| Teacher efficacy refers to teachers' belief in their ability to affect student performance and is typically conceptualized as a two-factor construct---personal efficacy and teaching efficacy. One problem identified by Guskey and Passaro (1994) is whether the two factors of teacher efficacy should be interpreted as teaching efficacy, after Bandura's (1977) self-efficacy theory, or whether the two factors should be interpreted as internal or external orientation, more in line with causal attribution theory (Rotter, 1966; Weiner 1974, 1979). Another problem, identified by Woolfolk and Hoy (1990), is whether the construct of teacher efficacy has two or three dimensions. This study addresses these two problems and attempts to clarify the measurement of the teacher efficacy construct.; One hundred and seventy-eight first- through eighth-grade teachers, 138 females and 40 males, completed the 55-item Teacher Efficacy Survey created specifically for this study. Four groups of items were used to compile the instrument: (a){A0}21 items from Guskey and Passaro's (1994) Teacher Efficacy Scale, (b){A0}10 items designed to measure teachers' internal and external locus of control from the 24-item Hall-Smitley Teacher Locus of Control Scale (Hall-Smitley, 1980), and (c){A0}two new sets of 12 items written specifically for this study. The two new sets of items were written to explore several wording problems in the previous items.; Although most researchers have defined the concept of teacher efficacy according to Bandura's (1977) self-efficacy theory, the results of this study suggest that causal attribution theory may be more appropriate. The data from this study suggest that the items used to measure teacher efficacy are items that are measuring internally and externally motivated teachers. Using the label of internal-external may change the mindset of researchers investigating the problems that center around the accurate interpretation and measurement of the teacher efficacy construct. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)... |
