Teachers’ Work Engagement and Burnout Profiles: Associations With a Sense of Efficacy and Interprofessional Collaboration at School

This study provides new insights into the work-related well-being of teachers, defined here as engagement and burnout, by investigating their associations with the teachers’ sense of efficacy and interprofessional collaboration in schools. Using a person-oriented approach and latent profile analysis, a sample of Finnish comprehensive school teachers (N = 355) were classified based on their work engagement and burnout. Three profiles were identified: engaged, engaged-exhausted, and burned-out. Teachers with distinct profiles differed from each other in terms of their sense of efficacy and experiences of interprofessional collaboration, suggesting that both might have an important role in enhancing work engagement and preventing burnout.

Microteaching: An Opportunity for Meaningful Professional Development

Microteaching is a way of doing professional development for teachers wanting to incorporate new evidence-based and high-leverage practices into their instructional toolboxes. Given how much work is required in teaching and the limited time professionals have available, microteaching is an accessible process that supports instructional improvement by practicing evidence-based and high leverage strategies. Professionals, working with a small group of peers, engage a four-phase process that includes planning, enactment of a strategy, as well as individual and group reflection. Professionals use the opportunity to explore a teaching strategy that is responsive to student needs in the context of critical friends. Having an opportunity to try it out before introducing it in the classroom can be a valuable way to work out bugs, discover aspects that need development, and build a sense of efficacy. Microteaching is a way to support collegial growth by seeing into each other’s classroom practice.

Language Teachers' Sense of Efficacy During the COVID-19 Pandemic

The COVID-19 global pandemic quickly changed the educational landscape by adding challenges as teachers had to pivot almost immediately from traditional educational contexts to unfamiliar remote, online environments. In-service world language teachers (N = 497) were surveyed to understand differences in one's sense of efficacy teaching languages before and during the pandemic. Results show stark differences in both contexts. The findings provide manifold implications for world language teacher preparation as well as teacher retention and professional development.

Self-Efficacy of Teachers Working in Mainstream Schools – Research Communication

This article presents the results of a study on the self-efficacy of teachers working at mainstream schools and the results of intergroup analyses (mainstream school teachers versus special education teachers), being part of a research project focused on identifying the determinants of teachers’ sense of self-efficacy. Intergroup comparisons were made due to assumed differences in the self-efficacy of teachers in mainstream and special schools, resulting from the specific organisation and functioning of the two types of schools and the differentiated actors. The theoretical basis was the social learning theory of A. Bandura. The research was conducted with the use of the “Sense of Efficacy Test” by M. Chomczyńska-Rubacha and K. Rubacha. A total of 801 teachers took part in the study, including 442 teachers from mainstream schools and 359 from special schools (special education centres – SOWs; youth sociotherapy centres – MOSs; youth education centres – MOWs; prisons – ZKs). Research analyses have shown that the sense of self-efficacy in teachers from mainstream schools is dependent on their place of residence – increasing along with its size. Cognitive and action resources are determined by the level of education of the mothers of the studied teachers, while motivational resources are determined by the type of school at which they work. A cluster analysis identified two independent groups of teachers – those scoring high and those scoring low in terms of self-efficacy. A model mismatched with the data was obtained, which means that on the basis of sociodemographic variables and other information about teachers (education level of their parents, type of school) it is not possible to predict their assignment unambiguously to the distinguished groups. In terms of intergroup analyses, a higher sense of self-efficacy and greater motivational and cognitive-action resources were noted in teachers from mainstream schools than in teachers from special schools. The place of work of teachers from both compared groups significantly differentiates their sense of self-efficacy and the level of motivational as well as cognitive-activity resources (teachers employed at a lower secondary school possess more motivational resources, compared to teachers employed in special education centres). In turn, teachers employed at prisons are characterised by a higher level of cognitive-activity resources compared to teachers employed at secondary schools and youth sociotherapeutic and educational centres.

Seeing Like a Citizen: How Being a Participant in a Citizens' Assembly Changed Everything I Thought I Knew about Deliberative Minipublics

This paper presents a participant-observation account of my experience as a randomly selected participant at a Citizens’ Assembly. I reflect on what the unique experience of ‘seeing like a citizen’ can add to accepted understandings and practices of mini-public deliberation. I find that the experience, though energising, exciting and ultimately hugely worthwhile, also upended many of my prior assumptions grounded in academic scholarship and previous experience as an observer, facilitator and organiser of such events. I draw on the experience to shed new light on the capacity of assembled citizens to: accurately reflect the concerns of the broader community; soberly digest and reflect on evidence; earnestly engage in reasoned argumentation with one another; carefully reach sophisticated or thought-through recommendations as a collective; or ultimately gain a broader sense of efficacy from their engagement as individuals. The point in making these observations is not to critique moves toward democratic innovation (or the specific Citizens’ Assembly I was a part of), but to push forward scholarship and practice to respond and adapt to these little considered challenges.

