The Relationship between Iranian EFL Teachers’ Perception of Teacher Knowledge Base and Their Self-Efficacy Beliefs

Abstract There has been a dearth of research on the EFL teachers’ cognition related to knowledge base and self-efficacy. This study investigated the relationship between teacher knowledge base and teacher self-efficacy and investigated whether English teachers’ experience can make a difference in affecting their sense of efficacy and knowledge base. By means of two multiple-choice Likert-type questionnaires, the data were collected from 160 Iranian EFL teachers. The participants were assigned into two groups including experienced and novice groups. Having the participants’ responses coded and then analyzed using the Spearman rank correlation coefficient and Mann-Whitney U test , it was found that teacher knowledge base noticeably predicted teacher self-efficacy and that the experienced group outperformed the novice group with respect to both teacher self-efficacy and teacher knowledge base. The current study highlighted the positive role of experience in the EFL teachers’ cognitions and practices in the Iranian context. Keywords: Teacher self-efficacy, Teacher knowledge base, Teaching experience, Experienced teacher, Novice teacher