Promoting Teacher Efficacy
Four Personal Leadership Resources
Optimism
• habitually expecting positive results from our efforts
• recognizing where we have, and do not have opportunities for
direct influence and control, and
• taking positive risks
Self-efficacy
• believing in our own ability to perform a task or achieve a goal
• taking responsible risks, expending substantial effort, and
persisting in the face of initial failure
Resilience
• recovering from, or adjusting to change or misfortune
• thriving in challenging circumstances
Proactivity
• stimulating and effectively managing change under complex
circumstances
• showing initiative and perseverance in bringing about meaningful change
What a Principal Can Do
Expect teachers to keep knowledge fresh - habitually expecting positive results
Teach discussion and decision-making skills, especially if teaching and learning communities are new in your school - stimulate and manage change
Show teachers the research - research shows that learning in a social context is deeper than an independent context, let teachers know - stimulate and manage change
Guide communities toward self governance - self efficacy
Take time to build trust - resilience
Collective Efficacy:
a group’s beliefs in members’
combined capacity to organize and carry out the courses of action
needed to produce desired results and can impact:
the futures they seek to achieve through combined action
how well they use their resources
how much effort they put into their group enterprise
their staying power when collective efforts either do not produce
quick results or meet powerful resistance
their susceptibility to the discouragement that can overcome
people taking on tough problems