DETERMINING FACTORS OF TEACHERS’ SELF-EFFICACY IN COUNTRIES OF THE EUROPEAN UNION. RESULTS FROM TALIS 2013

Abstract

Over the last few years, the effect that teachers’ beliefs have on the results achieved by their students has been widely studied. Educational research has shown that the self-efficacy beliefs of teachers in their work influence their professional behavior and are associated with students’ achievement and motivation. The main aim of this work is to study the personal and contextual factors determining the level of self-efficacy perceived by teachers in countries of the European Union which participated in TALIS 2013. Specifically, it attempts to answer the following questions: What are the main determinants of teachers’ self-efficacy beliefs? Are these factors individual or contextual? Do these determinants vary from country to country? Taking into account the multistructural level of available data (teachers —Level 1— are nested within schools —Level 2— in each country), data analysis has been carried out by means of multilevel structural equation modeling. More specifically, a multigroup multilevel model has been designed to study the effect of teachers’ traits (Level 1 predictors) and school traits (Level 2 predictors) on the perceived level of self-efficacy in different countries. The results show that variables relating to the teachers as professionals (cooperation with their colleagues, encouraging self-evaluation by the students, teachers’ perception of satisfactory class discipline, a need for professional development in the contents of the subject taught and in teaching skills, and having a constructivist teaching approach) are the ones most closely related to their self-efficacy beliefs. These are more important than factors associated with the institutional setting in which they work (ownership, ratio, or shortage of resources), or strictly personal traits (age, gender, or work situation).