This study examines teachers’ sense of personal and collective efficacy in two similar schools in Appalachian communities that achieved different results regarding students’ accountability test scores. Prior work in teacher efficacy, which is predominantly quantitative, is extended by the addition of teacher interviews that explore how teachers define the problems they face regarding student performance and how they work individually and collectively on strategies to support students’ success. The findings support that teachers with higher levels of efficacy in their work are associated with higher levels of student success. Further, the study offers insights into how teachers perceive problems and solve the problems at the two schools. Several questions emerge concerning how differences between the schools may be associated with more innovative problem-solving such as involving students in planning their futures, fostering collaboration among faculty to support students, and establishing a professional learning community to meet students’ needs.

Research suggests a correlation between high levels of stress and burnout, and low levels of self- efficacy, in school and habilitation professionals. These findings are also prominent in practitioners in Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) such as teachers, psychologists and Board-Certified Behavior Analysts (BCBAs). This current study aimed to examine the levels in self-reported stress, burnout, and self-efficacy reported in the Ohio State Teacher Efficacy Scale (OSTES), in a Swedish-speaking sample consisting of sixty-seven participants based in school settings, and twenty-five participants based in habilitation settings. All participants were divided into two subgroups: one group who have stated participation in formal post-graduate ABA-training (n = 31), and a group without formal ABA training (n = 61). The hypotheses formulated from previous research were: 1) Teacher Efficacy levels are higher in professionals with ABA-training; 2) Stress-levels are lower in professionals with ABA- training; 3) Burnout levels are lower in professionals with ABA-training; 4) Stress-levels are lower in professionals working in habilitation settings; 5) Burnout levels are lower in professionals working in habilitation settings. Analyzes showed that stress correlated highly positive with burnout, and that teacher efficacy had a negative correlation with stress and burnout. Furthermore, no differences in stress and burnout levels were found between participants from school and habilitation, but the levels in Self-reported Stress and Self-reported Burnout were lower in the ABA group, which therefore confirmed the predictions. Reported OSTES-levels were higher in the ABA-group, but at non- significant levels (except in the sub-item “Efficacy for instructional strategies” where significant levels were found). The conclusion was that educators high in teacher efficacy may be less likely to suffer from stress and burnout, than low-efficacy educators. To address the growing problem of stress-related diseases among Swedish school and habilitation staff, the current teacher efficacy-levels in these occupations must be further highlighted. / Forskning tyder på en korrelation mellan höga nivåer av stress och utbrändhet, och låga nivåer av self- efficacy hos personal i skola och habilitering. Dessa forskningsresultat är också framträdande gällande utövare av tillämpad beteendeanalys (TBA), såsom lärare, psykologer och certifierade beteendeanalytiker (BCBA). Den aktuella studien syftade till att undersöka nivåerna i självrapporterad stress, utbrändhet och self-efficacy baserat på Teacher efficacy-skalan Ohio State Teacher Efficacy Scale (OSTES), gällande ett urval av svensktalande deltagare bestående av sextiosju personer som arbetar inom skolan och tjugofem personer som arbetar inom habiliteringen. Samtliga deltagare delades in i två undergrupper: en grupp som tidigare genomfört en formell TBA-utbildning (n = 31) och en grupp utan formell TBA-utbildning (n = 61). Hypoteserna utifrån tidigare forskning var: 1) Teacher efficacy-nivåerna är högre hos yrkesverksamma med TBA-utbildning; 2) Stressnivåerna är lägre hos professionella med TBA-utbildning; 3) Utbrändhetsnivåerna är lägre hos professionella med TBA-utbildning; 4) Stressnivåerna är lägre hos yrkesverksamma som arbetar inom habiliteringsyrken; 5) Utbrändhetsnivåerna är lägre hos professionella som arbetar inom habiliteringsyrken. Analyserna visade att stress korrelerade mycket positivt med utbrändhet och att Teacher efficacy-nivåerna hade en negativ korrelation med stress och utbrändhet. Vidare hittades inga skillnader i stress- och utbrändhetsnivåerna mellan deltagare från skola och habilitering, men nivåerna i självrapporterad stress och självrapporterad utbrändhet var lägre i TBA-gruppen, vilket därför bekräftade denna förutsägelse. Nivåerna erhållna i OSTES-skalan var högre i TBA-gruppen, men på icke-signifikanta nivåer (förutom i underkategorin “Efficacy for instructional strategies” där signifikanta nivåer hittades). Slutsatsen var att lärare med hög Teacher efficacy kan vara mindre benägna att drabbas av stress och utbrändhet än lärare med låg Teacher efficacy. För att ta itu med det växande problemet med stressrelaterade sjukdomar bland svensk skol- och habiliteringspersonal måste de aktuella nivåerna av Teacher efficacy i dessa yrken belysas ytterligare.

