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Teacher Efficacy research from an agentic view.

Article Excerpt
Abstract

A selection of the research on Teacher Efficacy during the past decade is examined from an agentic perspective, the focal point of Bandura's vision of self-efficacy. Specifically, seven emperical studies were reviewed to 1) investigate conceptual and methodological fidelity to Bandura's theoretical model and 2) determine if adherence (or lack thereof) to an agentic perspective could help explain mixed results that have been found regarding the relationship between Teacher Efficacy and other personal and contextual variables. This review suggests that among studies premised on Bandura's model of self-efficacy, only a few embrace an agentic perspective and even within studies that have adopted this view, the nature and degree of agency has not been measured consistently.

Introduction

Teachers' sense of efficacy has been recognized as one of the most powerful predictors of teachers' performance in classrooms and, by extension, the performance of their students. Despite general consensual acceptance of these connections, there remains contention regarding the explanatory forces for these associations. It may be that research on Teacher Efficacy has not yielded clear or reliable findings because to date the field has lacked a comprehensive Teacher Efficacy construct, one that can be accurately and consistently measured (Friedman & Kass, 2002; Henson, 2001; Tschannen-Moran, Woolfolk Hoy, & Hoy, 1998).

Many researchers have investigated the nature and relationships of teachers' sense of efficacy with a variety of variables including both personal and contextual factors. The results have been quite varied. Moreover, results are seldom interpreted of discussed in light of Bandura's position on human agency, despite the fact that his concept and model of self- efficacy has been accepted as the primary theoretical framework in studies of Teacher Efficacy for more than a decade (Chacon, 2005; Friedman & Kass, 2002; Ghaith & Shaaban, 1999; Goddard, & Goddard, 2001; Immants & DeBrabander, 1996; Milner & Woolfolk-Hoy, 2003; Pajares, 2002; Toumaki & Podell, 2005; Tschannen-Moran & Woolfolk-Hoy, 2002; Zeldin & Pajares, 2000). This review examined studies of teacher efficacy that claim as their basis Bandura's theoretical model of self-efficacy. The aim of this review is to examine the translation fidelity of these studies. In other words, the focus of the current analysis is to investigate the extent to which researchers have adhered to Bandura's agentic perspective in their conceptual and operational definitions of self-efficacy, study design and instrumentation, and interpretation of findings. In doing so, this analysis...

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