Spanish Version of the Teachers’ Sense of Efficacy Scale: An Adaptation and Validation Study

The Teachers’ Sense of Efficacy Scale (TSES) has been the most widely used instrument to assess teacher efficacy beliefs. However, no study has been carried out concerning the TSES psychometric properties with teachers in Mexico, the country with the highest number of Spanish-speakers worldwide. The purpose of the present study is to examine the reliability, internal and external validity evidence of the TSES (short form) adapted into Spanish with a sample of 190 primary and secondary Mexican teachers from 25 private schools. Results of construct analysis confirm the three-factor-correlated structure of the original scale. Criterion validity evidence was established between self-efficacy and job satisfaction. Differences in self-efficacy were related to teachers’ gender, years of experience and grade level taught. Some limitations are discussed, and future research directions are recommended.

Chinese English as a Foreign Language Teachers’ Self-Efficacy and Psychological Well-Being as Predictors of Their Work Engagement

Work engagement is widely acknowledged as an influential element in teachers’ professional success; thus, remarkable attention has been paid to the physical and psychological predictors of this construct. Yet, the antecedents of English as a foreign language (EFL) teachers’ work engagement have rarely been studied. To narrow the existing gap, the current inquiry aimed to delve into the psychological determinants of teacher work engagement by scrutinizing the role of psychological well-being and self-efficacy in Chinese EFL teachers’ engagement. To this end, three close-ended questionnaires were given to 304 Chinese EFL teachers via WeChat messenger. Conducting correlational analyses, positive and substantial relationships were discovered between psychological well-being, self-efficacy, and teaching engagement. The function that psychological well-being and self-efficacy may serve in Chinese EFL teachers’ engagement was also assessed using path analysis. Chinese EFL teachers’ work engagement was found to be considerably affected by their sense of efficacy and well-being. Some pedagogical implications that might be noteworthy for teachers and institutional administrators are finally discussed.

Predictors of Changes in Travel Behavior during the COVID-19 Pandemic: The Role of Tourists’ Personalities

This study investigates travel behavior and psychosocial factors that influence it during the COVID-19 pandemic. In a cross-sectional study, using an online survey, we examined changes in travel behavior and preferences after lifting travel restrictions, and how these changes were influenced by exposure to COVID-19, COVID-19 travel-related risk and severity, personality, fear of travel, coping, and self-efficacy appraisals in the Romanian population. Our results showed that participants traveled less in the pandemic year than the year before—especially group and foreign travel—yet more participants reported individual traveling in their home county during the pandemic period. Distinct types of exposure to COVID-19 risk, as well as cognitive and affective factors, were related to travel behavior and preferences. However, fun-seeking personality was the only major predictor of travel intention, while fear of travel was the only predictor of travel avoidance. Instead, people traveled more cautiously when they perceived more risk of infection at the destination, and had higher levels of fear of travel, but also a high sense of efficacy in controlling the infection and problem-solving capacity. The results suggest that specific information about COVID-19, coping mechanisms, fear of travel, and neuropsychological personality traits may affect travel behavior in the pandemic period.

Influence of Response-Option Combinations when Measuring Sense of Efficacy for Teaching: Trivial, or Substantial and Substantive?

Certain combinations of number and labeling of response options on Likert scales might, because of their interaction, influence psychometric outcomes. In order to explore this possibility with an experimental design, two versions of a scale for assessing sense of efficacy for teaching (SET) were administered to preservice teachers. One version had seven response options with labels at odd-numbered points; the other had nine response options with labels only at the extremes. Before outliers in the data were adjusted, the first version produced a range of more desirable psychometric outcomes but poorer test–retest reliability. After outliers were addressed, the second version had more undesirable attributes than before, and its previously high test–retest reliability dropped to poor. These results are discussed in relation to the design of scales for assessing SET and other constructs as well as in relation to the need for researchers to examine their data carefully, consider the need to address outlying data, and conduct analyses appropriately and transparently.

Hubungan Kelayakan Akademik dan Pengalaman Mengajar dengan Tahap Efikasi Kendiri Guru Prasekolah Menjalankan PDPC Pasca Pandemik Covid-19

Kajian ini dijalankan bagi mengenal pasti hubungan kelayakan akademik dan pengalaman mengajar dengan tahap efikasi kendiri guru prasekolah menjalankan pengajaran dan pemudahcaraan (PdPc) di kelas prasekolah pada pasca pandemik Covid-19. Saiz sampel (n=74) ditentukan melalui formula penentuan saiz sampel Krejcie-Morgan (1970), dan dipilih secara rawak di kalangan guru prasekolah Jabatan Kemajuan Masyarakat (KEMAS) Daerah Ranau. Data dikutip melalui kaedah soal selidik dengan menggunakan instrumen Teacher’s Sense of Efficacy (TSES) yang dibangunkan oleh Tschannen-Moran & Hoy (2001), dan kemudiannya dianalisis menggunakan SPSS v20.0. Analisis deskriptif menunjukkan efikasi kendiri guru berada pada tahap sederhana tinggi dengan catatan M=3.69, SD=0.59. Korelasi Pearson mendapati adanya hubungan tidak signifikan di antara kelayakan akademik dan pengalaman mengajar dengan efikasi guru kerana dapatan K>.05 bagi kedua-dua pemboleh ubah. Dapatan ini menunjukkan, efikasi kendiri guru menjalankan PdPc pasca pandemik Covid-19 tidak ditentukan oleh kelayakan akademik dan pengalaman mengajar. Namun begitu, jika dilihat daripada domain efikasi didapati bahawa pengalaman mengajar mempunyai korelasi dengan efikasi pengurusan kelas dengan dapatan kajian r=.236, k<.05.