Thesis (PhD. (Education)) --University of Limpopo, 2017. / South Africa has embarked on the official inclusion of school-based assessment in all subjects for transforming once-off pen and paper testing to redress the past rigid, norm-referenced, unreliable and non-transparent discriminative educational assessment in schools. The introduction does not only aim at offering constant constructive feedback to learners to improve performance, but it also assists teachers to diagnose, facilitate and improve on their assessment methods, to report learner performance to relevant stakeholders like parents, schools, districts and lastly national departments of education and to inform teaching and more assessments. Over and above it forms 25% of the total mark for all subjects in further education and training including Grade 12. There is compelling empirical evidence that school-based assessment positively influences the performance of learners in large scale assessments. In spite of its significance, the school-based assessment of literature set-works has received scant attention in secondary schools. Despite the local and international interest and implementation of school-based assessment nowadays, its administration in South Africa schools still remains a challenge. This study therefore followed an interpretive qualitative approach to respond to the question: What are the experiences of English first additional language teachers in assessment of literature set-works in secondary schools in Limpopo province? The teacher self-efficacy theory guided this study. It was not only used to substantially explain the stature of a literature teacher, but also to generate strategies to promote teacher flexibility and application of assessment practices in English first additional language. The theoretical and practical implications of self-efficacy theory are discussed in terms of their relevance to both the literature teacher and school-based assessment expectations. Multiple qualitative data collection methods of focus group interviews, openended questionnaires, documents and field notes were employed to strengthen findings in a natural setting. Respondents were selected through the purposive sampling. Five districts of Limpopo province were sampled for this study: four focus group interviews were conducted, 139 open-ended questionnaires were returned and documents relevant to answering the research question were analysed. Data were transcribed and then analysed by the Tesch (1990) method (as in Creswell 1994) of qualitative data analysis and constant comparison method. Teachers operating in the assessment of English first additional language have acknowledged the importance of school-based assessment, moderation and literature set-works, however they still feel literature assessment in schools does not receive the attention it deserves. The qualitative data revealed that teachers face various challenges in the implementation of school-based assessment of literature set-works. Most teachers through their responses still face challenges of time, resources and curriculum advisory support, inability to design their own literature set-works tasks, learner illiteracy and lack of teacher efficacy. Moreover, teachers are keenly dependent on previously written question papers. Findings have further shown that teachers suffer the pressures of authorities who impose extra assessment work on them and the selected literature prescribed works that stay for too long in the curriculum – these comprise the programme of assessment. These findings, although they may not be generalised, might contribute to prospect future research and educational change in assessment of literature set-works in schools. Various recommendations have been made for educational stakeholders in further research prospects and future improvement on assessment of literature set-works in schools emphasizing the independence of English literature setworks

I designed an explanatory sequential mixed-method study to explore the relationship between leadership practices, collective teacher efficacy (CTE), and educational outcomes of low SES students in an open school system. Four data sources were analyzed: K-5 student Developmental Reading Assessment (DRA) results of 1,170 students, Collective Teacher Belief Scale (CTBS) survey to measure CTE perceptions of 48 teachers, focus group interviews composed of a stratified sample of 11 K-5 teachers, and two one-on-one principal interviews. The study took place in two elementary schools in north Texas during the 2020-2021 school year. A Spearman's rank-order correlation analysis indicated that the relationship between CTBS scores and student reading scores was mixed. While one school showed a positive association between CTE and the reading data of low SES students, the other school showed a weak correlation between the variables. The quantitative data indicated that CTBS scores did not independently explain reading achievements at both campuses. The data also showed that while teachers had a large effect size on the reading performance of low SES students, as measured through a Cohen's d for paired sample t-test, achievement gaps continued to widen. Two themes emerged through a grounded theory approach when principals described their sensemaking and framing process: many variables and teamwork. In a complex open system, school principals must consider the many needs of teachers and students before enacting reform efforts. To achieve ambitious goals, school principals promote teamwork and help develop supportive structures to assist teachers and students. Furthermore, the theme of support emerged when teachers described their CTE perceptions concerning their principal's leadership actions. The overall data suggest that leadership practices directly impact CTE levels and indirectly impact student performance. When teachers felt supported, CTE levels increased, but when teachers felt overwhelmed or failed to see how school and district mandates support teaching and learning efforts, CTE levels dropped.

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Significant environmental impacts such as climate change, reduction in biodiversity, increasing food scarcity, impacts on water supply and availability, and exacerbation of human health problems are occurring and are expected to increase. Despite these environmental challenges the teaching of California’s environmental literacy standards, the California Environmental Principles and Concepts (CA EP&Cs), in the K-12 public education system is infrequent and inadequate. The purpose of this study was to use a mixed methods approach to examine relationships between environmental identity (EI), personal environmental education teacher efficacy (PEETE), and peak stage of concern (SOC) for implementing CA EP&Cs for K-12 in-service teachers participating in regional 3-year California Environmental Literacy Projects (CELP). In the last year of CELP, a survey was given to 72 of the participating teachers to probe their EI, PEETE, and peak SOC for implementing CA EP&Cs. Eighteen months after the conclusion of CELP, five participating teachers engaged in a follow-up interview providing further insight about the relationships between EI, PEETE, and peak SOC for implementing CA EP&Cs. The findings from quantitative analysis of the survey and the qualitative analysis of the follow-up interviews indicate that participating teachers had high levels of EI and PEETE, and that there is a moderately large correlation between EI and PEETE within the sample of teachers surveyed. These high levels of EI and PEETE did not translate into impact level peak SOC in the Concerns-Based Adoption Model (CBAM) for most teachers. This finding demonstrates that environmental literacy professional development providers, site and district administrators, and teachers will have to overcome significant challenges to be able to increase the environmental literacy for students in California’s educational system. For environmental literacy professional development providers, it is suggested to surface teachers’ individual challenges to implementing CA EP&Cs and provide explicit recommendations to overcome these challenges. For district and site administrators, it is suggested that the CA EP&Cs be prioritized as important standards that are taught, and that student access to outdoor field experiences be valued and funded. For teachers, it is suggested to prioritize the teaching of CA EP&Cs and to integrate environmental literacy into the teaching of the various content areas where appropriate. Further details and additional suggestions are outlined in this research study.

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