Sense of Efficacy among Secondary School Teachers in Malaysia

Abstract

One purpose of the present research was to examine the structure of Malaysian teachers' sense of efficacy. The study attempted to see if the same two-common factor structure, which characterized teacher efficacy in English speaking cultures, existed among Malaysian teachers. Another purpose of the study was to explore the relationship between Malaysian teachers' sense of efficacy and how they perceived the effectiveness of in-service education. To address these concerns, 300 teachers were randomly selected from 15 schools and a 10-item version of the Teacher Efficacy Scale was administered to them. Confirmatory factor analysis and MANOVA were applied to arrive at the conclusions. Results of the study provided support that the personal-general teaching efficacy model did generate the data collected from secondary school teachers in Malaysia. In addition, the relationship between perceived effectiveness of in-service education programmes and teacher efficacy was statistically significant.