SELF EFFICACY OF NEW ADMNISITRATORS

Self Efficacy of new administrators

Self Efficacy of new administrators

Introduction

Self efficacy has long been a key construct in education. The self-efficacy construct refers to “peoples' judgments of their capabilities to organize and execute courses of action required to attain designated types of performances” and peoples' confidence to attain success in their actions (Tschannen, 2002). Essentially, self-efficacy is the belief and confidence an individual has in performing a specific task. Self-efficacy is known to be an important construct in predicting the success of an individual on multiple types of tasks. In education, self-efficacy has been studied relative to students, teachers, and less often school administrators, e.g., principals and superintendents(Wilson,2000).

Background

A persuasive body of research links new administrator' efficacy beliefs with student achievement (Ashton & Webb, 1989; Bandura, 1993; Goddard, 2002; Smith, Hoy & Sweetland, 2002). Efficacy beliefs are judgments about the ability to carry out particular courses of action. In the teaching context, efficacy beliefs are formed from judgments about the difficulty of the teaching task and judgments about teaching ability (Tschannen-Moran, Woolfolk Hoy, & Hoy, 1998). Many scholars suggest a causal and reciprocal effect in which higher perceived efficacy results in higher student achievement, which further strengthens efficacy beliefs (Goddard, Hoy & Woolfolk Hoy, 2004; Ross, 2004).

Statement of the problem

New administrators play a relatively marginal role in the theories of many efficacy researchers(Ross,2004). This treatment of new administrator contrasts sharply with the emphasis of educational leadership scholars, who identify principal leadership as a driving force behind teacher attitudes and beliefs (Bass and Avolio, 1994; Leithwood, Jantzi & Steinbach, 1999).

New administrator could be a key leverage point in school change. If the daily actions of principals make a difference in student academic achievement, schools can be improved by improving and replacing principals. This is a more efficient, focused, and (in many places) practical starting place for reform than most other available alternatives. Thus, every effort should be made to identify fully the possible role of principal leadership in improving teacher efficacy, using both qualitative and quantitative evidence (Staggs, 2002). The goal should be to identify specific leadership behaviors that can increase teachers' efficacy beliefs, and then to craft strategies for increasing these behaviors among school principals (Hipp,1995).

Literature Review

Several researchers examined the link between new administrator and perceived collective teacher efficacy which is a main factor in challenging schools. Researchers tested several structured equation models (Ross, 2003). One model hypothesized that transformational new administrator's self efficacy would affect teacher commitment to organizational values through its effects on collective efficacy (www.coe.ohio-state.edu). An alternative model hypothesized that transformational leadership would also affect teacher commitment directly (Hipp,1997).

The Researchers theorized that the actions of school new administrators would affect efficacy by affecting the four sources of efficacy beliefs identified by Bandura (1997): mastery experiences, vicarious experience, social persuasion, and affective states (Nicholson, 2003). Specific behaviors likely to affect the sources of efficacy beliefs were identified as:

Interpreting success and affecting teacher attributions(Goddard,2000)

Providing mastery experiences through ...