The transition to remote teaching during the COVID-19 pandemic introduced many threats to teachers’ psychological needs and intrinsic motivation. Given the possibility of similar disruptions in the future, we examined the potential influence of three resources provided by school leaders to smoothen teachers’ transition to online instruction: pedagogical support, availability of instructional technologies, and professional freedom. Survey data from 103 PreK-12 teachers in the United States and Canada were analyzed using Bayesian mediation models to explore how these administrative resources influenced teachers’ need satisfaction and intrinsic motivation. Results indicated that teachers who received more pedagogical support were more intrinsically motivated, and this relationship was partially mediated by their perceived competence and relatedness with students. Those with greater access to instructional technologies reported higher perceived competence and relatedness with students but were no more intrinsically motivated than their peers. Teachers who were granted professional freedom reported greater intrinsic motivation, and the relationship was partially mediated by all three psychological needs. Results highlight the importance of maintaining teacher-student relationships and suggest that, during unplanned transitions to online instruction, teachers are most self-determined when provided high quality instructional support and allowed freedom in how they navigate new challenges.

Self-efficacy refers to the beliefs individuals hold about their capabilities to carry out the specific tasks they undertake in their lives (Bandura, 1997). A belief in one's personal efficacy typically leads to successful action; a doubt typically leads to failure or inaction. Individuals form their efficacy beliefs by interpreting direct and vicarious experiences, social evaluations from others, and their own physiological and affective arousal when undertaking a task. Personal efficacy beliefs have been shown to guide human action, thought, motivation, and affect in diverse domains of functioning, such as education, health, and the workplace.

By and large, teachers approach their work with the utmost care for students’ intellectual, social, and emotional well-being. But even those who hold themselves to high moral standards can sometimes act in ways that harm others when they disengage self-sanctions like guilt or self-criticism. These mechanisms of moral disengagement include (1) portraying harmful acts as beneficial, (2) obscuring one’s own role in harm, (3) minimizing the harmful effects of one’s actions, and (4) viewing victims as less-than-human or deserving of blame. Because moral self-sanctions can be both disengaged and reengaged, we examine how these mechanisms operate in educators’ social systems and point to practices that may promote their moral engagement. We end our piece with a call for interventions that disrupt disengagement and promote moral self-efficacy.

Teachers’ efficacy beliefs are thought to influence not only their motivation and performance but also the achievement of their students. Scholars have therefore turned their attention toward the sources underlying these important teacher beliefs. This review seeks to evaluate the ways in which researchers have measured and conceptualized the sources of teaching self-efficacy across 82 empirical studies. Specifically, it aims to identify what can be inferred from these studies and what important questions still remain about the origins of teachers’ efficacy beliefs. Results indicate that a number of methodological shortcomings in the literature have prevented a clear understanding of how teachers develop a sense of efficacy. Nonetheless, insights gleaned from existing research help to refine, and to expand, theoretical understandings of the sources of self-efficacy and their influence in the unique context of teaching. Implications for future research and practice are addressed.

Abstract Teaching self-efficacy refers to the beliefs that teachers hold about their instructional capabilities. According to Bandura’s social cognitive theory, individuals develop a sense of efficacy by attending to four sources of information: mastery experiences (i.e., performance attainments), vicarious experiences (i.e., observing social models), social persuasions (i.e., messages received from others) and physiological and affective states (e.g., stress, fatigue, mood). Personal and contextual factors also play a role in the development of teaching self-efficacy. A fundamental assumption in much of this work is that teachers who believe in their capabilities are psychologically healthier, provide better quality instruction, and are more effective in motivating their students. Unfortunately, understandings of the phenomena associated with teaching self-efficacy have been limited by poor conceptualizations and methodological shortcomings. As research on the construct has evolved, so, too, have understandings of its sources and benefits for teachers and their students.

The purpose of this study was to explore the self-efficacy beliefs of male professional golfers (N = 12). Three themes emerged from the qualitative analysis of interview responses. First, enactive mastery experiences were the most powerful source of self-efficacy. Second, golfers maintained high self-efficacy over time by recalling prior success, strategically framing experiences, and enlisting supportive verbal persuasions from themselves and from others. Finally, self-efficacy influenced professional golfers' thought patterns, outcome expectations, and emotional states. Findings support and refine the theoretical tenets of Bandura's social cognitive theory.

The purpose of this study was to assess the sources of award-wining research professors’ (six women; six men) teaching self-efficacy through the framework of Bandura’s (1986) social cognitive theory. Semi-structured interviews revealed that mastery experiences and social persuasions were particularly influential sources of self-efficacy and that these sources tended to be closely related. Professors reported that their self-efficacy had generally stabilized within their first few years of assuming a tenure-track position. Participants framed negative events in adaptive ways that had little cost to their teaching self-efficacy.