Collective teacher efficacy in primary schools

Abstract

Collective teacher efficacy is a shared group belief that the group is capable of performing certain activities to achieve success. In the educational context, teacher perceptions of collective efficacy refer to their personal assessment of their colleagues’ abilities to perform teaching activities which support students’ psychological and social adaptation to the school environment. A vast body of research indicates that collective teacher efficacy correlates with students’ school success and teacher well-being. The aim of this research was to examine the perceptions of collective teacher efficacy in primary schools. The research involved 761 primary school teachers from all counties in the Republic of Croatia. The collective teacher efficacy survey and the sociodemographic data survey were applied. The findings indicate that teachers have slightly higher assessment of collective efficacy of teachers, while they seem to have slightly lower assessment of student abilities. No statistically significant differences were found in the perceptions of collective efficacy between classroom teachers and subject teachers. Also, no statistically significant differences were found in the perceptions of collective efficacy in terms of the years of teaching experience.