Relationship Between Teachers’ Professional Efficacy Beliefs and Their Assessment of a New Teacher Evaluation System

• In Event: Roundtable Session 19
  In Roundtable Session: Utilizing Teacher Perspectives for Innovation

Abstract

The current study explores teacher perceptions and experiences with teacher effectiveness evaluation systems and their relationship to efficacy beliefs among a large sample of teachers participating in the New Jersey's pilot teacher evaluation program. Specifically, the study examines the ways in which teachers’ beliefs about their power to have an impact on their students’ academic achievement is associated with their willingness to change instructional practice under the pilot program. The findings suggest that teachers’ professional efficacy perceptions can influence their response (i.e., change in instructional practice) to the program by shaping their expectancies regarding various attributes of the program. This, in turn, suggests that increasing teachers’ level of professional efficacy should be an important goal of the implementation process.

Authors

• Cynthia L. Blitz, Rutgers University

• Dessi Kirova, Rutgers University - New Brunswick/Piscataway

• Anton Shcherbakov, Rutgers University - New Brunswick/Piscataway