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This qualitative study explores the experiences and learning of five new teachers with less than three years in the classroom as they engaged in a study group. This research highlights the ways that participation in a study group enhanced teacher efficacy and supported their retention.The research reveals that power and authority over classroom decisions, lack of support from administration and frustration with autonomy of curriculum issues hindered the development of a positive teacher efficacy. When framed in a more positive light within a study group setting the changes to teacher efficacy enabled the study groupparticipants to be more proactive for their own personal and professional needs.Implications for supporting new teachers through opportunities to participate in a studygroup format are discussed. The result of this work is a contribution to the effects ofteacher efficacy and the power of collaboration in a study group setting for new teachers.

Over the years there has been significant discussion of the connection between principal's leadership qualities and teacher efficacy. Students come to the classroom from stable, traditional, supportive home environments as well as from unstable, broken, and homeless situations. Teachers are asked to teach a classroom full of students with a wide range of learning abilities as well as a varied range of learning disabilities. The confidence to do this for the measure of a teacher's career takes a strong sense of efficacy. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between teachers' sense of efficacy and teachers' perceptions of their principals' leadership qualities that enhance and/or diminish the teachers' sense of efficacy. This study utilized both quantitative and qualitative research methods to study the effects of leadership qualities on teacher efficacy. Quantitative data was acquired utilizing the teacher sense of efficacy scale and the principal leadership questionnaire. Qualitative data was gathered through a focus group meeting of teachers with measurably strong efficacy to identify principal practices that affect teachers' efficacy. The study's outcomes reported that total respondent data indicates a generally positive relationship between these two variables. Subgroup analysis revealed varying results with diminishing relationships measured from elementary to secondary teachers. Qualitative information gathered from teachers with strong efficacy reported strategies that foster teacher efficacy, make teachers feel good about teaching and inhibit the development of teacher efficacy. The study recommends that principals and school administrators be especially knowledgeable of the six components of transformational leadership as well as the three aspects of teacher efficacy examined in this study. Being mindful of how daily leadership decisions not only fit within the transformational leadership constructs, but more importantly, how they affect good classroom teaching practices, should help principals plan and initiate strategies and programs that create a campus atmosphere more conducive to comprehensive learning.

The purpose of this study is to investigate how beginning teachers' personal teacher efficacy (the abbreviation PTE for personal teacher efficacy) and the organizational health of school (the abbreviation OHI for the organizational health of school) influence teachers' professional identity (the abbreviation PI for professional identity). The participants were 125 middle school teachers from China. They completed online surveys that measured these three variables and some demographics such as gender, salary and school size. The results revealed that there were significant correlations between the OHI and PI, PTE and PI, and OHI and PTE. Except for gender and salary, there was no statistically significant difference in PI between groups of different school size, educational background, type of teaching job, and years of teaching experience. The findings also indicated that OHI mediated the relationship between PTE and PI. Furthermore, a multiple linear regression model was used to predict teachers' PI based on OHI, PTE, and gender. Finally, a statistically significant difference was found on role values (subscale of teachers' professional identity) between tension group (high PTE while low OHI or low PTE while high OHI) and non-tension group (PTE and OHI are at the same level). These findings depict the interactions between PTE and OHI and its influence on PI of Chinese middle school's beginning teachers. The researcher also proposes the next question for further research and makes some practical suggestions for educational policy makers, schools, and individual teachers to improve their PI.

Administrative support plays a vital role in the self-efficacy of special education teachers (Otto & Arnold, 2005). In order to meet the education needs of special education students and comply with Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act (IDEA, 2004) and the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB, 2002), education leaders and policy makers need to be aware of the correlation between stronger administrative support and special education teacher self-efficacy (Thornton, Peltier, & Medina, 2007). Research shows that one of the most important administrative tasks is to demonstrate an understanding of the special education teachers’ role (Otto & Arnold). Given the consistent positive impact of teacher self-efficacy, it is imperative to identify constructs that increase perceived self-efficacy or that act in concert with self-efficacy to obtain positive results (Nir & Kranot, 2006). This paper examines the construct of administrative support as a factor in the self-efficacy of special education teachers by focusing on the relation between special education teachers and building-level administrators of special education. This type research is needed in order to provide building-level administrators in this central Virginia school system with definitive leadership strategies to use in their efforts to support special education teachers. Recommendations for future research are offered.

