The impact of teaching practice on the structure of professional self-esteem: A covariance analysis

The model developed and tested in this study supported the hierarchical organisation of self-esteem and a number of self-perceptions on a sample of Hong Kong student teachers. General self-esteem was at the apex and professional self-esteem at the second level of the hierarchy. In turn, professional self-esteem was mainly subject to the influence of a cluster of professional self-conceptions-teaching efficacy, teacher-pupil relationships and teaching commitment. The student teachers' humanistic beliefs and perceptions of student teaching abilities significantly influenced the structuring of the self-conceptions. Other selected teaching practice variables, such as class discipline and management, pupil learning achievement, academic standard of pupils, usefulness of writing lesson plans for teaching, and evaluation of teaching practice performance by methodology supervisors, had little influence on the professional self-structure. Copyright © 1999 De La Salle University, Philippines.