Chapter 7: The Impact of Schools on Teacher Beliefs,Influence, And Student Achievement: The Role of Collective Efficacy Beliefs

For more than a quarter century, researchers have developed a large body of literature on the meaning and effects of a particular belief held by teachers, namely teacher efficacy. This work makes significant contributions to our knowledge about the correlates of teacher efficacy. We know, for example, that teacher efficacy is a significant predictor of productive teaching practices. Indeed, teachers with strong perceptions of self-capability tend to employ classroom strategies that are more organized and better planned (Allinder, 1994), student centered (Czerniak & Schriver, 1994; Enochs, Scharmann, & Riggs, 1995), and humanistic (Woolfolk & Hoy, 1990) than do teachers with lower levels of efficacy. Teacher efficacy is also strongly related to trust (Da Costa & Riordan, 1996), openness (DeForest & Hughes, 1992), and job satisfaction (Lee, Dedrick, & Smith, 1991). These studies provide considerable explanation for the positive link between teacher efficacy and student achievement (e.g., Anderson, Greene, & Loewen, 1988; Armor et al., 1976; Ashton & Webb, 1986; Gibson & Dembo, 1984; Ross, 1992, 1994) because such approaches and attitudes are widely accepted as educationally productive.