Examining the Sources of Teacher Efficacy and How the Context of Teaching Contributes to Teacher Efficacy

Leah Selbie

Date of Award

Fall 2015

Type

Dissertation

Major

Doctor of Education

Degree Type

Doctor of Education in Curriculum and Leadership

Department

Counseling, Foundations & Leadership

First Advisor

Columbus State University Institutional Review Board

Abstract

Early education researchers posited that a student’s background was the primary factor in academic achievement and there was little that teachers could do to overcome this source (Coleman, Campbell, Hobson, McPartland, Mood, Winefield & York, 1966). In response to this bleak outlook in education, researchers have searched for factors that can make a difference in student achievement, regardless of home environment. Selfefficacy, which “refers to beliefs in one’s capabilities to organize and execute the courses of action required to produce given attainments,” (Bandura, 1997, p. 3), has been an important concept in educational research for teachers (Pajares, 1992). Schacter and Thum (2005) indicated an effective teacher as the most important educational variable related to student achievement and Woolfolk and Hoy (1990) stated effectiveness is related to a teacher’s self-efficacy. Teacher efficacy is the belief a teacher holds about their individual ability to affect student performance (Klassen, Tze, Betts & Gordon, 2011; Tschannen-Moran, Woolfolk Hoy & Hoy, 1998).

Teacher efficacy has been tied to educational outcomes (Andreou & Rapti, 2010) such as student achievement, student motivation (Klassen et al., 2011), innovation in the classroom (Woolfolk & Hoy, 1990), and building student self-efficacy (CooperTwamley, 2009). Teacher efficacy has also been correlated with teacher behavior in their own classroom and how they manage their classroom (Dibapile, 2012; Klassen et al., 2011; Woolfolk, Rosoff & Hoy, 1990) instructional strategies, how teachers persist in the field (Andreou & Rapti, 2010), job stress, burnout, job satisfaction (Vesely, Saklofske, & Leschied, 2013), teacher retention (Cooper-Twamley, 2009), and even competency evaluations (Woolfolk & Hoy, 1990). Teachers with a low sense of teacher efficacy are subject to negative influences such as increased job stress, low job satisfaction and difficulty in the classroom (Klassen et al., 2011). Teacher efficacy is one of the few variables that consistently relates to positive educational outcomes (Woolfolk & Hoy, 1990), therefore, more attention should be paid to the origins of teacher efficacy as well as other factors that can shape a teacher’s efficacy beliefs.

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