statistically gender
differences in self-efficacy beliefs in online teaching. We found male teachers exhibited higher levels of
self-efficacy beliefs in online teaching and technology anxiety than female teachers.
The result shown in Table 2 indicated that mastery experience as measured by self-efficacy
belief in personal teaching was significantly related to self-efficacy beliefs in online teaching both before
and after the training. However, we found a stronger relationship in male r = .619 and .499 than female r
= .347 and .423.
We found that there was a significant relationship between self-efficacy beliefs in online
teaching and technology anxiety among females. Female teachers who were highly technology anxious
generally have more negative beliefs in their competency in online teaching. Kher, Downey, and
Monk 2013 found the similar result that anxiety is negatively associated to self-efficacy beliefs.
Interestingly there were significant relationships between self-efficacy beliefs in online teaching,
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technology anxiety and the scale of organizational support. Teachers who perceived higher support from
organization are more likely to have lower technology anxiety and express higher self-efficacy beliefs in
online teaching. The patterns in these relationships were stronger for female teachers. We also found
significant positive correlations between teachers’ mastery goal orientation and social goal orientation
and their self-efficacy beliefs in online teaching. These relationships were stronger for male teachers.
The regression analysis in Table 3 highlights the significant role of mastery experience in predicting
self-efficacy in online teaching. This finding is consistent with previous studies showing that mastery
experience is the most influential source of self- efficacy beliefs e.g. Bong Skaalvik, 2003; Pajares
Miller, 1994. Before the training, social goal orientation was significant for both females and
males, collegial social support was significant for males only and teaching experience associated with
only female teachers’ self-efficacy beliefs in online teaching. After the training, mastery goal orientation
was related to male teachers’ beliefs and technology anxiety as measured by fear of negative evaluations
was significant for female teachers.
Table 1 Gender differences in self-efficacy in personal and online teaching, in technology anxiety, in motivation goal orientation toward online teaching, and in perceived organizational support for online teaching.
Males n = 110 Females n = 238
F M
SD M
SD Pre personal online teaching efficacy beliefs
4.06 0.483
3.75 0.513
28.452 Post personal online teaching efficacy beliefs
4.04 0.430
3.87 0.447
11.478 Pre fear of negative evaluation
2.64 0.846
2.52 0.739
2.025 Post fear of negative evaluation
2.76 0.916
2.54 0.850
4.806 Pre personal teaching efficacy beliefs
4.23 0.500
4.07 0.490
8.818 Post personal teaching efficacy beliefs
4.19 0.486
4.13 0.482
1.065 Mastery goal orientation
4.48 0.468
4.45 0.518
.217 Professional goal orientation
3.38 0.932
3.19 0.869
3.415 Social goal orientation
3.79 0.799
3.76 0.736
.160 Collegial social support
3.81 0.547
3.81 0.477
.008 Organizational support for autonomy
4.08 0.603
4.11 0.549
.096 Organizational support for pd.
4.21 0.498
4.28 0.581
1.132 p .05; p .01
Table 2 Intercorrelations between self-efficacy beliefs in personal and online teaching, technology anxiety, teaching experience, motivation goal orientation toward online teaching and organizational and peer support for
online teaching for male and female teachers.
1 2
3 4
5 6
7 8
9 10
11 12
13 1
- .387
-.037 -.058
.619 .133
-.026 .440
.167 .382
.328 .184
.346 2
.430 -
-.074 -.070
.351 .499
-.030 .419
.085 .206
.186 .127
.210 3
-
.224 -.126
- .193
-.176 -.128
.002
-
.308 .235
-.051 -.163
-
.284 -.140
4
-
.176
-
.178 .274
- -.058
-.073 .068
-.019 .098
.089 -.221
-.105 .080
5 .347
.084 -.159
-.040 -
.289 -.003
.509 .241
.300 .272
.258 .345
6 .199
.423 -.079
-.090 .328
- .024
.236 .006
.010 .011
-.019 .036
7
-
.109 -.033
.017 -.040
-.020 -.036
- -.152
-.115 -.162
.033 .216
.105 8
.313 .120
-
.173 -.098
.397 .231
.046 -
.205 .378
.235 .200
.359 9
.033 .109
.129 .072
.260 .155
-.037 .240
- .332
.066 -.025
.095 10
.306 .065
-.101 -.072
.368 .208
-.063 .477
.329 -
.222 .081
.148 11
.259 .078
-
.223
-
.171 .244
.138 .106
.254 .021
.214 -
.405 .190
12 .281
.029
-
.285
-
.170 .301
.137 .298
.275 .003
.102 .426
- .517
13 .266
.084
-
.319 -.107
.267 .049
.136 .203
.023 .181
.345 .496
- Note: 1 - Pre personal online teaching efficacy beliefs; 2 - Post personal online teaching efficacy beliefs; 3 - Pre
fear of negative evaluation; 4 - Post fear of negative evaluation; 5 - Pre personal teaching efficacy beliefs; 6 - Post personal teaching efficacy beliefs; 7 - Teaching experience; 8 - Mastery goal orientation; 9 - Professional
goal orientation; 10 - Social goal orientation; 11 - Collegial social support; 12 - Organizational support for autonomy; 13 - Organizational support for professional development. Intercorrelations for male teachers n =
110 are presented above the diagonal, and intercorrelation for female teachers n= 238 are presented below the diagonal. p .05; p .01
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Table 3 Summary of regression analysis for variables predicting male and female teachers’ self-efficacy beliefs in online teaching.
Males Females
Beta t
p Beta
t p
Pre-test on online teaching self-efficacy Teaching experience
.008 .109
.914 -.164
-2.692 .008
Personal teaching efficacy beliefs .476
5.408 .000
.174 2.580
.011 Fear of negative evaluation
.136 1.654
.101 -.066
-1.041 .299
Mastery orientation .114
1.213 .228
.114 1.641
.102 Professional orientation
-.091 -1.114
.268 -.093
-1.469 .143
Social orientation .182
2.210 .029
.157 2.262
.025 Collegial social support
.165 2.027
.045 .071
1.074 .284
Organizational support for autonomy -.088
-.935 .352
.144 1.932
.055 Organizational support for pd.
.155 1.728
.087 .075
1.092 .276
Post-test on online teaching self-efficacy Teaching experience
-.002 -.019
.985 -.011
-.181 .857
Personal teaching efficacy beliefs .437
5.278 .000
.414 6.741
.000 Fear of negative evaluation
-.028 -.334
.739 -.154
-2.555 .011
Mastery orientation .234
2.421 .017
.039 .555
.580 Professional orientation
-.005 -.061
.951 .072
1.147 .253
Social orientation .086
.939 .350
-.086 -1.220
.224 Collegial social support
.085 .929
.355 .013
.198 .844
Organizational support for autonomy .001
.012 .991
-.110 -1.455
.147 Organizational support for pd.
.084 .845
.400 .104
1.510 .132
p .05; p .01
4. Discussion
