Teacher efficacy is a topic of significance in mainstream education and various instruments have been developed to measure this construct. The available instruments however, are general both in terms of their subject matter and context. To compensate for this generality, the present study aims to develop a new teacher efficacy instrument whose…

Teachers' efficacy beliefs are critical to improving student learning, but we have yet to fully understand how these beliefs develop. The prevailing model of teachers' efficacy development emerges from cognitive theories, but sociocultural theories may add insights to modeling the impact of teachers' school contexts. This case study takes a…

The Alaska Statewide Mentor Project (ASMP) is a joint effort of the University of Alaska and the Alaska Department of Education & Early Development to address the persistently low teacher retention rates in the state, especially in rural districts that predominantly serve Alaska Native (AN) students. Over six years, teacher retention in rural…

This two-phase sequential mixed methods study examined the relationship between professional development, whether in the form of traditional professional development, a professional learning community and/or lesson study, and teacher self-efficacy and self-directed learning in order to gain a greater understanding of the role professional…

The National Board of Professional Teaching Standards offers a voluntary advanced certification for K-12 teachers. The majority of teachers who pursue this professional development program live in the USA, although there are National Board Certified teachers across the globe. This study examined National Board Certified Physical Education…

Despite a growing body of literature on the needs of beginning teachers, little is known about the impact of mentoring on K-12 beginning teachers' efficacy and commitment to teaching, and why beginning teachers in special education received less mentoring than their counterparts in general education. This qualitative phenomenological study…

School principal's practices are affected by many factors on a daily basis. Various factors affecting their practice are invisible to the eye and silent by the spoken word. However, the problem exists that there is a lack of research identifying the experiences of practicing principals regarding teacher self-efficacy. Furthermore, there is not…

This study investigated how novice teachers in urban schools manage the transition from preparation to practice. Through the lens of teacher efficacy, the research presented herein was built around two groups of guiding questions: (1) Do novice teachers in at-risk urban schools feel adequately prepared to effectively perform the task of teaching?…

The objective of this research is to explore comprehensively the effect of induction on new teachers. Through a mixed-method design, the authors examine both the inputs of induction (i.e., the types of support provided for new teachers, its content, and frequency) and a variety of outcomes (i.e., teacher efficacy, teacher-reported growth, teacher…

This study investigated the extent to which a state-funded teacher professional development program designed to improve K-2 science education led to changes that persisted beyond the funding period. The study used a longitudinal, mixed-methods approach and examined persistence of changes in teachers' content knowledge, self-efficacy, instructional…

A federal policy in the United States has required sweeping changes in K-12 education. With No Child Left Behind legislation, schools are challenged to create conditions that bring each student to federally-set academic proficiency levels. Many schools have become more attentive to data about student performance and how it can inform their…

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of using the intervention of consistent feedback of classroom observations, on the teachers' efficacy and motivation to improve their use of instructional delivery methods. The principals of a metropolitan school district in Missouri were mandated to observe and give immediate feedback to each…

Many teachers are failing to incorporate technology into their classroom instruction. Researchers have reported a general failure in this regard; however, minimal study is available on the role of teacher self-efficacy in incorporating technology into pedagogy. This sequential, mixed-method study sought to discover whether a significant…

There has been a substantial amount of research on why teachers leave the profession but little on why they stay. The paper will follow Day et al.'s work (2007) in examining the factors that determine which teachers will maintain resilience and stay in the profession, focusing particularly on those who worked as special educational needs…

The purpose of the present study is to compare the perceptions of teachers representing opposite ends of the self-efficacy spectrum regarding the effects of the principal's behavior on their professional self-efficacy. In the first quantitative stage, a statistical procedure was conducted to identify the two groups of teachers: a group of 16…