Teacher Efficacy: How Teachers Rate Themselves and How Students Rate Their Teachers

Source: Action in Teacher Education, Vol. 34, Iss. 1, p. 14-25, 2012.
(Reviewed by the Portal Team)

The purpose of this study was to determine how teachers rate themselves as compared to how students rate teachers.

Method
The authors used the Teacher Efficacy the External Influences Scale.
This scale designed to assess teachers' efficacy in the area of classroom organization and discipline.
The participants in this study were seventh- and eighth-grade students and their teachers in a middle school located in a metropolitan area of a midsized, midwestern community in the United States.

This study demonstrates the utility of asking students to rate their teachers.
In addition, the results indicate that students and teachers might perceive what influences students from different perspectives.

This process of exploring the different lenses of students can help improve the collaborative relationships between students and teachers.
1. Teachers appear to be more altruistic in their beliefs about impacting students.
Also, teachers express they can help students overcome their home experiences, whereas students are less confident teachers can do so.
2. Students are more likely to believe that teachers have little influence on student behavior.
Specifically, external factors, such as home life and lack of parent discipline, will cause students to misbehave.
3. Teachers and students do agree that some students will choose to misbehave and that teachers may not know how to deal with such students.

The authors argue that involving teachers and students in a democratic voice about teachers' efficacies can help teachers deal with this discrepancy.