Online teaching transition during COVID-19 school lockdown elicited challenges for teachers and schools across the globe. The existing literature on the impact of COVID-19 in the education sector is predominantly descriptive and focused on the difficulties faced by teachers during the process of transferring into online teaching, mainly in the higher education sector. This study adopted a mixed-method design to examine online teaching self-efficacy (TSE) during COVID-19, its associated factors and moderators. A sample of 351 Chinese school teachers retrospectively reported their online TSE at the beginning and end of COVID-19 school lockdown, out of which six were followed up for an in-depth interview. TSE for online instruction did not significantly increase (β = .014, p > 0.05) whereas that for technology application increased significantly (β = .231, p < 0.01). Lack of experience in online teaching, separation of teachers from students, school administrative process and unsatisfactory student academic performance were identified as the major associated factors. A moderation effect of adaptability and teacher burnout on the change in online TSE were examined, of which passion burnout was the only significant moderator toward the change in online TSE. The study thus concluded that teachers’ online TSE for technology application increased among Chinese teachers during COVID-19 school lockdown. Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10639-021-10486-3.

BACKGROUND: As millions of teachers have been forced to rely upon remote teaching due to the closure of schools during the COVID-19 pandemic. It is particularly important to understand the extent to which teacher’s psychological wellbeing has been affected by this global health crisis. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this comprehensive systematic review and meta-analysis was twofold: 1) ascertain the prevalence of stress, anxiety, depression among teachers during the COVID-19 outbreak; 2) identify the associated factors of these psychological wellbeing domains of the teachers. METHODS: Academic Search Premier, Eric, PsycInfo, Scopus, and Web of Science were searched for articles published from December 2019 and July 2021, using search terms including “COVID-19” “anxiety” “depression” “stress”, and “teachers”. RESULTS: This study included 54 studies synthesising data from 256,896 teachers across 22 countries. The meta-analysis showed higher prevalence of stress (62.6%, 95% Confidence Interval [CI]: 46.1–76.6), compared to anxiety (36.3%, 95% CI: 28.5–44.9) and depression (59.9%, 95% CI: 43.4–74.4) among teachers. Teachers’ experiences of these psychological issues were associated with various socio-demographic and institutional factors, including gender, nature of online teaching, job satisfaction, teaching experience, and the volume of workload. Additionally, several protective factors, such as regular exercises and provision of technical support for online teaching, reduced teachers’ negative psychological experiences. CONCLUSION: There is a need for authorities to formulate educational policies to improve teachers’ wellbeing at the time of global crisis. Special attention should be paid to assist female teachers in overcoming physical and mental stressors.

In this study, issues concerning the design of scales for measuring teacher sense of efficacy (TSE) are first identified with particular attention to the Teacher Sense of Efficacy Scale (TSES). Psychometric issues concerning analysis and reporting of TSE data are subsequently identified. Recommendations are offered about all identified issues, and these recommendations are taken into account when obtaining and analyzing TSE data from Chinese mainland preservice and inservice teachers. Exploratory factor analyses yielded a single factor for both samples as well as for four subgroups within the inservice teacher sample. Results also provided insights about scale design as well as the TSES being limited for capturing the breadth of TSE. Suggestions are made for improvements in the assessment of TSE.

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Professional experience plays a vital role in the formation of teaching self-efficacy (TSE), a construct which has attracted much attention from teacher education researchers. This study investigates how 18 preservice teachers (PTs) reported changes in their TSE for their first professional placement. Data were collected via face-to-face interviews with each PT and analysed in NVivo. Results show the majority of interviewees reported an increase in their TSE after completing the placement. Also, three patterns of individual TSE change were identified: beginning with a low level of TSE before quickly rising to a higher level at the end of the practice, experiencing growth from a medium starting level, and either decrease or increase from an initial high level of TSE. Variations of TSE in subdomains including classroom management, student engagement, instruction, and flexibility were also found. Teacher educators could facilitate PTs’ TSE development by providing extra assistance at the beginning of their placements, especially with their classroom management skills.

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.