Teacher education remains a significant issue affecting the quality of geography instruction in the United States. Teachers’ self-efficacy has been identified as a crucial factor for improving teacher education and promoting educational reform. This study intended to develop a better understanding of the relationships between teacher education programs and secondary history/social studies teachers’ self-efficacy regarding teaching geography, and other demographic factors that could be a possible influence on geography teachers’ self-efficacy. A quantitative research methodology was employed to measure geography teacher efficacy and to explore factors that influence geography teachers’ efficacy in order to identify ways in which preservice and in-service education might better prepare geography teachers. The instrument, the Geography Teaching Belief Instrument (GTEBI), used for data collection was an online survey that was modified from a Science Teaching Efficacy Belief Instrument (STEBI_A) to assess secondary history/social studies teachers’ perceptions of their self-efficacy in geography teaching. Data were gathered from secondary history/social teachers in Virginia. Critical influential factors, geography-related conferences (p<.014), approved teacher licensure education programs (p<.038), and years of teaching experience in geography (p<.004) were found to have a statistically significant relationship with personal geography teaching efficacy. Only the factor, years of teaching experience in geography (p<.002), was found to have a significant relationship with geography teaching outcome expectancy. Findings could result in better teacher education programs for secondary history/social studies teachers in geography teaching and lead to more effective curriculum and instructional practices in teaching geography, thus benefiting student achievement.

Thesis advisor: Vincent Cho / One mechanism for supporting teachers during the implementation of school and district reform is the provision of professional development. By offering meaningful professional development opportunities, leaders can influence teacher efficacy, thus potentially improving teacher practices. As social-emotional learning (SEL) becomes more prevalent in public schools, it is incumbent upon district and school leaders to understand how professional development opportunities can support teachers during SEL implementation. This qualitative study explores one district’s approach for professional development in the area of SEL, with the goal of understanding how professional development may influence teacher efficacy. Data were gathered through semi-structured interviews, focus group interviews, and a document review. Findings revealed a variety of professional development activities occurred during SEL implementation. However, district and school leaders, as well as teachers reported their dissatisfaction with these professional development offerings. Without the presence of satisfactory SEL-related professional development, teachers could not relate the influence of the professional development to their efficacy. Teachers described their most meaningful professional development experiences as those including the opportunity to collaborate with each other. Therefore, one recommendation of this study is to increase the amount of collaborative opportunities provided to teachers. In addition, leaders can promote the use of SEL practices through professional development experiences that introduce techniques directly related to teachers’ classrooms and context. This type of professional development also has the potential to increase teacher efficacy. / Thesis (EdD) — Boston College, 2018. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Educational Leadership and Higher Education.

In foreign language education the classification native or nonnative speaker of a language often evokes thoughts related to degrees of competence in language teaching (Braine, 2004; Davies, 2004). This comparative case study focused on Spanish teachers in a United States context. It contributes toward the literature base in research related to native and nonnative speakers of languages other than English within the local context. Using the threefold theoretical framework of role identity theory (Stryker, 1968; Stryker & Burke, 2000), teacher efficacy (Tschennen Moran & Woolfolk Hoy, 2001) and social constructivism (Schwandt, 2007), the study aimed at developing understandings about the lived experience of foreign language teachers given the native/ nonnative speaker construct. It investigated how their personal perception of their role impacted the execution of professional duties. It also explored their conceptualization of the language teacher, given their extensive observation of teachers of various languages. The questions guiding the research were: (a) How does each participant conceptualize her role identity as Spanish teacher in a predominantly English speaking setting?, (b) How viable is the native/nonnative speaker construct when teacher efficacy is considered?, and (c) how has the experience of supervising teachers of differing linguistic backgrounds in the language they teach (native/nonnative speaker teachers) influenced the participants’ understanding of the language teacher construct in the USA? Data collection was done through interviews, focus group discussions and classroom observations. The participants were four veteran Spanish teachers who had been in the department chair position for more than ten years. Two grew up speaking the language while the others learned the language in an academic setting. Findings revealed that there was great similarity in the way teachers conceptualized their role as Spanish teacher and that they gave no credence to the native/ nonnative speaker construct as an indicator of language proficiency and competence in language teaching.

The concept of collective teacher efficacy was first introduced by Bandura (1997) in the 1990's. Hattie's (2016) identification of collective teacher efficacy as the number one influence on student achievement has led to the idea that educators within a school have the ability to positively impact student achievement. In his research, Bandura identified four sources of both individual and collective teacher efficacy: mastery experiences, vicarious experiences, social persuasion, and affective state. The purpose of this qualitative research study is to identify aspects of school culture that support collective teacher efficacy. This was done by interviewing 32 members of the faculty and staff at a K-8 school in New Zealand through a lens of social cognitive theory. Qualitative analysis of these interviews identified five core aspects of school culture that contribute to collective teacher efficacy: shared vision for learning, school systems, relationships, well-being, and collaboration. Based on the assumption that collective teacher efficacy can have a positive effect on student achievement, it is my assertion that understanding and applying these five aspects of school culture could have a significant and positive impact on student achievement.