Self-efficacy is the confidence that a person may have for his ability to achieve an objective or a goal.
Albert Bandura has shared that it is the foundation of positive psychology intervention.
A little video below about self-efficacy
I will like to have a short discussion about self-efficacy of teachers.
As usual, you can have your own views and interpretations.
High self-efficacy
A teacher with high self-efficacy may have high motivation with great confidence that he/she can teach effectively to achieve the required learning outcomes.
It is great when we have an effective classroom teacher with high self-efficacy who can teach effectively and explore different teaching strategies with sound pedagogies. They are often more resilient during failure and supportive to their students.
The problem comes when we have teachers with high self-efficacy but they are actually not able to deliver lesson effectively and are not aware that their students are not able to understand what they are teaching. They may often question why their students are not paying good attention to understand their clear explanation.
High self-efficacy with confidence of the ability to teach but without the reality of the actual ability can lead to serious problems in students’ learning as well as motivational level of teacher when the reality of his/her ability to teach is realised.
Very often, these teachers may have the passion to teach so a good nurturing mentor will really help to guide these teachers to reflect on the way they teach to deliver the lesson effectively.
High self-efficacy with an open mind for change will make great teachers.
Low self-efficacy
We can have teachers who have low self-efficacy that lacks the confidence to try new teaching strategies and give up easily when face with difficult students.
These teachers may not have high goals and they may just stick to teaching strategies that they are comfortable with. They are afraid that they are not able to handle new methods and they are also afraid of handling difficult students.
Dealing with low self-efficacy
Encouragement
Give authentic recognition for specific area that the teacher has done well. This often can lead to more positive outcomes when there is acknowledgement for the good things done.
The encouragement can also be provided by school or senior staff to acknowledge the challenges that staff may have. There is a need to help them to have the resilience to overcome the challenges with a supportive culture.
Practical professional development
Identify PD that most staff are not familiar or comfortable with and empower them with the knowledge and practice through structured professional development can raise self-efficacy.
With sound pedagogies and practical teaching tips given, teachers will be confident to believe they can achieve the goal and objective set.
Collaborative environment
Provide a platform or time for level teachers to share their teaching ideas so that there is a collective effort in effective teaching plans or ideas.
Building a learning culture where there is trust and confidence of peer guidance without judgement can build up self-efficacy as teachers try out teaching strategies with suggestions for success.
The more successes that a teacher gains, the more self-efficacy can build up progressively.
Empowerment
With possible potential identified, teachers can also be nominated to take up leadership roles to give them a sense of importance in school decisions.
Bottom-up approach can very often raise the self-efficacy of teachers. When teachers feel that their voices are heard by school leaders, they feel a sense of importance.
In conclusion
I have only touched on some aspects of self-efficacy of teachers but there can be differing views.
The most important is to establish a good learning culture within a school where everyone is a mentor and everyone is also a mentee.
We can each share our strengths and learn from others in the areas of our weakness.
Regardless of how many years we have taught, there are always new things and changes so learning is never ending for students as well as teachers.
Reference:
Soodak, L. C., & Podell, D. M. (1996). Teacher efficacy: Toward the understanding of a multi-faceted construct. Teaching and Teacher Education, 12(4), 401-411.
Bandura, A. (1993). Perceived self-efficacy in cognitive development and functioning. Educational psychologist, 28(2), 117-148.
Klassen, R. M., & Chiu, M. M. (2010). Effects on teachers' self-efficacy and job satisfaction: Teacher gender, years of experience, and job stress. Journal of educational Psychology, 102(3), 741.
Caprara, G. V., Barbaranelli, C., Steca, P., & Malone, P. S. (2006). Teachers' self-efficacy beliefs as determinants of job satisfaction and students' academic achievement: A study at the school level. Journal of school psychology, 44(6), 473-490.
Disclaimer: This is my personal reflection and I am not in any position to instruct anyone what they should do. I am not responsible for any action taken as a result of this post. My post can only be a reference for your further research and growth. By reading this post, you acknowledge and accept that. All images and pictures were taken from google images that are free from copyright under labelled for reuse.
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