Different Levels of Context-Specificity of Teacher Self-Efficacy and Their Relations With Teaching Quality

Désirée Thommen; Urs Grob; Fani Lauermann; Robert M Klassen; Anna-Katharina Praetorius

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2022.857526

Different Levels of Context-Specificity of Teacher Self-Efficacy and Their Relations With Teaching Quality

Front Psychol. 2022 Jun 30:13:857526. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.857526. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Désirée Thommen¹, Urs Grob¹, Fani Lauermann², Robert M Klassen³, Anna-Katharina Praetorius¹

Affiliations

¹ Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, Institute of Education, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.
² Institute for Research on Education and School Development, TU Dortmund University, Dortmund, Germany.
³ Psychology in Education Research Centre, Department of Education, University of York, York, United Kingdom.

Abstract

On the basis of Bandura's social cognitive theory, researchers often assume that a teachers' self-efficacy (TSE) will have a positive effect on teaching quality. However, the available empirical evidence is mixed. Building on previous research into TSE, we examined whether assessing class-/task-specific TSE gives a more accurate indication of the associations between TSE assessments and student-rated teaching quality. The analyses were based on the English sample of the Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS) Video Study. Mathematics teachers (N = 86) rated their self-efficacy beliefs using generalized task-specific TSE items and class-/task-specific TSE items. Their students (N = 1,930) rated the quality of teaching in their math class. Multilevel regression analyses revealed stronger associations between student-rated teaching quality and class-/task-specific TSE than generalized task-specific TSE. We discuss possible reasons for these results and outline the potential benefits of using class-specific assessments for future TSE research.

Keywords: class-specificity; context-specificity; multilevel regression analyses; teacher motivation; teacher self-efficacy; teaching quality.