Educational dialogue among teachers experiencing different levels of self-efficacy

This study examines the occurrence and quality of educational dialogue in the Grade 1 classrooms of teachers with low, moderate and high self-efficacy beliefs. Video recordings of 24 teachers were analysed based on episodes of educational dialogue and were categorised with respect to patterns of dialogic teaching. Teachers with low levels of self-efficacy conducted educational dialogue the least; they also used less teacher-initiated, high-quality dialogue compared with moderate and high self-efficacy teachers. Teachers with high self-efficacy utilised more child-initiated high-quality dialogue compared with the moderate self-efficacy teachers. The findings are important because they provide a new approach for the field of educational dialogue by considering self-efficacy as a teacher-related factor on the background of dialogue. •Teacher self-efficacy reflects in the quantity and quality of educational dialogue.•Low self-efficacy teachers used educational dialogue the least in their classrooms.•Low self-efficacy teachers utilised fewer teacher-initiated high-quality dialogues.•High self-efficacy teachers used more child-initiated high-quality dialogues.