Teachers’ self-efficacy has been identified as an important concept that not only influences the way in which teachers teach, but also students’ learning outcomes. A review of the current literature shows that EFL teachers’ self-efficacy is influenced by many factors, including teaching strategies, professional development training, active mastery experience, teachers’ practical knowledge and language proficiency, as well as the length of teaching experience. The last factor is relevant to the current study. There have been inconclusive findings regarding the effect of years of teaching; while some studies have reported a positive relationship between years of teaching experience and self-efficacy, other studies have reported the opposite. Therefore, this study aimed to explore the effect of this factor on EFL teachers’ self-efficacy in terms of classroom management, students’ engagement and instructional strategies. The study was conducted with 200 EFL female teachers in governmental elementary schools in Kuwait. Data were collected through online surveys and quantitatively analysed using SPSS. The findings suggest that there were no statistically significant differences (at 0.05 level) between the means in the study sample in terms of self-efficacy in student engagement, classroom management and instructional strategies in relation to the years of teaching experience variable. Based on these findings, it is argued that teachers’ self-efficacy beliefs may remain stable once they are formed. Therefore, there is a need for teacher training courses that raise teachers’ awareness of the importance of their self-efficacy.
Keywords: EFL Teachers, Governmental Schools, Kuwait, Self-Efficacy, Teaching Experience
