Teachers’ self-efficacy: sources and the role of the fulfilled professional role

Abstract

Self-efficacy is a vital factor that makes achieving goals more likely. That applies to teachers’ activity as well. The aim of the study presented in this article was to examine whether teachers who differ in the dominant pattern of their professional role perceive themselves as more or less self-efficacious, and whether they see the sources of their self-efficacy differently. We were interested in testing the hypothetical mechanism by which the dominant professional role moderates the relationship between the sources of self-efficacy and the level of self-efficacy. A cross-sectional study on a large sample of Polish teachers (N = 946), demonstrated differences in the perceived sources of self-efficacy among teachers who defined their roles differently. Although the level of teachers’ self-efficacy was similar in the groups of teachers with different dominant professional roles, we noted the moderating effect of the professional role for the relationship between the four sources of self-efficacy and self-efficacy.

Keywords

• self-efficacy
• sources of self-efficacy
• professional role
• teacher